​It is 28 years since Argentina ended my World Cup dream at France ’98 – and it still hurts now.I can still picture their players dancing and celebrating next to us as both teams waited to get on their buses after our epic last-16 tie. We had come so close to beating them, but we fell on the wrong side of a penalty shootout, and we were going home.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementI was captain and it was tough to take, not just personally but because we had an outstanding team and I felt we had an opportunity at that tournament to make a real statement on the world stage.I feel the same way about this England side now as they prepare for Wednesday’s semi-final in Atlanta (20:00 BST), with a chance to change their lives forever.They are two wins away from immortality, and the fact it is Argentina we face again first just adds more spice to an already incredible occasion.There is something special about playing them at a World Cup because of the great rivalry between us and the drama and the controversy of our defeats in the quarter-finals in 1986 and then the one in 1998 I played in.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut it is even more exciting when there is a place in the final at stake. Especially because standing in our way is the little genius himself Lionel Messi – arguably the greatest player of all time, who has never faced England before.This is the mouth-watering tie we wanted, and I definitely think we can win it… it does not really matter how.Our players just have to make sure they land on the right side of the result this time, and ensure they are not talking like me about what could or should have been, 28 years from now.Thinking about Wednesday’s game takes me back to Saint-Etienne in 1998, which was one of the most memorable matches I ever played in, and certainly one of the most talked about.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThere were so many sub-plots that night at Stade Geoffroy Guichard, from Michael Owen’s amazing goal to their brilliant free-kick, then David Beckham’s red card, us playing for 75 minutes with 10 men and Sol Campbell having a goal disallowed, before the agony of losing on penalties.It was an unbelievable night with everything that happened and, while I know I should be over it by now, I still don’t think the best team won.What happened to us then should be a warning to England now, because these are the kind of games where tempers can boil over and affect the result.I would not be surprised at all if we saw another red card this time too, but I am slightly concerned where the refereeing will be at, and how VAR might impact us.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt feels like there has been a huge shift in the narrative from referees and VAR as the tournament has gone on and there have been some bizarre decisions, including some that have gone Argentina’s way.The one that ruled out Egypt’s goal against them in the last 16, because of a foul at the other end of the pitch, was just astonishing