The images are as vivid today as they were 40 years ago. Azteca Stadium, Mexico City, June 22, 1986. Diego Maradona ruins England’s World Cup dream with one of the most controversial goals of all time, followed by one of the greatest.
Whatever happens when these great rivals meet in the 2026 semi-final in Atlanta on Wednesday, it is unlikely to eclipse Maradona’s impact on the 1986 quarter-final. First the Hand of God, then the Goal of the Century. Two of the sport’s most famous moments and less than four minutes between them – a perfect snapshot of Maradona, still viewed by many as the greatest footballer in history.
Maradona died in November 2020 after a suffering a heart failure. Four years earlier, he recalled his 1986 memories in ‘Touched by God – How We Won The Mexico ’86 World Cup’, written with Argentine journalist Daniel Arcucci.
Capturing Maradona’s chaotic, irreverent style perfectly, Arcucci writes a captivating account of the England quarter-final. As well as Maradona’s goals, there are discussions of England’s reaction, the influence of the 1982 Falklands War, and Lionel Messi, who was then at his peak.
Daily Mail Sport takes a closer look – starting with that goal.
The late Diego Maradona recalled his memories Argentina’s infamous quater-final meeting with England in the book ‘Touched by God – How We Won The Mexico ’86 World Cup’
The Hand of God
‘I’m not sorry for scoring with my hand. Not sorry at all! With all due respect to the fans, the players, the management, I am not in the least bit sorry.
‘Because I grew up with this, because as a kid I would score goals with my hand all the time. And I did the same thing in front of a hundred thousand people, but no one saw it.
‘The ball floated down to me like a little balloon. ‘This one is mine,’ I said. ‘I’ll take my chances. If [the referee] calls a foul, he calls a foul.
‘I hit it with my fist, but it went in as if I had kicked it hard [rather than headed it]. There was no way they could have seen it. Not the ref, not the linesman, not [England goalkeeper] Peter Shilton, who was in a daze, looking for the ball.’
Former England captain Gary Lineker scored England’s goal that day and interviewed Maradona for the BBC in 2006. Maradona recalls the conversation in ‘Touched By God’. He wrote: ‘I remember [Lineker] telling me that in England they would consider [the handball] cheating, and whoever did it a cheat. But I told him it was cunning, and whoever did it was clever.’
Maradona said he was ‘not in the least bit sorry’ about scoring the Hand of God goal
How did England take it?
Even though he was one of English football’s No1 villains for much of his life, Maradona is largely complimentary about England and their conduct during the match.
Recalling a collision between Shilton and Argentina midfielder Ricardo Giusti, Maradona wrote: ‘If it hadn’t been the English, we might have ended up in a fist fight, like we almost always did against the Uruguayans.
‘But with the English, of all people, we ended up shaking hands, almost apologising. The truth is, it was a gentleman’s match. I’m sometimes made out to be an enemy of England or something, but I’m not their enemy.
‘On the way to the dressing room, one of the English guys – it turned out to be Steve Hodge – asked me to swap shirts with him. I said yes and we did.
‘A few other English players came into the locker room to swap shirts and someone sent them a few of mine.’
Yet the atmosphere was not quite so cordial when the players gathered for mandatory drug tests after the game. ‘I remember Butcher, because he was the angriest,’ recalls Maradona.
‘Looking over at me, he tapped his head with his finger and then lifted his fist, as if to ask me whether I had scored the first goal with my hand.
‘With my head, man. I was with my head,’ I answered.
Maradona described the quarter-final against England as being ‘a gentleman’s match’
Falklands War
On 2 April 1982, Argentinian forces invaded the British overseas territory of the Falkland Islands, followed by South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Despite being 8,000 miles away, Britain sent a task force of warships and rapidly refitted merchant ships to the South Atlantic.
Fierce fighting in the air, at sea and on land culminated in the surrender of Argentinian forces in South Georgia on 26 April 1982 and the Falkland Islands on 14 June 1982. The conflict lasted 74 days and cost more than 900 lives.
‘If it had been up to the Argentines, the players would have gone out there with a machine gun and killed [the England players],’ Maradona claims. ‘But we didn’t want to get involved in that whole mess.
‘During the build-up, everyone had the Falklands War on their mind. How could they not? The truth is that the English had killed a bunch of kids. They were guilty, but the Argentines were just as guilty, sending those kids out in tennis shoes against one of the world’s largest military powers.
‘I didn’t play that game thinking we were going to win the war. All I wanted to do was honour the memory of the dead, to give the families of those boys some relief, and to wipe England off the world map – the world football map, that is.
‘Eliminating them from the World Cup in the quarter-finals was like forcing them to surrender. It was a battle, oh yes, but on my battlefield.’
He admitted the Falklands War had been on everyone’s mind heading into the match and that beating England in the quarter-finals was ‘life forcing them to surrender’ on his battlefield
Goal of the Century
Maradona’s second goal was as memorable as his first, as he raced from the halfway line, evading England challenges, and doubled Argentina’s lead. ‘You have to say that’s magnificent,’ was the pithy description from BBC commentator Barry Davies.
Naturally, Maradona’s recollection is a little more colourful. ‘I scored some sweet goals in my time,’ he writes. ‘I scored goals better than that for [his first junior club] Cebollitas, but those were goals that only my mum and dad saw.
‘None of them was as important as this one. I had never dreamed of anything like this. I couldn’t have dreamed of it.
‘We were playing against the English… who decided how many Argentine boys they would kill and how many they would let live. And there’s nothing can compare to that.
‘Parents told their children about it, and those children will tell their children. Because thirty years have already gone by. Thirty years. And they keep on telling the story.
‘There are still 10-year-old kids out there today with “Maradona” tattooed on them. And that kind of insanity can only be explained by one goal. Or maybe two.
‘My goals against the English.’
Maradona insisted he had scored better goals than his ‘Goal of the Century’ but declared that none had been more important
Lionel Messi
When this work was published, the relationship between Messi and Argentina was very different. Back then, Maradona remained far more loved in his homeland than Messi, who struggled to reproduce his Barcelona form in the national team. He had still not won a major international trophy.
Things are very different now after Messi led Argentina to World Cup glory in 2022, as well as two Copa America titles. Maradona also coached Messi at the 2010 tournament and the rapport between the pair was not always simple.
Yet Maradona’s thoughts on Messi are still resonant. ‘Messi may or may not be greater than I was,’ he argues. ‘Now, I scored two goals against England, goals that honoured the boys who fell in the Malvinas (as the Falklands are known in Argentina) and their families.
Maradona coached Messi at the 2010 World Cup at a time where he remained far more loved in Argentina
Things are different now after Messi led Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar in 2022
‘I gave them some consolation and no-one else – and I mean no-one – is going to be able to do that. Because there’s not going to be another war, because there can’t be another war.’
Maradona included Messi in his group of five all-time greats. ‘He’s up there with the greatest in history, the ones everyone names: Alfredo Di Stefano, Pele, Cruyff, and me. And him. Three Argentines! That’s what we need to remember.
‘But I’d like to ask a final heartfelt question. If we don’t want to let another thirty years go by before bringing the World Cup home again: what comes after Messi?’
Argentina might have lifted the Cup four years ago but decade after ‘Touched By God’ was published, they are still struggling with that question. If England have their way, Argentina will be looking for answers from Thursday morning.
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