Argentina defeated England 2-1 in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup on 22 June at the Estadio Azteca, a match decided entirely by Diego Maradona. The score was goalless at half-time, but in the 51st minute Maradona rose with goalkeeper Peter Shilton to meet a miscued clearance, punched the ball with his left fist, and wheeled away glancing at the referee. The Tunisian official Ali Bin Nasser allowed the goal, later immortalised by Maradona as “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God”. Four minutes later, he collected a pass from Héctor Enrique inside his own half, covered 60 metres in 10.6 seconds at a speed of 14.4 km/h, and dribbled past Peter Beardsley, Peter Reid, Terry Butcher (twice), Terry Fenwick and Shilton before slotting the ball into the net. The Uruguayan commentator Víctor Hugo Morales broke into tears on air, calling it a “cosmic kite” and asking “what planet have you come from?”

England pulled one back through Gary Lineker in the 81st minute, but Argentina held on. The match carried an emotional charge because it was the first sporting meeting between the two nations since the 1982 Falklands War. In the build-up, both Maradona and coach Carlos Bilardo publicly insisted that football and politics should not be mixed, and the squad even had to improvise blue shirts the day before the game because their usual kit was deemed unsuitable. Yet the symbolism was inescapable for Argentine supporters, and Maradona himself later reframed the victory in explicitly national terms, saying he had played “thinking of Malvinas” and that the goal felt like “recovering something of the islands”.

The two goals have aged into distinct categories of global memory. The first remains a source of enduring English resentment: Shilton has repeatedly called Maradona a cheat and refused to acknowledge any sporting greatness, while Lineker has described the second as simply the best goal of all time and confessed he “likes Diego”. In Argentina, the date was adopted as the national footballer’s day, replacing a previous commemoration, and the match is treated as a foundational myth. A decade after the event, Maradona’s own storytelling—casting himself as a rebel who outwitted a former colonial power—amplified the legend far beyond the original live experience, which in the pre-internet 1980s had no viral replays and was initially overshadowed by the eventual World Cup triumph.

Argentina advanced to a semi-final against Belgium, which they won 2-0, and then beat West Germany 3-2 in the final to claim their second world title. The quarter-final, however, detached itself from the tournament arc and became a standalone cultural artefact, debated and re-watched across generations. As the 40th anniversary fell during the 2026 World Cup, Argentine fans in Dallas marked the date before their team’s group-stage match against Austria, singing songs that still invoke Maradona watching from heaven alongside his parents.