{"id":801248,"date":"2026-07-15T05:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T05:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/801248\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T05:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T05:51:13","slug":"diego-give-us-a-hand-argentina-v-england-revives-historic-tensions-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/801248\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Diego, give us a hand\u2019: Argentina v England revives historic tensions | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Argentina\u2019s national football team burst into the dressing room after beating Switzerland 3-1<\/a>, they celebrated by singing The Fourth Star, the country\u2019s unofficial World Cup anthem.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Malvinas, for Diego,\u201d Lionel Messi and his teammates chanted, invoking both the Falkland Islands<\/a> \u2013 known as Islas Malvinas in Argentina \u2013 and their football legend Diego Maradona.<\/p>\n

The lyrics had already become ubiquitous in Argentina<\/a> during this tournament, but they took on a new significance once it was confirmed that Wednesday\u2019s World Cup semi-final would once again pit Argentina against England.<\/p>\n

Almost four decades after Maradona\u2019s \u201cHand of God\u201d goal and his celebrated solo strike helped Argentina triumph in one of football\u2019s most politically charged matches \u2013 which followed the 1982 Falklands War between the two countries \u2013 Wednesday\u2019s semi-final is once again being discussed, in both Argentina and the UK, as far more than a game.<\/p>\n

Diego Maradona\u2019s \u2018Hand of God\u2019 goal during Argentina\u2019s victory over England in a quarter-final match at the 1986 Fifa World Cup. Photograph: Daniel Motz\/Alamy<\/p>\n

\u201cBehind the Argentina team, there are people who still carry pain, who don\u2019t want to forget their history, and who want to win on the football pitch,\u201d said Pablo \u201cPalmito\u201d Quintana, the musician who wrote the song, explaining why he put \u201cMalvinas\u201d into the lyrics. Quintana, 30, was not alive during the war or during the 1986 quarter-finals, but agrees that these matches \u201care not just matches\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 1986 match was a balm for everyone who had lived through the war,\u201d said Aldo Leiva, a Falklands\/Malvinas war veteran and Peronist congressman.<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball has rules and referees. There was none of that in the war. Many Argentines saw the victory \u2013 and the \u2018hand of God\u2019 \u2013 as a form of vindication because they believed Britain had acted outside the rules, especially by sinking the General Belgrano,\u201d he said, speaking about the Argentine cruiser that was torpedoed and sunk by the British outside the agreed exclusion zone. The attack resulted in the deaths of 323 crew members.<\/p>\n

Lionel Messi of Argentina is thrown in the air by teammates after their 3-2 victory during the Fifa World Cup 2026 against Egypt. Photograph: Justin Setterfield\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

V\u00edctor Hugo Morales, a Uruguayan journalist whose live commentary of the 1986 match became part of Argentine folklore, said memories of that match were \u201creverberating\u201d once again.<\/p>\n

He said that, like the Argentine players today, Maradona himself \u201cinsisted it was just a football match [ahead of the game]. But deep down, there was no doubt the Malvinas war was in everyone\u2019s hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cArgentina versus England<\/a> has become a classic. Before 1986, it was just another match. Since then, it has carried a political and emotional weight that goes far beyond football,\u201d said Morales, who famously described Maradona at the time as a \u201ccosmic kite\u201d.<\/p>\n

England team photo before their tWorld Cup 2026 quarter-final match against Norway. Photograph: Rob Newell\/CameraSport\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Argentinian media have leaned into the symbolism. Cr\u00f3nica, a television channel known for its sensationalist headlines, previewed the match with captions such as \u201cArgentina vs. the English \u2018pirates<\/a>\u201d, \u201cMessi, with an M for Malvinas<\/a>\u201c and \u201cDiego, give us a hand<\/a>\u201d. Sports daily Ol\u00e9 focused on what it described as a good omen<\/a>: \u201cIt\u2019s official \u2013 Argentina will face England wearing blue, just like in \u201886.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several Argentinian outlets also reported<\/a> that, ahead of the semi-final, the football club Godoy Cruz hung banners on its stadium that supporters had taken from England fans during the 2014 World Cup, in what was widely interpreted as a provocation.<\/p>\n

The rivalry is also unfolding against the backdrop of far-right president Javier Milei\u2019s repeated praise for Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister who was public enemy number one in Argentina during the 1982 conflict. \u201cFor many Argentines, an England defeat would also be seen as a political rebuke to Milei,\u201d Morales said.<\/p>\n

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In Argentina, the islands remain a sore point. Even before the war, children were taught from an early age that Malvinaswere an integral part of the national territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Malvinas issue is very much in Argentines\u2019 minds,\u201d says Morales. \u201cThe British probably didn\u2019t give the islands a second thought until the war. For them, [confronting Argentina] has carried a lot of weight since \u201986 because of what happened in that game \u2013 the handball goal and Diego\u2019s other brilliant goal \u2013 but not in terms of the Malvinas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Daniel Filmus, a politician and Argentina\u2019s former secretary of matters related to the Falklands, said that the claim for the islands was embedded in Argentina\u2019s national identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feelings many Argentines have about the Malvinas are expressed in football chants. Both the anthem that became popular at the last World Cup<\/a> and this year\u2019s song include references to the islands,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cArgentina is one of the few countries that, nearly 200 years after losing territory, still keeps that claim alive,\u201d he said. \u201cArgentines carry it with them wherever they go.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the conflict may linger less in the collective national memory in the UK, Wednesday\u2019s match-up has already ensured that the Falklands war is again headline news in the British media too. The Daily Telegraph reported the comments of Pablo Quirno, Argentina\u2019s foreign minister, after he called Falklands Islanders an \u201cartificially implanted\u201d population in an essay requesting talks over the territory.<\/p>\n

There was also a flurry over the former England footballer Gary Lineker \u2013 the top scorer in the 1986 World Cup \u2013 mentioning the islands\u2019 Argentinian name, Malvinas, alongside their English name on his podcast, bringing scorn from Mark Dolan, a presenter on Rupert Murdoch\u2019s digital platform Talk, who said it was \u201ctime to show this woke fool the red card\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Sun newspaper meanwhile noted the Argentina players were trying to concentrate on the football. \u201cWe know what the game against England means for our country, but it\u2019s a game of football and we\u2019ll try to address it in the best way,\u201d it quoted midfielder Leandro Paredes as saying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Argentina\u2019s national football team burst into the dressing room after beating Switzerland 3-1, they celebrated by singing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-801248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}