Sunday 19 July | New York New Jersey Stadium
15:00 (New York) | 21:00 (Madrid) | 16:00 (Buenos Aires)
The 104th match at the pits European champions against defending world and South American champions . Spain reached the final after in the semi-finals. Luis de la Fuente's side controlled the match from start to finish, suffocating the high-powered France attack through long spells of possession and precise finishing.
That semi-final match against Les Bleus was the high point of Spain's campaign so far. La Roja began their World Cup adventure by topping Group H, although it wasn't all smooth sailing. Surprise package Cabo Verde held them to a in their opening match before De la Fuente's men made up for their slow start by putting and then rounding off their group stage with a .
Spain cruised through the Round of 32 with a comfortable . But in the following two rounds they needed late winning goals from Mikel Merino to overcome tough European opponents. The first of Merino's strikes, in the Round of 16, came against . They followed that up with a second last-gasp victory against in a match in which they conceded what has, so far, been their only goal against of the tournament. Spain's form has been steadily improving and against France they demonstrated why they were considered one of the favourites before the tournament began. Sunday 19 July will mark Spain's first time back in the World Cup final since they lifted the trophy in 2010, when contesting the showpiece for the first time in South Africa.
Argentina have taken a hard, albeit thrilling, road to their second World Cup final in succession and seventh overall. The defending champions opened their campaign with three successive group stage victories, led by the extraordinary Lionel Messi, who now has eight goals in this tournament and 21 across his long World Cup career.
The Albiceleste thanks to a Messi hat-trick, thanks to two goals from the magician, and then (with another Messi effort) to round off a perfect group stage. In the knockout rounds, their road got much more difficult. Lionel Scaloni's men needed extra time to in a 3-2 thriller. In the Round of 16, the score was the same and the match even more dramatic: Egypt held a 2-0 lead entering the 79th minute but Argentina flipped the script, producing a historic comeback to .
In the last eight, Argentina went and need extra time to eventually defeat opponents who, at 1-1, had gone down to ten men. Julian Alvarez eventually broke their resistance with a magnificent goal and Lautaro Martinez added a third for good measure.
The drama did not stop in the , who took the lead early in the second half thanks to Anthony Gordon and looked set to run down the clock. However, the Albiceleste once again rallied thanks to a long-range strike from Enzo Fernandez and a back-post header from substitute Martinez. As a result, Argentina now return to the final four years on from Qatar 2022 triumph against France, and once again European opposition stand between them and the World Cup trophy.
Much has happened since the sole previous World Cup clash between Spain and Argentina, which took place in 1966 at Villa Park. It was the opening group fixture for the sides and the Albiceleste ran out 2–1 winners in a match where all the goals were scored in the second half. The key player for Argentina was centre-forward Luis Artime, who scored both of their goals, either side of midfielder Pirri's strike for Spain.
That is the only official match between the two sides, who have played 13 friendly matches against each other over the years (six wins for Spain, five for Argentina, two draws). Their latest friendly took place in 2018 in Madrid with Spain hammering Argentina 6-1. As champions of their respective continents, they were due to meet this February in the Finalissima in Qatar but that match was cancelled.
Simon; Porro, Laporte, Cubarsi, Cucurella; Rodri, Fabian; Lamine Yamal, Olmo, Baena; Oyarzabal.
Martinez; Nahuel, Romero, Lisandro Martinez, Tagliafico; Paredes, Mac Allister, Enzo Fernandez, Giuliano Simeone; Messi, Julian Alvarez.
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is a multi-purpose venue that was opened in 2010 and is the home of the NFL’s New York Giants and New York Jets. It was the main venue for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup final, where fans from around the world watched Chelsea’s thrilling 3–0 victory over Paris Saint-Germain.
During this 2026 World Cup, seven matches have been played at the stadium: five group-stage games as well as France's 3-0 victory over Sweden in the Round of 32 and Norway's 2-1 defeat of five-time winners Brazil in the Round of 16. New York New Jersey Stadium is ready to play host one last time, this time for the biggest match of them all, the FIFA World Cup final between Spain and Argentina.
Sources: FIFA Official
