Argentina v England (1986 FIFA World Cup)

The Hand of God (Spanish: la mano de Dios ) refers to a situation during the Football World Cup 1986, in San Diego Maradona took his hand to help to achieve an irregular target. The expression coined Maradona himself, as he showed no remorse after the game and in front of cameras said: " It was a bit the hand of God and a bit Maradona head " (Spanish: un poco con la cabeza de Maradona y otro poco con la mano de Dios ). Only in 2005 was to Maradona to have played the ball with his hand. In 2008, he apologized for it.

Course

On June 22, 1986 England and Argentina met at the Azteca stadium in Mexico City each other in the quarter- finals of the FIFA World Cup in Mexico.

114 580 spectators, the Argentine captain Diego Maradona in the 51 minutes achieved an irregular target. After a misslungenem double pass attempt Maradona with his teammates Jorge Valdano of England defender Steve Hodge could not clarify the situation and fired the ball high into the air. The ball flew in the direction of his English goalkeeper Peter Shilton. This hurried out of the gate to take the high ball. Likewise jumped Diego Maradona, with only 1.65 meters Height 20 inches shorter than Shilton to the ball and deflected it with his left hand over the goalkeeper into the goal away. Television images showed that Maradona had played the ball with his hand. The protests of the English players at the Tunisian referee Ali Ben Naceur did not help. Ben Naceur had the hand game Maradona's perceived as a header and decided on a regular goal. Bobby Robson, coach of England was, with "It was the hand of a rascal ": quoted (Eng. " it was the hand of a rascal ").

In the same game in which Maradona scored his irregular gate, he made a solo career over a distance of 60 meters to make it 2-0. This gate was chosen in a survey conducted by FIFA internet vote in 2002 to the World Cup Goal of the Century.

England lost the game 2-1 and was eliminated from the tournament. Argentina could beat Germany in the final and for the second time in the history of football world champions.

English- Argentine rivalry

Maradona wrote in his autobiography that he the irregular Gate prefer the acclaimed second gate. "Sometimes I think I'm the gate, which I made with the hand, other prefer ... it was about the same as I would the English steal the wallet. " He continued to write in terms of the Falklands War, that it was " as if you beat a country and not just a football team. Although we have said before the game that it would have nothing to do with the Falklands War, we knew that they had killed a lot of Argentine boys there, they had killed them like little birds. And this was revenge. "

Reception

The term hand of God has become part of football language use and is frequently quoted in unauthorized handball. Thus, the Brazilian striker Luís Fabiano in the Football World Cup 2010 in South Africa scored a goal, in which he took the hand to help. Later he spoke in this context of the " holy hand of God." As the Uruguayan Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz prevented a goal in the last minute of the game Ghana against Uruguay at the 2010 World Cup with a handheld game, he later said "at the end is the hand of God now my ". When the HSV on 7 May 2009 in the UEFA Cup semi-final against Werder Bremen 2:3 lost, was the corner kick that led to the winning goal, caused by a ball of paper that was lying on the pitch and the ball diverted for a corner. Thereupon the Internet, the term created " The Paper Ball of God" in reference to the hand of God. During qualifying for the FIFA World Cup 2010 between Ireland and France, the Frenchman Henry put the ball foul by hand before and scored the game winning goal. The press spoke then - in reference to Maradona's goal - from the " second Hand of God".

More

In the quarter- finals of the Copa América on 17 July 1995 between Brazil and Argentina, the Brazilian player Tulio took the hand to help to score a goal against Argentina. Brazil won the game eventually and some Argentine journalists spoke of the hand of the devil.

Trivia

On the occasion of the election of Argentine Pope Francis on March 13, 2013 made ​​worldwide in numerous newspapers, including the top-selling German newspaper Bild, the Pope waving in conjunction with headlines, in which occurred the " Hand of God"; in allusion to its common nationality with Diego Maradona.