When you had to hand it to Maradona
As part of our World Cup history series, Ian Anderson writes of a tournament dominated by one player.
Diego Maradona’s first World Cup ended in disgrace. He disgraced himself again four years later, but it ended in triumph.
No World Cup before or since has been dictated by one player as much as the 1986 tournament was.
Group play was relatively uneventful – hosts Mexico eased through, Denmark topped the ‘‘Group of Death’’ and were talked of as possible winners after beating West Germany, and England needed a win in their third match against Poland to get through in a group topped by Morocco.
But the second round began a string of memorable matches. Igor Belanov netted a hat-trick for the Soviet Union but couldn’t stop them getting knocked out 4-3 by Belgium, France ended Italy’s reign with a 2-0 triumph and Denmark capitulated after taking an early lead against Spain as Emilio ‘‘The Vulture’’ Butragueno scored four times in a 5-1 win.
In the quarterfinals, England met Argentina, with anger over the Falklands War still bubbling for both countries. Maradona opened the scoring in the second half with his ‘‘Hand of God’’ goal, punching the ball past leaden-footed goalkeeper Peter Shilton and doubled the lead with the most magnificent individual goal in Cup history. When England wisened up and brought on substitute John Barnes, they suddenly looked dangerous and he set up a goal for Gary Lineker before coming agonisingly close to repeating the trick as Argentina hung on.
The last-eight match between France and Brazil was a beauty. Careca scored a cracker to put Brazil ahead but Michel Platini equalised and goalkeeper Joel Bats saved a second-half penalty from Zico. The match went to penalties, Bats saved from Socrates, Platini blasted high and wide but Luis Fernandez won it in sudden-death for France.
In a repeat of the 1982 semifinal matchup, France faced West Germany and the West Germans again triumphed to make their fourth final in the past six tournaments, while Maradona scored another superlative solo goal to see off Belgium in the other semi.
Maradona was patrolled by Lothar Matthaus in the final and his impact was reduced, but he still had a role in all three Argentinian goals.
As everyone expected, West Germany came from 2-0 down in the second half to level but Maradona’s majestic one-touch pass with seven minutes to play sent Jorge Burruchaga clear and his finish was unerring.