England 1 Argentina 2 – 1986 World Cup

Posted on | June 23, 2009 | No Comments

As the Portsmouth takeover shows no sign of being concluded (the latest stunning development is that Dr Al Fahim is in receipt of the Premier League’s documents regarding the ‘fit and proper persons’ test), I thought I’d continue the World Cup theme I started a couple of weeks ago with the England v Poland game at Mexico ‘86.

After that game, England despatched Paraguay 3-0 at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. Lineker scored another two goals (Peter Beardsley getting the third), despite being off the pitch for a lengthy spell of treatment after one particularly nasty assault by the cynical Paraguayans. Peter Shilton had kept England in it early on, but once they scored, the result was never in doubt.

The stage was set for a showdown with Argentina, again at the Azteca. The two countries had not met since 1980, before the Falklands conflict, and the press made much of it. The players rightly focused on the game of football.

The first half was disappointing to say the least, but five minutes after half time the game exploded into life. Maradona ran at the England defence and tried to play a one-two on the edge of the area. The ball hopped up in front of Steve Hodge, who with his back to goal, hooked the ball up in the air towards Peter Shilton. In the days before the backpass law, this should have been a straightforward catch for the keeper, but Maradona had continued his run, and arriving fractionally before Shilton, punched the ball into the net.

I wonder how many people watching on television noticed the handball straight away? The England players certainly did, but much as I liked Barry Davies’s commentary, he had to watch a few replays before pointing it out.

Five minutes later, though, Maradona was to produce probably the most memorable goal of the tournament, or indeed any tournament. He picked the ball up in the centre circle, pirouetted away from Peter Reid, shimmied and feinted past Butcher and Fenwick, before selling Peter Shilton a dummy and slotting the ball home just before Terry Butcher could get back at him. Pure genius, although he was to score another similar goal in the semi final against Belgium!

England made changes, searching for a way back into the game, and Barnes and Waddle came on. Barnes had the greater effect, and with nine minutes left he drove to the byline and crossed perfectly for Lineker to bury a close range header into the bottom corner, his sixth goal of the tournament. Argentina then missed a chance to seal it, hitting the post. As time ran out, Barnes produced a carbon copy cross and as Lineker closed in on it at the far post, we all expected the net to bulge. Unfortunately, he just couldn’t get there and the defender managed to clear in an unorthodox fashion, off the back of his head and behind for a corner.

Argentina went on to win the World Cup, of course. But they only really got going in that game. England had previously enjoyed a couple of good performances and wins, but left it until the last fifteen minutes of this game to exhibit any attacking threat. Having said that, if it wasn’t for the ’Hand of God’, things may have been different. As always in football, games often turn on the slightest margins. Here it is.

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