Analysing the Rivalry Between England & Argentina

The first World Cup meeting between the Three Lions and La Albiceleste resulted in a comfortable victory for England. Under the tutelage of Alf Ramsey, they swept aside Argentina with relative ease.

Ron Flowers scored a penalty early on, with Manchester United’s Bobby Charlton doubling England’s advantage before half-time. In the 67th minute, Jimmy Greaves made it 3-0. Argentina attempted to mount a late fightback, with Jose Francisco Sanfilippo scoring late on, but it was in vain.

To be fair, this was long before England and Argentina’s rivalry had taken off. The Falklands War was still 20 years away – their future games would be far more bad-tempered.

England 1-0 Argentina – 1966 World Cup

Likewise, this game was also far from a grudge match, but certainly contained a little bit more needle. In the first half, plenty of vicious challenges flew in, including one on Jack Charlton in England’s own penalty area.

Argentina’s Antonio Rattin bickered with the referee for an extended period, leading to his dismissal. From there, it was an uphill battle for the South Americans.

England laboured, but eventually found the breakthrough deep into the second half. Geoff Hurst scored the only goal of the game in a 1-0 win – of course, England would then go on to win their first and only World Cup trophy.

Argentina 2-1 England – 1986 World Cup

The one everyone remembers. Having taken place just four years after the Falklands War, tensions between the two countries were at an all-time high. Naturally, this bled over into football.

Diego Maradona was the star of the show. He drew first blood when he scored the opener with his infamous ‘hand of god’ goal, outjumping Peter Shilton to swat the ball into the back of the net with his closed fist. England, stunned, were not ready for what happened next.

Twisting and turning through England’s lines, Maradona ran over 60 yards to round Shilton and slot the ball into the empty net – to this day, it remains arguably the greatest goal ever scored. Gary Lineker scored late on in an attempted comeback, but the glory belonged to Argentina and Maradona on that day.

Argentina (P) 2-2 England – 1998 World Cup

12 years later, only one thing was on the mind of England players when they faced Argentina in the World Cup for the next time. Of course, that thing was revenge.

Sadly, they would have to wait. England were 2-1 up after an electric opening 16 minutes, only for Javier Zanetti to score just before half-time. Then, in the second half, David Beckham lashed out at Diego Simeone and earned himself a red card.

England stayed in it and managed to force a penalty shoot-out. It went to the final spot-kick, with the scores level at 3-3, only for David Batty to see his effort saved by Carlos Roa. Argentina had beaten England again, but the Three Lions would ultimately have the last laugh.

England 1-0 Argentina – 2002 World Cup

The most recent World Cup meeting between England and Argentina came in 2002. It was perhaps more uneventful than some of their other encounters, but nonetheless proved to be a sweet revenge for the Three Lions.

Argentina looked flat throughout. Just before half-time, England were awarded a penalty, which was dispatched by a jubliant David Beckham. He had waited four years for that moment – the emotion on his face was plain to see.

Argentina failed to find an equaliser and were ultimately dumped out of the competition in the group stage after they drew with Sweden in their final match. With that, England took the lead over their arch-rivals in terms of their World Cup head-to-head record once again. Can they extend it tonight? Or will Argentina level things up for the second time?