In 1986, Argentina and England weren’t the best of friends.
Four years earlier they’d fought a brief but brutal war over the Falkland Islands, known in Argentina as Las Malvinas, and tensions were still high.
Many Argentinians, including Diego Maradona, felt aggrieved by their country’s defeat, and the deaths of more than 600 Argentinian soldiers, many of them young conscripts.
In the absence of a satisfying resolution, football (as so often happens) became a vehicle for unofficial diplomacy.
Heading into the World Cup in Mexico City, Argentina had a mediocre side, but the best player in the world.
The pressure was on the team to perform, but on Maradona more so.
And he delivered — 71 per cent of their goals directly involved him.
They powered into the knockout stage at the top of Group A, Maradona with a goal and four assists, while England limped out of Group F on goal difference.
But England’s impressive 3-0 drubbing of Paraguay, compared to Argentina’s 1-0 escape against Uruguay in the round of 16, put them on more equal footing heading into the quarter-finals.
Maradona said the “hype” leading up to the game “made it seem like we were going to play out another war”.
If there was any hope for a run-of-the-mill win for either side to ease tensions, it didn’t exactly play out that way.
First the Hand of God …
Goalless through the first half, the match erupted just after the break, in one of the most infamous moments in football history.
Maradona drove at the defence, beat three defenders and passed to striker Jorge Valdano, whose attempt to control the ball deflected off an Englishman and ballooned towards the six-yard box.
England goalkeeper Peter Shilton charged towards the ball, as did Maradona. But the gloveman had a 20-centimetre height advantage over Argentina’s captain. It would have taken a miracle for him to be outleapt.
Somehow, that miracle transpired, with a leaping Maradona deflecting the ball over Shilton. Even on the low-quality TV footage it was clear something was amiss immediately, with the English players’ protestations more animated than usual.
England defender Terry Fenwick sprinted from the penalty area at Tunisian referee Ali Bennaceur, pursuing him all the way over the halfway line, at one point looking ready to slap him, before waving his hand at the air dismissively.
Replays showed why, with the diminutive number 10’s left hand clearly making contact with the ball in the air and punching, not heading, it over the line.
With the goal already awarded and the scourge of VAR still decades away, none of it mattered to the Argentinians, who were busy embracing in front of the screaming fans at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca.
1-0 to Argentina after 51 minutes.
After the game, Maradona famously said the goal was scored “a little with the head of Maradona, and a little with the hand of God”. He also later described it as like “picking the pocket of an Englishman” and “symbolic revenge” for the 1982 conflict.
“Of course I know that’s stupid but that’s how we felt and it was a feeling stronger than us all. We were defending our flag, our children.”
Then the Goal of the Century …
If the egregious error by the match officials and furious response from the English were the bad and the ugly of football, what happened four minutes later was the good.
Taking possession 60 metres from goal, a neat turn got Maradona past Peter Reid and Peter Beardsley, and he steamed up the right wing.
Defender Terry Butcher arrived quickly and was beaten with a sharp turn to the left, leaving Fenwick as the last line before the keeper.
Maradona’s speed and agility sent him back to the right, leaving Fenwick to flail a left arm as the 25-year-old toed the ball through and pronked over the desperate challenge.
Then came the rematch with Shilton, who came forward to try to shut down the angle, only to watch Maradona fake a shot and dart right again, sending the keeper sprawling to the floor.
Butcher came again and took Maradona’s legs away, but not before a final touch with his left foot sent the ball goalward.
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In the space of 10 seconds, 11 deft touches, three Peters and two Terrys, Maradona had scored what came to be known as the ‘Goal of the Century’ and all but guaranteed La Albiceleste a place in the semi-finals.
Even England striker Gary Lineker admitted he “felt like applauding” after the goal.
“I’d never felt like that before, but it’s true … and not just because it was such an important game,” he said.
The aftermath
Lineker scored in the 81st minute of the game to give England hope, but Argentina won 2-1.
In his 2000 autobiography, I Am El Diego, Maradona articulated what everyone already knew: that game was about more than the result on the field.
“It was like beating a country, not a football team. Although we said before the game that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas War [the Argentinian name for the Falklands], we knew that a lot of Argentine kids had died there, that they had mowed us down like little birds,” he wrote.
“This was our revenge, it was … recovering a part of the Malvinas. We all said beforehand that we shouldn’t mix the two things but that was a lie. A lie! We didn’t think of anything except that, like hell it was going to be just another game!”
Argentina went on to beat Belgium 2-0 (Maradona scored both) and West Germany 3-2 (he made the final pass for goal that broke the 2-2 deadlock with five minutes left) to win the World Cup.
It was the country’s second title in the past three tournaments, but it was to be the last (thus far).
Maradona carried an ankle injury into the 1990 World Cup in Italy, where Argentina made the final but this time lost to West Germany.
Four years later Maradona was sent home in disgrace from his last World Cup, in the US, after testing positive for ephedrine.
