In 60 years of hurt, this might be England’s most painful World Cup defeat yet

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The Independent

16 July 2026

The morning after the night before. The adrenaline that carried

England

fans through 90 torturous minutes has been replaced by that knot in the gut and a foggy feeling, that sensation of wondering

exactly what happened

last night, like shame creeping through a hangover.

We have been to this place before, of course. We recognise the walls of this particular well.

exiting the

World Cup

in painful, heartbreaking fashion is a near-quadrennial ritual, a cultural tradition like Sunday roasts or those big hats beefeaters wear. Love those. There is little choice but to accept the misery, embrace the sorrow, let it wash over you.

England’s

knockout defeats often come down to fine margins, controversial decisions, freakish moments, idiotic mistakes.

rarely just… get beaten. The Hand of God, Ronaldinho’s lob; Beckham’s red, Rooney’s red, Lampard’s hands are on his head. Does any other country have scars this painful, this visceral, this haunting? What is going on here? Why are there so many that we can make them rhyme?

open image in gallery

Anthony Gordon looks on after England's

exit (Getty)

And because defeat is never simple, because it’s never cut and dried, you are left with a kind of grief for a tournament you used to know. How can they go on without us? Will they still think about us during hydration breaks?

Yet perhaps this one hits a little differently.

Argentina 2-1 England.

There was no controversy, no decision to debate in the pub afterwards, despite this being a game played in the wrong spirit from the first whistle to the last and beyond. At no point did referee Ismail Elfath bellow “after review...” in ominous tones into his headset microphone.

There have been many a morning after when

fans have felt scammed somehow, like something owned had been taken away by the officials, or a conniving opponent, or the football gods, or even one of England’s own players doing something inexplicably daft.

fan wallows in their

defeat to

Argentina

(Getty)

Not here. England’s 2026

was a simple story. The post-mortem could have been published before

had scored, way back when

retreated to the edge of their own box, when they morphed into a cowardly 5-4-1, when they gave up any notion of scoring goals, when they invited

the greatest footballer of all time to let his hair down

Lionel Messi built Argentina’s comeback but Thomas Tuchel was the architect. He was hired expressly for this scenario, to solve the endgame, to cross the winning line. He said it himself when he took the job and analysed England’s tendency to come up short under Gareth Southgate. “They were more afraid to drop out of the tournament than having the excitement and hunger to win it,” Tuchel said last March.

Well, in Atlanta on Wednesday night, Tuchel’s

played the final half an hour like they were petrified.

smelled fear and seized a chance they should never have been given. And perhaps that clarity, that unequivocal sense that

should have won and deserved to lose, is even harder to take than those games which throw out bones of contention to chew over.

Lionel Messi is carried on the shoulders of his teammates (Getty)

England will trudge on to the much-maligned third-place play-off. The Premier League will roll around soon enough. A home Euros will be here before you know it. We will come again. But you are never fully disburdened from a

, each defeat another little box of trauma to add to the collection. They don’t replace one another, they just stack up, one on top of the next, making the past a little heavier to hold.

We’ll always have the memories. Kane’s thunderbolt against DR Congo. Bellingham’s balletic dance through Norway’s defence. Wonderwall. Jordan Henderson.

John Stones’ party shoulder

. But the 60 years of hurt go on. And this one really stings.

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