Football’s law-making panel clarified its guidance to referees which confirmed Switzerland forward Breel Embolo should not have been sent off in the World Cup quarter-finals against Argentina. Embolo’s second yellow card, after a video review for simulating being fouled, changed the momentum of the game in the 72nd minute soon after Switzerland tied the score at 1-1.

Argentina won 3-1 in extra time with help from the red-card decision that fuelled complaints, including from previous opponent Egypt, referees were favouring Lionel Messi’s team with decisions.

The FIFA-backed rules panel known as IFAB published a clarification on Monday (July 27, 2026) that VAR protocol for “mistaken identity” cases was not eligible for that type of incident at the World Cup, though it could be in future competitions. “However, it may not be used as such until that review is concluded,” the Zurich-based IFAB said in a statement.

Embolo fell to the ground on being challenged by Argentina midfielder Leandro Paredes, who was shown a yellow card. The VAR officials alerted the referee to the fact Paredes did not commit a foul and instead Embolo was shown a yellow, his second, and was sent off.

That is not how “mistaken Identity” is currently meant to be applied, which is to correct the referee when a card is shown to the wrong player who did not commit the original foul penalised. “The referee made the wrong decision,” Switzerland coach Murat Yakin said after the game in Kansas City.

“I know they will protect their referee but this rule destroyed our game today, and it’s very painful, and to be eliminated in that way hurts a lot.” IFAB clarified the card “can only be reviewed to identify the player who committed the offence that was penalised; the offense itself cannot be reviewed/changed.”

A review of VAR protocol has been ongoing since March and IFAB acknowledged that incidents like Embolo’s are part of it. “The use of the mistaken identity clause to deal with simulation during the FIFA World Cup 2026 was well received,” the Zurich-based group said. IFAB is composed of FIFA-appointed officials and the four British football federations. Its annual meeting is each February or March to update The Laws of the Game that take effect for major tournaments or the next season.

Spain are world champions once again after a dominant FIFA World Cup campaign, defeating Argentina 1-0 in the final. But beyond the result, the tournament has sparked fierce debate over contrasting footballing philosophies, refereeing decisions and the narratives that shaped the competition.

FIFA final: Spain’s absolute domination over Argentina explained

In this episode of In Focus, we unpack Spain’s rise under Luis de la Fuente, how their possession-based game has evolved since 2010, and why they emerged as the tournament’s standout team. We also examine Argentina’s gritty run to the final, the criticism of its physical approach, and whether allegations of favourable refereeing and FIFA bias stand up to scrutiny.

Guest: Sandeep Menon, journalist and author

Host: Reuben Joe Joseph

Edited and produced by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian

Listen to more In Focus podcasts:

It’s quite easy, in this modern world, to miss the forest looking for trees.

In footballing parlance, this equates to lacking perspective and blindly over-rating goals and assists at the expense of the hidden metrics that make the game tick.

It is in this context that Rodri securing the Golden Ball in the FIFA World Cup calls for attention and praise.

The Spanish captain, who led La Roja to their second global crown, could’ve easily been overlooked for the glamorous numbers of Lionel Messi (eight goals & four assists) or Kylian Mbappe (10 & four).

But the quiet and assured presence the defensive midfielder commanded was enough to make him the first outfield player to win the Best Player award without recording a single goal or assist.

Rodri’s genius is not easy to quantify; it lies in his simplicity and positional discipline. He conducts play in possession and smothers danger in defence, ensuring that everything flows through his vision while nothing gets past his shield.

Rodri, with a record 26 tackles to his name, was the first line of Spanish defence that only conceded once in the tournament. He completed 790 passes, eclipsing his own record (638 in 2022) for the most ever registered by a player at a World Cup.

In the semifinal and the final, Rodri stood tall against the creativity of France and the physicality of Argentina alike. He was the main reason the defending champion, led by none other than Messi, struggled to even take a shot at Unai Simon. In fact, Rodri & Co. ensured that the Spanish ’keeper only faced 10 shots across their eight-game campaign.

Winning silverware is second nature to Rodri, the only man to claim a World Cup, Euro, Champions League, Premier League and Ballon d’Or title.

As if that wasn’t enough, the 30-year-old has to his credit a trio of EFL Cups, multiple FA and Super Cup triumphs, and one each of Nations League, Club World Cup, and Community Shield crowns.

The complete midfielder, as the evidence says, has completed football!

In the race for the 2025-26 Ballon d’Or, England and Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane’s goal-scoring masterclass (73 goals & eight assists) is in the way of Rodri’s championship-winning credentials.

The Spanish skipper, though, is no stranger to making heads turn and look at the big picture.

For 120 minutes, Spain did what no other team at this World Cup had managed.

It found a way to keep Lionel Messi quiet.

The plan was simple in theory but brutally difficult in practice. Every time the 39-year-old drifted towards the right flank, another red shirt arrived. His every passing lane closed and every familiar slalom towards his left foot was met by bodies rather than space.

“The first idea was to keep Messi at bay,” Spain coach Luis de la Fuente admitted afterwards. He had learned his lesson when a 16-year-old Messi had terrorised his Sevilla team in an under-19 match in 2004.

But here, rather than man-marking the Argentine talisman, the Spanish coach looked at cutting the supply and isolating Messi. The Argentine captain managed only 15 touches in the first half and 54 across the entire final. There was no trademark curling finish, no defence-splitting pass, no decisive intervention.

The overwhelming majority of the 80,663 spectators had come hoping to witness another coronation. They wanted to see the man who had already given them one of football’s greatest endings add one final chapter by lifting a second World Cup.

Instead, the faithful watched him leave in tears.

It was here in MetLife in 2016, when Messi had missed in the Copa America final shootout against Chile and announced his international retirement before making a comeback 47 days later to complete his redemption arc.

Ten years later, he returned to the same stadium seeking one final crown, only for it to deny him again.

As Spain celebrated at the centre circle, Messi and his teammates walked towards the Argentina supporters gathered behind the southern goal. The applause that greeted them was as loud as anything heard all evening. Spain’s players, too, understood the moment.

Several, including Lamine Yamal, crossed the pitch to embrace Messi after the final whistle. Later, as Argentina climbed the podium to collect its runner-up medals, the new world champion formed a guard of honour. A few patted him on the back, Messi tried to smile, but the disappointment was hard to contain.

One match, however, cannot rewrite a career.

Messi leaves the World Cup as its most enduring presence with 34 appearances, 23 victories, 21 goals, 27 matches as captain, seven goals from outside the penalty area, 10 knockout-stage assists and, above all, the man who finally completed football’s greatest story by lifting the trophy in 2022. He remains the only player to score in every knockout round of a World Cup-winning campaign.

Spain may have denied him one final triumph, but no one can take away the imprint he has left on this tournament.

For generations to come, the World Cup’s story will be retold through many champions, but few names will echo as deeply as that of Lionel Messi’s.

Spain’s win over Argentina in the 2026 FIFA World Cup final might have read a modest 1-0, but the scoreline hid what was in plain sight throughout. Spain smothered the Argentines, denying them the ball and disrupting any fluid move, so that the defending champions ended the full 120 minutes, including extra time with zero shots on target. How did it manage that against a team featuring Lionel Messi?

La Roja has prized possession as a mark of its identity ever since Luis Aragonés took charge in the mid-2000s followed by Vicente del Bosque building around midfielders such as Xavi, Iniesta and Xabi Alonso, and later Sergio Busquets. This style, termed “tiki-taka”, kept the ball as a way of denying it to the opposition and with it, the danger of any attack.

In 2026, Luis de la Fuente’s Spain built on that identity with a sharp second quality: counter-pressing — swarming the ball in compact packs the instant it is lost, to win it straight back. Spain was the tournament’s best at this, and the combination of slick passing and aggressive recovery let it concede just one goal in the whole competition.

In the final, Spain passed and pressed with gusto, denying the Albiceleste any meaningful sequence until deep into extra time. Two metrics capture that grip: possession share per period, and field tilt. Split into 15-minute phases, the game gave Argentina the majority of possession in only two (57% between half-time and the hour mark, and 52% in the second period of extra time). Spain controlled the other six.

Field tilt measures a team’s territorial dominance as its share of both teams’ possession in the final third — the third of the pitch nearest the opponent’s goal. It thus captures which side controlled the ball in the zones that most directly threaten the goal, rather than possession spread across the pitch.

By this measure Spain dominated every phase but one, and did so almost totally — 100% in three periods and above 90% in two more, with Argentina barely reaching the attacking third. The exception came in the second period of extra time, when Argentina, chasing an equaliser after Ferran Torres had put Spain ahead, posted a 95% field tilt.

But this was also after Enzo Fernández had been sent off in second-half stoppage time, leaving Argentina to play all of extra time a man down against a tiring Spain in late game. Spain’s stranglehold was marked throughout regulation as its 100% phases came in open, eleven-a-side play.

The charts show what Spain did. The question is how. Possession football rests on two things: technical command of the ball, evading tackles, passing precisely and positional awareness, with players drifting into space to offer passing lanes and wingers stretching the pitch alongside fullbacks and midfielders.

Spain has long selected for these qualities and drilled them over years, many of its players having come through de la Fuente’s youth sides.

Rodri, named the tournament’s best player with the Golden Ball, led the press with relentless running while distributing from deep. Pau Cubarsí, its Young Player winner, made line-breaking passes from defence and marshalled a high line that let Spain press through tight, compact spacing. At the other end there was little to do: where Emiliano Martínez made a final-record eleven saves for Argentina, Unai Simón’s role was reduced to sweeping behind a line that Argentina rarely breached. 

For Messi, in what was surely his last World Cup, it made for a quiet farewell. His team was not merely beaten so much as suffocated.

For 120 minutes, Spain did what no other team at this World Cup had managed.

It found a way to keep Lionel Messi quiet.

The plan was simple in theory but brutally difficult in practice. Every time the 39-year-old drifted towards the right flank, another red shirt arrived. His every passing lane closed and every familiar slalom towards his left foot was met by bodies rather than space.

“The first idea was to keep Messi at bay,” Spain coach Luis de la Fuente admitted afterwards. He had learned his lesson when a 16-year-old Messi had terrorised his Sevilla team in an under-19 match in 2004.

But here, rather than man-marking the Argentine talisman, the Spanish coach looked at cutting the supply and isolating Messi. The Argentine captain managed only 15 touches in the first half and 54 across the entire final. There was no trademark curling finish, no defence-splitting pass, no decisive intervention.

The overwhelming majority of the 80,663 spectators had come hoping to witness another coronation. They wanted to see the man who had already given them one of football’s greatest endings add one final chapter by lifting a second World Cup.

Instead, the faithful watched him leave in tears.

It was here in MetLife in 2016, when Messi had missed in the Copa America final shootout against Chile and announced his international retirement before making a comeback 47 days later to complete his redemption arc.

Ten years later, he returned to the same stadium seeking one final crown, only for it to deny him again.

As Spain celebrated at the centre circle, Messi and his teammates walked towards the Argentina supporters gathered behind the southern goal. The applause that greeted them was as loud as anything heard all evening. Spain’s players, too, understood the moment.

Several, including Lamine Yamal, crossed the pitch to embrace Messi after the final whistle. Later, as Argentina climbed the podium to collect its runner-up medals, the new world champion formed a guard of honour. A few patted him on the back, Messi tried to smile, but the disappointment was hard to contain.

One match, however, cannot rewrite a career.

Messi leaves the World Cup as its most enduring presence with 34 appearances, 23 victories, 21 goals, 27 matches as captain, seven goals from outside the penalty area, 10 knockout-stage assists and, above all, the man who finally completed football’s greatest story by lifting the trophy in 2022. He remains the only player to score in every knockout round of a World Cup-winning campaign.

Spain may have denied him one final triumph, but no one can take away the imprint he has left on this tournament.

For generations to come, the World Cup’s story will be retold through many champions, but few names will echo as deeply as that of Lionel Messi’s.

Luis de la Fuente hailed his players after Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 after extra-time to win the FIFA World Cup on Sunday (July 19, 2026 ), saying the triumph belonged to a generation that had embraced collective sacrifice and written its place in football history.

“I never thought of anything like this,” De la Fuente said. “I always just wanted joy in moments. When you look back at this process, I would not have achieved anything without these players. The journey with this raw material, this talent. Spanish footballers, the way they compete. These players are amazing.”

The 65-year-old dedicated the victory to his squad and coaching staff, insisting the players were the true architects of Spain’s second World Cup triumph. “First of all I would like to thank the whole staff and everyone who worked with us. The players are the true protagonists. We feel satisfaction, pride. It’s such an honour to be the coach of these amazing players.”

FIFA World Cup final: Argentina’s Scaloni admits Spain was better, praises his players

Before kickoff, De la Fuente reminded his squad of the occasion awaiting them. “I said, ‘Gentlemen, we have an appointment with history, and we want to be there first.’”

Spain’s disciplined defensive display kept Lionel Messi quiet for long spells, with De la Fuente revealing that stopping the Argentina captain had been central to the game plan.

“We had a game plan where the first idea was to keep Messi at bay, but also other players away from our goal. Something very important was the attitude of our players. We were convinced it was our final and we wanted to go all out for this final. If it wasn’t for their goalkeeper, we might have had a larger win.”

The Spain coach also singled out teenage star Lamine Yamal for praise, highlighting his willingness to put the team above individual glory. “I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to Lamine for becoming a great footballer. He’s really sacrificed for the collective good. In my opinion, he played a great World Cup.”

Asked what remained for a team that had now conquered Europe and the world, De la Fuente smiled. “Once we finished the game, there were footballers who said, ‘Now what else is there to win?’ The answer is the next match in September. This team is relentless.”