Four giants. One crown. The World Cup reaches its defining moment.

Lautaro Martínez pounced on a rebound deep into stoppage time of extra time, hammering the ball into the net to seal Argentina's 3-1 victory over Switzerland when the clock had ticked 120+1 minutes at the Kansas City Stadium. With one swing of Martínez's right boot, the final piece of the World Cup puzzle fell into place.

The four teams remaining are France, Spain, England, and Argentina. These four former world champions, also four football superpowers, began the tournament occupying the top four places in FIFA's world rankings. For the first time since the rankings were introduced in 1992, the four highest-ranked nations have all reached the World Cup semi-finals. The tournament has finally arrived at its defining moment after a month of football spread across the United States, Canada, and Mexico-the first 48-team World Cup in history. The road now leads to Arlington, where France will meet Spain, before attention shifts to Atlanta for England to face defending champions Argentina. Not since Italia '90 has every World Cup semi-finalist previously lifted the trophy. Then, Argentina and England were among the final four without meeting each other. Thirty-six years later, they return to the same stage.