The video assistant referee was certainly kept busy in England's win over Norway, John...

Former England winger John Barnes knows a thing or two about what it takes to reach a World Cup semi-final.

He helped the Three Lions into the last four at Italia 90, and was denied a place in the semi-finals of Mexico 86 by the twinkle toes [and hand] of Maradona.

Speaking on 5 Live earlier today, he gave a poetic response to concerns about VAR and spidercam, saying football is "wonderful" because of its imperfections.

"Throughout this whole World Cup, Fifa are interpreting offsides - ‘is it a penalty? Is the ball over the line? Is it a red card?’

"And of course, we then think we’ve perfected it [football]. Us mere mortals think we have done it now with VAR and all of that.

"But then they’ve thrown another little spanner in the works - a little wire flying above the ground. The ball hits it and we now can’t agree on whether the ball hits it.

"This is why football is wonderful."

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Norway manager Stale Solbakken acknowledged that, in football, sometimes you get the rub of the green and sometimes you don't after his side were knocked out by England.

"I feel sorry for the lads," he said after England came from behind to beat his side in extra time.

"This is top level sports at it's best or it's most gruesome. We were lucky against Brazil, today we were not so lucky. We had margins go in our favour against Brazil, but not today.

"Sometimes you're lucky. We were lucky against Brazil. Today we were not. The margins were not in our favour, but that's life."

He was philosophical about the Erling Haaland foul which led to a second Norway goal being chalked off.

"These things happen," said Solbakken, who was shown on TV footage angrily throwing a bottle of water into his dugout in response to the refereeing decision.

"We just want to wish England the best of luck."

That goal clip may not have provided definitive evidence, but check out the analysis below from Wayne Rooney.

The former England striker says the "ball does seem to deviate and come down quite quickly" following the goal kick from Orjan Nyland.

The ball landed at the feet of England's Elliot Anderson and he started the attack that led to Jude Bellingham's equaliser.

However, presenter Jason Mohammad read out a statement from Fifa that said the data from the ball's sensor showed no peak in the graph to suggest a connection with the spidercam.

England were trailing to Andreas Schjelderup's opener for Norway when the incident in the build-up to their opener occurred in first-half stoppage time.

Replays showed Norway goalkeeper Orjan Nyland's goal kick passing close to the spidercam cable suspended above the playing surface.

The ball then fell for Elliot Anderson, who fed Anthony Gordon before the England winger passed for Jude Bellingham to drive on to the ball and calmly score.

Several Norway players immediately surrounded referee Clement Turpin, arguing the goal should not have stood. Head coach Stale Solbakken was seen talking to the match official at half-time.

Of the decision, Solbakken said: "He [the referee] says that he didn't see it himself and that he didn't get any message that it actually happened.

"That's a good explanation and since Fifa says there was no touch and there was no signal from the chip of the ball, then he can't do anything about it. The ball fell straight down, right in front of the bench, so it did touch it.

"Many on the bench reacted immediately. I was not one of them, but many of them saw it."

The goal clip below does not quite pick up the "touch" described by Solbakken...

Adwaidh Rajan
BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Norway's impressive World Cup campaign ended in a 2-1 quarter-final defeat by England, but their exit was accompanied by frustration as they felt Jude Bellingham's equaliser should have been disallowed for an unusual reason.

The Norwegians claimed the ball struck one of the spidercam wires in the build-up to Bellingham's equalising goal in Miami.

Had it been determined that the ball had touched a wire, the goal would have been ruled out and play restarted with a dropped ball.

"It's ridiculous, this one with the wire," Norway and Fulham midfielder Sander Berge said after the game.

"[The result] 2-1 says itself – there are small margins and we know which way it went."

Image source, X

Erling Haaland's dad has weighed in on discussion about how officiating impacted Norway's exit from the World Cup, suggesting England were "saved by the referee".

He felt the game could have had a very different outcome after the Three Lions ran out 2-1 winners after extra time in Miami.

With the score 1-1, Torbjorn Heggem seemed to have given Norway the lead again before VAR said that Erling Haaland had fouled Elliot Anderson in the lead up and chalked it off.

The referee later failed to stop play after the ball hit a camera cable in the build-up to England's equaliser.

After the match, manager Stale Solbakken said that "the margins were not in our favour".

But Haaland's dad Alfie took a stronger view, posting on social media to say that Norway had been robbed.

"Saved bye [sic] the referee", wrote Haaland, who earned 34 Norway caps between 1994 and 2001.

"Hope you win the WC now.

"But feel we got robbed today."

In a separate post, he wrote: "Well done Bellingham and referee."

Image source, Getty Images

The video assistant referee played a key role in England's win over Norway.

One decision very much went in the favour of England, while the other two went against them:

• Harry Kane had a goal ruled out at the end of the first half for offside, when England were very much in the ascendancy moments after Jude Bellingham's equaliser. It was a clear decision and there were no complaints from the Three Lions.
• Norway, however, were incensed by a decision after the break, when Torbjorn Heggem prodded home from close range following a corner, only for play to be brought back for an Erling Haaland push on Elliot Anderson before the corner had been taken. It was 1-1 at the time so, if the goal had been allowed to stand, Norway would have retaken the lead.
• England were condemned to a nervous finale in the second half of extra-time after referee Clement Turpin overturned his original decision to award a penalty for a foul on Djed Spence, when the Three Lions led 2-1. VAR intervened and after Turpin looked at a replay on the pitchside monitor he decided Spence had initiated contact with Norway's Oscar Bobb, purposefully planting his leg in front of him.

Flora Snelson
BBC Sport Journalist

Is Lionel Messi really as good as Jude Bellingham?

I'll leave that for you to ponder over.

Bellingham's excellence was a memorable aspect of a game that might feel hazy if you're just waking up after a late night.

One thing you might have missed, as I did, is Norway's complaint over Bellingham's equaliser.

It wasn't clear why Norway players were hounding match officials as the players headed down the tunnel for half time as there didn't appear to be any contentious moments in the build up to the stoppage-time leveller.

As it turns out the subject of their complaints was really hard to spot.

We'll take you through it shortly - but first, let's review the VAR's role in last night's quarter final.

Image source, Getty Images

Former England forward Wayne Rooney has given the Three Lions advice on how best to contain the impact of Lionel Messi.

"He can be a weakness defensively for Argentina," Rooney said, after England beat Norway 2-1 on Saturday night to set up a semi-final with Argentina, during which the team will face Messi for the first time.

"He doesn't run back, but he has big moments a bit like with Jude Bellingham. He has big moments and moments of quality.

"The thing with Messi is his decision-making – he comes to life in moments of the game and he makes the right decision.

"Marking Lionel Messi is about concentration and communication. Communicating with your team-mates about picking up positions you might not usually pick up."

Phil McNulty
BBC Sport chief football writer in Miami

Those of us who are now covering our seventh World Cup have seen this before, when a player simply elevates his own performances, and his team's, to match the environment and pressures in which the sport's greatest prize is won.

In Japan and South Korea in 2002, Brazil's great striker Ronaldo was on his own redemption journey after mystery surrounded his appearance and performance in France four years previously, when the final was lost 3-0 to France in Paris.

Ronaldo was at the centre of speculation about health issues in France and had also suffered serious injuries, so set out to set the record straight in Japan.

He scored both goals as Brazil beat Germany in the final, standing in front of us in the world's media in Yokohama with the simple phrase: "The agony is over."

Messi suffered the pain of defeat when Argentina lost to Germany in the 2014 World Cup final in Brazil, finally climbing the peak in Qatar with a dramatic win on penalties against France.

While not yet assuming such iconic stature, Bellingham's importance to England is approaching that sort of significance along with, of course, captain Harry Kane.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, BBC Sport

With four games left to play, Opta have updated their prediction of what will happen in the remainder of the tournament.

England have been given a 50.94% chance of reaching the final, while Argentina's hope of playing in the New York New Jersey showpiece stands at 49.06%.

In terms of the competition's overall winner, the Three Lions are behind both Spain and France with a 21.94% chance.

But, as we saw last night, luck has a big role to play in tournament outcomes, and computers have a hard time taking this into account.

Matthew Upson
Former England defender on BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, Getty Images

On whether we should feel confident about England's chances against Argentina:

Yes, I don't see why not. I don't think you can fancy one more than the other, on the evidence we have seen.

The one positive thing, I would say, is the noises that Thomas Tuchel made after the game about how much better England can be. I don't think he is going to stand for certain things that he did not like in that performance. He made that very clear after the game. But he's really delighted with what's getting England through into the next round [their mentality].

I think he will spend the next couple of days really hammering this point about how good we are and how much better we can play, how much better we can be with the ball and controlling the game. All the little things he was not happy with.

If he gets a reaction out of the players to put that right, I think you can end up seeing a real top-class performance, which would be enough for us to win the game.

Tim Vickery
South American football expert on BBC Radio 5 Live

Lionel Messi couldn't possibly end an international career, over 200 matches, without playing the team that Argentina fans see as their biggest rival.

During the second half the fans were bouncing up and down singing 'he who doesn't jump is an Englishman'.

You'll be hearing a lot, lot more of that on Wednesday.

Adwaidh Rajan
BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

There are very few things Lionel Messi has not done on a football pitch.

But the semi-final meeting between Argentina and England at 20:00 BST on Wednesday in Atlanta, live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, will provide the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner with an altogether new experience.

Despite making more than 200 appearances and scoring 125 goals for Argentina, Messi has never faced the Three Lions on the international stage.

It looked for a spell that the 39-year-old may be denied his first meeting with Thomas Tuchel's side when Switzerland appeared to be holding the momentum in Saturday's quarter-final tie - but Argentina eventually ran out 3-1 winners in extra time.

Messi failed to score for the first time this tournament in that victory, though he still leads the Golden Boot race alongside France's Kylian Mbappe having scored eight times, and is the World Cup's all-time leading goalscorer.

"England can outrun Argentina but they just have that little genius Messi. They all play for him. Everyone should be excited," said BBC pundit Micah Richards.

"Marking him is impossible because he doesn't run back. He goes into little spaces where he shouldn't really be. He switches on at the right times [and] he's got the best technique. His spatial awareness is fantastic. He's got a great shot.

"Most importantly, he's got what Jude's [Bellingham] got and that's what makes Jude so great, he's got personality and aura.

"Messi has the most aura out of any footballer. Messi's aura is just next level, so it's going to be interesting."

So, in the history of England's World Cup matches against the South American side, the Three Lions have just edged it with three wins to Argentina's two.

But things will be different this time, as Argentina prepare to play their favourite 5 ft 7 ace...

Image source, Getty Images

On Wednesday, England will face World Cup holders Argentina in Atlanta for a place in the final.

It's been 24 years - or six World Cups - since David Beckham's first-half penalty gave England a Group F victory over Argentina at Korea Japan 2002.

It was the fifth time that the sides have come up against each other at a World Cup finals:

England 3-1 Argentina - 1962

England 1-0 Argentina - 1966

Argentina 2-1 England - 1986

Argentina 2-2 England (4-3 on pens) 1998

England 1-0 Argentina - 2002