ATLANTA : From Antonio Rattin’s refusal to leave the pitch in 1966 to Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal in 1986 and David Beckham’s red card in 1998, few World Cup rivalries have produced as many enduring moments as England against Argentina.
Ahead of Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final in Atlanta, Reuters spoke to eyewitnesses who attended each of those iconic matches, recalling incidents that have shaped one of international football’s fiercest rivalries.
Rattin’s dismissal sparks controversy
Argentine-born Rex Gowar, who later became a Reuters correspondent, was among the crowd at Wembley when England and Argentina met in the 1966 quarter-finals.
“We just wrote away for tickets. It was so easy and so cheap back then,” Gowar recalled.
The match turned when Argentina captain Antonio Rattin was sent off in the first half and refused to leave the field for several minutes.
“We were all so surprised by what happened,” Gowar said.
“Rattin was haranguing the referee all the time, asking for explanations of why he kept blowing against Argentina for fouls.”
Gowar said one of his strongest memories came after the match, when England manager Alf Ramsey prevented one of his players from swapping shirts with an Argentine opponent following the heated contest.
England won 1-0 through Geoff Hurst before going on to lift their only World Cup title.
‘Hand of God’ becomes football folklore
Twenty years later the teams met again in the quarter-finals in Mexico City, four years after the Falklands/Malvinas war.
Photographer Gary Hershorn was covering his first World Cup but missed the defining image of the tournament.
“It was in everybody’s mind that there was a bigger geopolitical scale to this game than any other we covered during that World Cup,” Hershorn said.
Maradona’s opening goal, punched into the net with his left hand, initially escaped the attention of many inside the stadium.
“Unfortunately, I was at the opposite end to where it happened,” Hershorn said.
“I wasn’t aware of it until after the game.”
Gowar, reporting from the press box for Reuters, also failed to spot the handball in real time.
“I could have seen it… It was all so quick,” he said.
“But a colleague beside me said, ‘That was with his hand.'”
Gowar later helped relay Maradona’s famous explanation to the world.
“An Argentine colleague passed me the quote,” he said.
“There was some excitement about the quote — ‘a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God’ — but I don’t think I realised then how famous it would become.”
Argentina won 2-1 and went on to claim the World Cup.
Beckham’s red card
England goalkeeper Nigel Martyn was on the substitutes’ bench when the rivals met again in the 1998 last 16 in Saint-Etienne.
The match ended 2-2 before Argentina prevailed in a penalty shootout, but the defining moment came early in the second half when David Beckham was sent off for kicking Diego Simeone.
“I remember it just being a really important game that we were focused on winning,” Martyn said.
“I think the feeling of rivalry was being more whipped up by the media.”
Martyn believed Beckham was treated unfairly after England’s elimination.
“I felt that it was unjust because there really wasn’t much in it, certainly not enough for a red card,” he said.
“I think it was very harsh, some of the things that were said and written. He cared about the team and was crestfallen by getting sent off and us getting knocked out.”
England gained a measure of revenge at the 2002 World Cup when Beckham scored the only goal from the penalty spot in a 1-0 group-stage victory.
“The 2002 World Cup game against them felt a lot more of a grudge match,” Martyn said.
“And beating them 1-0 with a Beckham penalty felt like revenge.”
Wednesday’s semi-final will add another chapter to a rivalry that has repeatedly produced some of the World Cup’s most memorable moments.
