{"id":146901,"date":"2026-07-15T15:02:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/hand-of-god-argentina-and-england-clash-again-with-everything-on-the-line\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T15:02:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:02:50","slug":"hand-of-god-argentina-and-england-clash-again-with-everything-on-the-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/hand-of-god-argentina-and-england-clash-again-with-everything-on-the-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Hand of god: Argentina and England clash again with everything on the line"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Forty years ago in Mexico City, Diego Maradona punched a ball past England\u2019s goalkeeper and changed the course of a rivalry forever.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Argentina and England will step onto the pitch in Atlanta carrying that history with them, this time with a place in the World Cup final at stake.<\/p>\n<p>The two nations haven\u2019t met at a World Cup since a low-key group-stage match in 2002, but the shadow of 1986 has never fully lifted.<\/p>\n<p>That quarterfinal, played just four years after the Falklands War, produced two of the most talked-about goals in the sport\u2019s history: the illegal handball Maradona later credited to \u201cthe hand of God,\u201d and, minutes later, a mesmerizing 60-yard solo run still considered one of the greatest goals ever scored. Argentina won 2-1 and went on to lift the trophy.<\/p>\n\n<p>This time, the stakes are just as high but the storylines have shifted. Lionel Messi, playing what may be his final World Cup match, leads an Argentina side chasing back-to-back titles.<\/p>\n<p>Across from him, Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane are driving an England team hoping to reach just its second-ever World Cup final, and first since 1966.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no controversy hanging over this one yet, no handball to relitigate. But the weight of history still sits over Mercedes-Benz Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>For Argentine fans, beating England again would be another chapter in a story that started with defiance. For England, a win would mean finally putting one of football\u2019s oldest grudges to rest, on the pitch, in a fair fight.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever happens, one thing is certain: this fixture was never just about football, and forty years on, it still isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kbc.co.ke\/hand-of-god-argentina-and-england-clash-again-with-everything-on-the-line\/\">Hand of god: Argentina and England clash again with everything on the line<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kbc.co.ke\/\">KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forty years ago in Mexico City, Diego Maradona punched a ball past England\u2019s goalkeeper and changed the course of a rivalry forever.\u00a0 Argentina and England will step onto the pitch in Atlanta carrying that history with them, this time with a place in the World Cup final at stake. The two nations haven\u2019t met at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}