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Peter Shilton was beaten by Maradona’s Hand of God goal, which knocked England out of the 1986 World Cup after a heart-breaking 2-1 loss to Argentina in Mexico City.
As well as a football rivalry — which had been spawned 20 years earlier — this clash came just four years after the Falklands War.
England beat Argentina in the last eight on the way to 1966 World Cup success in a bad tempered affair, which saw Antonio Rattin sent off and Three Lions boss Sir Alf Ramsey call the South Americans “animals” and stopped his players from swapping shirts with their opponents at full-time.
But things had changed in two subsequent decades.
Argentinian superstars Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa had joined Tottenham.
But Maradona — the world’s most expensive player TWICE — was the clear danger man.
He had been controversially left out of Argentina’s 1978 World Cup-winning squad, and was sent off four years later in Spain.
Maradona came to Mexico with a point to prove.
A Gary Lineker-inspired England recovered from a slow start to blow Poland and Paraguay away, while Argentina finished top of a group which contained world champions Italy before beating Uruguay.
Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium was packed with 114,000 fans to watch the international heavyweights battle for a place in the last-four.
Shilton kept England in the game as Argentina dominated the first half.
But it was six minutes after the interval that the game sprung to life thanks to the ‘Hand of God’.
Maradona received the ball just inside the England half, before whizzing past Glenn Hoddle.
He runs at the Three Lions defence and tries a one-two with Jorge Valdano — only for Steve Hodge to intercept the return pass.
However, the Aston Villa man’s attempted clearance/pass back to Shilton loops up towards the six-yard box and Maradona, with his left fist tucked in behind his head, rose up to beat the England goalkeeper to the punch.
The Napoli man immediately wheeled away in celebration, urging his team-mates to join him and fool referee, Al Bin Nasser, that all was well.
Terry Fenwick led the English protests, but the Tunisian official awarded the goal.
Maradona showed just why he was considered the best player in the world just four minutes later as he scored the ‘goal of the century’.
In a 2020 interview, the 125-capped former Three Lions No.1 said:
“He didn’t out-jump me, he punched the ball in with his hand.
“People moan about VAR these days but it would have been brilliant for us in that instance.
“He admitted to it, saying it was the Hand of God, but he didn’t apologise or show any remorse.
“His attitude explains why there’s animosity.
“We’ve been offered a number of times to put it to bed. But he won’t apologise, and I won’t shake hands with him or acknowledge him.
“He’s the greatest player in history but I don’t respect him as a sportsman and I never will.”
Maradona finally offered an apology of sorts in an exclusive Sun interview 22 years on from that World Cup quarter-final.
In 2008 he told Sun man Tom Wells: “If I could apologise and go back and change history I would do.
“But the goal is still a goal, Argentina became world champions and I was the best player in the world.
“I can’t change history. All I can do is move on.”