When Juan Cabral gave his friend Santiago Franco a book for his birthday, Franco assumed it was simply a thoughtful present.
The book was El Partido by Argentine journalist Andres Burgo, a forensic reconstruction of Argentina’s 1986 World Cup quarter-final against England. Two days later, Franco called Cabral to tell him how fascinating it was.
“He said: ‘Cool, let’s make a documentary about it,’” Franco recalls. “That’s how it started for me.”
The result is The Match, a 91-minute documentary directed by Cabral and Franco, in cinemas now. The film returns to the game in which Argentina defeated England 2-1 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
Both goals were scored by Diego Maradona within four minutes. The first, punched past goalkeeper Peter Shilton, became known as the “Hand of God”. The second, in which Maradona carried the ball past a succession of English players, became the “Goal of the Century”.
Franco says even those who know the goals well often forget how quickly they follow one another.
“There’s this four-minute window where the planets get aligned and the energy is focused in the Azteca,” he says. “What happens is magical.”
The directors wanted to capture that concentration of history, emotion and sporting genius. Their film begins with a broader question: when does a match start and when does it end?
The answer takes them back almost 200 years, through the intertwined histories of Britain and Argentina, the arrival of football in South America and the tension that culminated in the Falklands (Malvinas) War in 1982.
Four years later, 22 players entered the Azteca insisting they were only playing a game.
“Maybe on a subconscious level they knew there was so much more,” Franco says.
Calling the film The Match also suggested the game deserved to be placed above all others.
Cabral says Argentina’s victory over France in the 2022 World Cup final may have been more epic, but the England match remains more iconic.
“The first half is terrible,” he says. “Not a lot happens. It’s like chess. But the second half is extraordinary.”
For many viewers outside Argentina and England, the game became their entry point into Maradona’s legend.
In the UAE, for example, my father, a former professional footballer, kept a video recording of the match and watched it repeatedly. A striker by trade, he treated it as both entertainment and study. He had no connection to either country, but believed there was football before that match and football after it.
Cabral says such personal inheritance sits at the centre of the documentary. The match may belong to Argentina and England but its meaning travels far beyond both countries.
The film features Gary Lineker, John Barnes and Shilton, from the England side, alongside Argentine players including Jorge Valdano, Jorge Burruchaga, Oscar Ruggeri, Ricardo Giusti and Julio Olarticoechea.
Cabral and Franco wanted to avoid forcing the English contributors into an Argentine interpretation of events.
Barnes was initially cautious. “I don’t want to be manipulated by questions,” he told them.
“There have been documentaries about Maradona, or about the Hand of God,” Cabral says. “But this was meant to be very level. We wanted to hear both sides of the story.”
The players’ reflections help the film examine what they carried on to the pitch.
Several members of the Argentine team were of the same generation as the conscripts sent to the islands. Some had friends who went and never returned.
Burruchaga says in the documentary that football saved him
“If he didn’t play football, he would have gone,” Franco says. “It was a very personal thing for them.”
The English players indicate that the war did not feel as immediate to them. For many Argentines, however, it remained embedded in national identity and football culture.
The film examines how Argentina’s military dictator Leopoldo Galtieri and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher used the conflict politically but focuses on those who lived through it.
“There’s a beautiful thing that happens after such a sad conflict,” Franco says. “People tend to unite themselves.”
The same movement occurs among the footballers.
Shilton spent decades criticising Maradona for refusing to apologise for the Hand of God. Yet the film’s ending, which the directors are careful not to reveal throughout, brings the former opponents into a shared emotional space.
“You really feel like they’re almost from the same team,” Cabral says, “because they survived this experience.”
For Cabral, the fact that the game remained a football match despite the political pressure is part of its enduring power.
The world’s press predicted violence. The altitude, heat and atmosphere inside the Azteca added to the tension, but both managers insisted it was sport, not war.
“Football is the answer to war in a way,” Cabral says. “It’s just a ball and the ball needs to get there.”
The film does not try to erase the disagreement surrounding the Hand of God. Cabral says he understands Shilton’s anger, as well as why Argentines view the incident through the political and emotional context of the time.
“We’re fascinated by all the positions and points of view,” he says.
Cabral describes the documentary as a “weird kind of love letter” to both nations. He lived in England for 10 years and retains an affection for the country, even while desperately wanting Argentina to win whenever the teams meet.
Some younger Argentine viewers said they expected the film to deepen their dislike of England but instead found themselves empathising with the English players.
“Algorithms heat up more hate because it’s a powerful needle to keep people excited,” Cabral says. “The film is kind of the opposite. It tries to untangle and deflate.”
At the centre of everything remain Maradona’s two goals.
My father describes the first as “100 per cent God” and the second as “100 per cent Maradona”, a balance between fortune and ability.
Cabral offers a different interpretation.
“I think it was 100 per cent Diego, the first, and 100 per cent Maradona, the second,” he says.
The first was not simply luck, he argues. Maradona knew where the referee was positioned and understood what he could attempt. The deception required awareness and instinct.
Cabral recently read an article by Valdano in which the former striker recalled making himself available for a pass as Maradona began the run that produced the second goal.
When Maradona scored, Valdano did not immediately join the celebration. He appeared unsettled by what he had witnessed.
Valdano realised, Cabral says, that this was the moment when Maradona stopped being viewed as an ordinary man and became something else.
“He lifted from the ground and went to Olympus,” Cabral says.
