Remembering Argentina’s 2-1 triumph against England in front of 115,000 spectators on June 22, 1986, is mostly focused on the two Maradona moments that would finally decide a battle boiling with political connotations.
Four years previously, Britain and Argentina had engaged in a hostile confrontation in the South Atlantic for the Falkland Islands, which resulted in military junta loss for South America.
The best player ever from Argentina, Diego Armando Maradona scored both goals for his side in the 2-1 triumph. Six minutes into the second half, Maradona cut inside from the left and sent a diagonal low pass to team-mate Jorge Valdano at the edge of the box to start his run hoping for a one-two movement.
Played somewhat behind Valdano, Maradona’s pass landed at Steve Hodge, the left midfielder who had dropped back to protect England.
Hodge miscued the ball even trying to hook it clear. The ball twisted off his foot into the penalty area, towards Maradona, who had kept running.
Peter Shilton, the England custodian, emerged from his goal to cleanly punch the ball. Maradona reached it first with his outside left hand, albeit being 8 inches (20 cm) shorter than the Shilton’s 6-foot-1 (1.85 m).
The ball ended up in the goal. Against great disappointment to the English players and management, Referee Ali Bin Nasser of Tunisia claimed he did not spot the violation and let the goal go.
Later on, Maradona claimed, “I was waiting for my colleagues to welcome me, and nobody showed up. I cautioned them: “Come hug me, or the referee isn’t going to allow it.”
Maradona facetiously remarked in the post-game news conference that the goal was scored “un poco con la cabeza de Maradona y otro poco con la mano de Dios” (“a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of Dios”), became known as the “Hand of God” goal.
The aim helped to heighten the footballing rivalry between the two countries: the English now felt that they had been duped out of a prospective World Cup triumph, while the Argentines delighted in the way they had seized the lead.
But just four minutes following the Hand of God goal, came The Goal of the Century, so named since it is sometimes regarded to be the best individual goal of all time. Gary Lineker scored for England later on in the game, but they were unable to equalise and Argentina emerged 2–1.
Maradona said following the game, “Although we had said before the game that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas war, we knew they had killed a lot of Argentine boys there, killed them like little birds.” And this was reprisals.
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