"FOR me," Diego Maradona had written in his autobiography, "it was like stealing from a thief."
Maradona was describing why he preferred the Hand of God over the Goal of the Century from that history-shaping encounter at the Azteca in 1986. It's one of several reasons why England and Argentina do not like the sight of each other on the football field. They haven't faced each other in any senior men's event since 2005. However, it doesn't matter that no active England player has faced Argentina and vice versa.
This is a rivalry that transcends football. A significant part of the answer lies in Argentina's unofficial World Cup anthem: La cuarta Estrella. The Fourth Star.
It implores the national team to win for Diego and to win for Lionel Messi. But, firstly, it asks them to win for Las Malvinas. It was referenced in Qatar when the anthem was 'Muchachos'.
It's a small group of islands in the Atlantic (Falkland Islands). Argentina invaded the islands in 1982, the response from the UK was definite. Over two months later, UK won the confrontation. However, there was no official declaration of war and Argentina maintains its demand over the territories. There are also reports that Maradona used the islands during a team talk before that game in 1986.
In April 2026, Argentina President, Javier Milei, on X, raised this issue again. "The Malvinas were, are and always will be Argentine." Here's the Independent on how Argentina continues to engage at home with respect to the subject. "Kids are taught in school that they are part of Argentina," the UK-based publication wrote a few days ago. "They are always depicted on maps of Argentina as being part of sovereign territory and things are named after them all over the country. Three clubs in the top two divisions have stadiums that translate to “the Argentine Falklands Stadium".
In a referendum in 2013, 99.8 per cent of the of people living in the area voted to remain as a British Overseas Territory. A year later, Albiceleste, in a friendly they played just before the World Cup, displayed a banner: "Las Malvinas Son Argentina".
But the Argentina-England encounter isn't just shaped by a 42-year-old war or what happened at the Azteca on a warm afternoon in 1986.
In a Round of 16 clash between the two nations at the 1998 World Cup, David Beckham, then a boy England were obsessed with, was sent off following an incident with Diego Simeone. Replays clearly showed that Simeone had overreacted but it was impetuous from the 23-year-old England midfielder. Beckham, though, had his moment of retribution in 2002 when he converted a penalty against the same opponents; the defeat helped in eliminating Argentina in the group-stage itself. There has most certainly been a thaw in their relationship; during the World Cup, the pair posed for photographs. But the kind of bad blood that exists between the supporters and the two teams remains.
Argentina, whose songs mock Brazil, also place a lot of importance to try and put the English in their place. Multiple times during matches, they have sung 'el que no salta es un ingles (the one who doesn't jump is an Englishman)'.
But one person who was quick to distance the match rather than hyphenate it was Lionel Scaloni. "The message is this is a football game," the coach of the defending champion said after they beat Switzerland in the last eight. "We will be playing against a very tough opponent, they have an excellent coach, it is a football game and that is all."
However, the general rhetoric was felt via Jose Lopez, one of their forwards. "We will leave our lives on the football field. Obviously inside and outside the four lines of the pitch it's a match that has a lot of history there, a lot of pain and a lot of things behind it."
Indeed.