Rivalry and revenge: The long, bitter relationship between England and Argentina

Antonio Rattin in 1966. Diego Maradona in 1986. David Beckham in 1998.

The matches are the stuff of soccer legend. And on Wednesday, Argentina and England return to the World Cup stage. But this time — for the first time — it will be a World Cup semi-final, a coveted place in Sunday’s final at stake.

It will be a match resonant with both historical and footballing rivalry, going back decades.

The death this week of former Argentine footballer Antonio Rattin has revived memories of one of the earliest sporting disputes between the countries.

In 1966, the two met in a World Cup quarter-final match when England were hosting the tournament. Rattin, then the Argentine captain, was expelled from the pitch. He grabbed at a corner flag featuring the British flag as he left, and then sat on a red carpet intended for Queen Elizabeth, refusing to walk away. English fans threw cans of beer at him, he later said.

Tempers on the pitch ran high throughout the game, which ended 1-0 to England, the eventual tournament winners. England manager Alf Ramsey notoriously referred to the Argentina players afterwards as “animals”.

It is an insult that Argentina has never forgotten.

Twenty years later, at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, the two sides met again in a World Cup quarter-final. Their two countries had fought a short conflict over the South Atlantic islands known by the British as the Falklands and Argentines as the Malvinas in 1982, in which 649 Argentine soldiers and 255 British combatants died. Emotions were still raw.

In the match itself, the late Diego Maradona, one of the most gifted soccer players in history, scored two goals against England to knock them out of the tournament.

The second goal was a thing of beauty, scored after a mazy run down the field where he dribbled past half the England team. The first was a handball that became known as the “Hand of God” goal, one that would almost certainly have been disallowed today in the era of VAR.

To Maradona and to many Argentines, it was not cheating. It was a triumph of the underdog over the elite.

Maradona wrote in his autobiography, “El Diego”: “More than defeating a football team it was defeating a country. Of course, before the match we said that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas War but we knew a lot of Argentinian kids had died there, shot down like little birds. This was revenge.”

Historical resentment

The relationship between Britain and Argentina has long been a tempestuous one of love-hate. It was British migrants, mainly railway workers, who first brought soccer to Argentina in the 19th century, something that is still reflected today in the names of some teams — River Plate, for instance, or Lionel Messi’s alma mater, Newell’s Old Boys.

But Argentine football developed on the streets or on crowded, dusty “potrero” pitches, not school playing fields overseen by teachers, says Jonathan Wilson, author of “Angels With Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina.”

“So right from the 1920s there is an origin myth of Argentine football that from that moment is defined by virtuosity and self-reliance and cunning, as opposed to the dull fair play and running of the British,” he said.

The British also brought banking, investment and railways to enable the export of beef and other foods from the pampas — and with it a quasi-colonial relationship. Other sports came, too — polo and rugby, both of which are played at a high level in Argentina today.

But the relationship was in many ways one-sided, and resentments of the Anglophile elite were seeded even as the British gradually withdrew in the mid-20th century.

After 1986, the next World Cup meeting was in 1998, in the round of 16, chiefly remembered for a red card given to David Beckham; it was won by Argentina after a penalty shootout. Four years later, a Beckham goal helped England to a win against Argentina in the group stage. That was their last World Cup meeting.

There has been no comment on the historical rivalry by members of the England squad, while Argentine squad members have largely been dismissive of the topic in public. Many more play in Europe than in the past, sanding down some of the rougher differences, said Wilson.

“It’s a soccer match. Period. There’s nothing more to it,” Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni told reporters after Argentina beat Switzerland on Saturday and booked their semi-final place with England. “Let’s not look for anything else.”

But immediately after the final whistle, the players on the pitch joined in with their supporters jumping up and down and singing one of the chants most often heard on terraces in Buenos Aires: “If you don’t jump, you’re English.”

Back in the locker room, videos posted on social media showed the players singing a newer chant, one that promises revenge for the World Cup being “stolen” from them in 1994, when Maradona was expelled from the US-hosted tournament for failing a drug test. The win will be “for the Malvinas, for Diego, for Leo (Messi)’s last,” it goes.

“Of course it carries a lot of significance and brings back many memories because of what Diego (Maradona) did and because of what happened at the time,” Argentine midfielder Rodrigo De Paul told reporters.

“But we have to understand that this is a soccer match… More than anything, we want to win this match and reach the final.”