Manchester City midfielder Enzo Fernández has claimed Argentina would have won the 2026 FIFA World Cup if their final against Spain had reached penalties.
Spain won 1-0 after extra time at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, July 19, with Ferran Torres scoring in the 106th minute. Fernández did not finish the match: he was sent off in the 93rd for a second yellow card after a challenge on Pau Cubarsí, and Argentina played the whole of extra time with 10 men.
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Speaking on the Los Edul channel in an interview released this week, he said (via AlbicelesteTalk):
“If we had reached penalties, we would have won the FIFA World Cup. We had Dibu Martinez, and we all know he never fails in penalty shootouts.”
He added:
“Dibu played the entire FIFA World Cup final with a fractured finger! It was incredible how he managed it. He couldn’t even move his finger properly. It was madness. But that’s Dibu, Dibu is an animal.”
Emiliano Martínez had said before the final that he was playing through a fracture of the ring finger on his right hand, damaged in the warm-up before Aston Villa’s 3-0 win over Freiburg in the Europa League final on May 20. Against Spain, he made 11 saves, a record for a World Cup final, while Argentina did not register an attempt until the 117th minute.
Fernández, who called Spain “fair champions”, also dismissed the conspiracy theories that spread online after the defeat, saying his parents had called him to ask what had happened and that nothing had.
He said the dismissal still bothers him, though he now sees it as part of football, and put Argentina’s dip down to two earlier extra-time ties against Cape Verde and Switzerland plus fitness problems across the squad.
How Spain won the 2026 FIFA World Cup final over Argentina
Spain took the FIFA World Cup trophy for the second time, and the first since 2010, under Luis de la Fuente. In front of more than 80,000 at MetLife Stadium, they had the ball for long spells, and the goal came down the right: Pedro Porro crossed, Nico Williams headed it back across the box, and fellow substitute Torres lashed it high into the net.
Argentina, the 2022 champions, were hoping to become only the third nation to retain the trophy. Spain’s run to the final had already taken them past Austria, Portugal, Belgium and France, and they lifted the trophy 16 years after their first. Martínez’s 11 saves were the most recorded in a FIFA World Cup final.
For Argentina, the final also closed Lionel Messi‘s international career. The 39-year-old has since retired, and a farewell match against Benin followed.
Edited by Vignesh Raja
