LOS ANGELES — England and Argentina will meet on Wednesday in a blockbuster World Cup semi-final infused with decades of bitter rivalry after they battled past Norway and Switzerland respectively in the quarter-finals.

The South Americans and their talisman Lionel Messi must defeat England in Atlanta to keep alive their hopes of becoming the first team to win back-to-back World Cups since Brazil in 1962.

England and their key partnership of Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane must win to have any hope of ending a 60-year wait for a major trophy.

The winner of that game will take on the victor of France’s semi-final with Spain — they meet in Texas on Tuesday — in the final on July 19.

The Argentina v England match comes 40 years after a seismic encounter in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

Argentina secured a 2-1 victory at the Estadio Azteca with two goals from Diego Maradona — one the infamous “Hand of God” when he punched the ball into the net and the other a dazzling solo effort considered one of the greatest goals ever to grace a World Cup.

For Maradona’s heir, Messi, it will be his 206th match in an Albiceleste shirt, but his first ever against England.