England-Argentina: past World Cup battles
June 6, 2002
SAPPORO, Japan, June 6 (AFP) -- Past World Cup encounters between England and Argentina ahead of their Group F first round match here at the Sapporo Dome on Friday.
1962 - First round match at Rancagua, Chile
1966 - Quarter-final at Wembley, England
1986 - Quarter-finals at Mexico City, Mexico
1998 - Second round match at St Etienne, France
England win 3-1 in a match which had none of the controversy of subsequent meetings between the two sides. England went on to reach the quarter-finals while Argentina went out in the first round.
A bad-tempered affair marred by some vicious challenges by the Argentinians, who had captain Antonio Rattin sent off for dissent. Rattin took almost 10 minutes to leave the pitch.
Argentina defended in numbers and made it difficult for England before Geoff Hurst scored the match-winning goal.
England boss Alf Ramsey was so incensed by Argentina's tactics that he branded the visiting team "animals", barring his players from swapping shirts with their opponents.
Forever remembered for Diego Maradona's infamous 'Hand of God' goal.
Argentina's star player punched the ball past England keeper Peter Shilton to give the South Americans a 1-0 lead. But there was no controversy about Maradona's second goal - arguably the greatest goal in World Cup history.
The influential playmaker collected the ball near the half-way line and slipped through several desperate England tackles before tucking the ball past Shilton.
Gary Lineker pulled a goal back but Argentina held on to win and went on to win the tournament.
Perhaps the most dramatic of all the England-Argentina contests with Michael Owen scoring the goal of the tournament and David Beckham being sent off for kicking Diego Simeone. Despite being reduced to ten men early in the second half, England managed to hold on and might have snatched a sensational victory if Sol Campbell's late header had not been disallowed. The match went to penalties and David Batty's miss cost England a place in the quarter-finals.