One of football’s favourite metaphors is that its sense of jeopardy, chance and drama mirrors life, while its most passionate rivalries extend long beyond the final whistle.
Such is the case with England and Argentina, who meet again on July 15 in the 2026 World Cup semi-final. The fixture’s undercurrents include the Falklands War, fought four years before their famous 1986 World Cup quarter-final, and Diego Maradona’s unforgettable Hand of God goal, when he brazenly used his fist to send the ball into the net before scoring one of the greatest solo goals in World Cup history.
With so much drama coursing through the fixture, it is little wonder that it has inspired songs, documentaries, books, artworks and memorabilia worth millions.
Ahead of the showdown, here are the cultural works that explain why England versus Argentina remains one of football’s richest stories.
How the rivalry reached the screen
The classic 1986 men’s encounter in Mexico City's Azteca Stadium was also given the documentary treatment with The Match, premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
The work features archive material and testimony from England players Gary Lineker, Peter Shilton and John Barnes as well as Argentine counterparts Jorge Valdano, Oscar Ruggeri and Jorge Burruchaga. The film places the game in the context of the Falklands War.
Netflix’s 2023 documentary series Beckham revisited the rivalry through the 1998 World Cup, when England drew 2-2 with Argentina before losing on penalties. Three Lions midfielder David Beckham was sent off during the match, with the series examining the toll of the subsequent backlash, including harassment, death threats and depression.
One of the earliest encounters in the rivalry to be revisited on film appears in Copa 71, a documentary by Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine. The match was also played in the cauldron of the Azteca Stadium as part of the unofficial Women’s World Cup held in Mexico in 1971.
The film details how the competition drew enormous crowds before disappearing from sporting history. Women’s football would return with a professionalised global tournament when the inaugural Fifa Women’s World Cup was held in 1991.
Among the surviving footage is Argentina’s 4-1 victory over England, with Elba Selva scoring all four goals. Selva reportedly saw recordings of the match for the first time during the making of the documentary.
The match rewritten on the page
The 1986 encounter has been the subject of books by Argentine and British authors.
A new English-language account arrived in June with Asif Burhan’s The Other Side of the Hand of God, released this year. Drawing on interviews with players, commentators, photographers, journalists and supporters, the book concentrates on the four minutes between Maradona’s two goals while also examining the respective teams’ troubled World Cup campaigns.
Argentine author Andres Burgo’s 2016 book El partido: Argentina-Inglaterra 1986 examines underreported details from the day, including Argentina’s improvised blue shirts and the political pressure placed on the players in the aftermath of the Falklands War. It also explores how the match became part of Argentine football mythology.
Maradona enters the songbook
In Argentina, the Hand of God inspired arguably the best-known Maradona anthem.
Sung by the late Rodrigo Bueno, La Mano de Dios translates to “The Hand of God”, in reference to the footballer’s controversial 1986 World Cup goal. The piece is a sprightly folk-dance tune tracking Maradona’s rise from humble beginnings in Argentina to stardom in the sporting world.
Maradona went on to make surprise appearances in clubs and sing the song himself to dazzled crowds. “As a young buck I dreamt of the World Cup and rising to the top,” the song goes. “Perhaps by playing I could help my family.”
In Britain, the phrase became the title of New Order’s 1987 track Touched by the Hand of God. Although its lyrics do not address Maradona or the match, the single was promoted with footballs produced by the band’s label, Factory Records.
When commentary became poetry
Uruguayan broadcaster Victor Hugo Morales’s description of Maradona’s second goal became part of Argentine football mythology, capturing the moment with little attempt at journalistic restraint.
“Oh, what a goal! … I can’t help crying, forgive me. Maradona, in a memorable drive, in the greatest play of all time,” he said at that moment. “Cosmic kite, what planet did you come from, to leave so many Englishmen in the dust? To make the whole country into one great, clenched fist, shaking, shouting for Argentina?”
The recording later became the basis of Ariel Magnus's 2013 book Barrilete cosmico: el relato completo, which examines the rhythm and rich literary images of the commentary.
The goal that became a mural
Mexican photographer Alejandro Ojeda Carbajal was behind the camera for one of football’s most memorable images. With the diminutive Maradona soaring into the air, the frame captured the ball being nudged towards goal by his raised fist.
Ojeda received Mexico’s National Journalism Prize in 1987.
The scene later became the subject of a large mural in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires. Created in 2012 by artists Lean Frizzera, Emy Mariani and Martin Ron, it transformed the disputed goal into a monumental piece of public art.
It inspired a video game
It did not take long for the controversy to reach home computers. Released later in 1986, Peter Shilton’s Handball Maradona! used the England goalkeeper’s grievance as its title and selling point.
Although the game does not recreate the famous moment, players take control of a goalkeeper modelled on Shilton, then at the height of his fame, and attempt to save shots, corners and penalties.
From the pitch to the auction block
Maradona’s blue No 10 shirt became one of the most valuable pieces of sporting memorabilia ever sold.
First given to England midfielder Steve Hodge after the match, the shirt was later lent to the National Football Museum in Manchester, where it remained on display before selling at Sotheby’s in 2022 for more than £7 million.
The adidas Azteca match ball also entered the auction market. It had reportedly been kept for 36 years by Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser, who officiated the match.
It was offered at auction in November 2022, when bidding reached about $2.4 million but failed to meet the reserve, and later changed hands.
It is now reportedly being offered through Heritage Auctions as part of its Summer Platinum Sports Auction, with bidding beginning at $2.5 million.
