Angol
Mexico City. The Azteca stadium. Argentina v England. World Cup Quarter-Final. Sunday 22nd June 1986. Fifty-one minutes gone and the deadlock is broken. The Argentinian Captain Diego Maradona leaps high alongside the England Captain, goalkeeper Peter Shilton, and the ball mysteriously somehow ends up in the net! The staggering crowd of 114,580 people on the packed Azteca terraces watch, but they never saw the sleight of Diego and God's hand. The roar goes up! Argentinian and Mexican voices as one against the gringos. Maradona races away in triumph, whilst a manic Shilton runs towards the Tunisian referee Ali Ben Nasser pointing to his arm. ''Handball ref, handball!'' But Nasser says no, the goal will stand and this grand old stadium bathed in the history of the beautiful game explodes in noise and furor! On the biggest stage with a world-wide audience watching on Diego has reached low to jump high. Scopa! The little boy from the slum town of Villa Fiorito whose dream was always to win the World Cup for Argentina has sent his nation into dreamland, whilst at the same time sending the despised English into meltdown. Two countries whose rivalry on a football pitch began at the 1966 World Cup boiled up slowly over the years and exploded into fully blown hatred with the Falklands war. Suddenly, drawn together in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup, victory has to be achieved at any price. By any means. As a beaming Diego Maradona stands near the corner flag thanking God for being allowed this moment of divine daylight robbery, behind him England supporters on the Azteca terraces scream abuse. Did he care, what do you think? Time now to head back to 1966.
