40 years since the famous Argentina vs England clash: 'I wish the match had never ended'

A match doesn't just last the 90-plus minutes the ball is on the pitch - handling it the right way becomes crucial. There are before-and-after moments that make a football event unforgettable, especially when it goes beyond sport.

England and Argentina experienced this firsthand, both in body and soul, on June 22nd, 1986, when Diego Armando Maradona became a legend by scoring, in just five minutes, both the most controversial and the most beautiful goal in World Cup history.

40 years on, retracing what happened on that sweltering midday, full of huge expectations, goes beyond technical aspects. On the pitch were the team of the future top scorer, Gary Lineker, and the greatest player of all, both of whom ended up on the scoresheet that day.

Yet, what happened was clearly influenced by circumstances that a few telephoto lenses caught. "The Hand of God," which opened the scoring shortly after the start of the second half, and those images would only be developed later.

The emotional charge was immense, since just four years earlier, the South American country had sent the Pibes de las Malvinas, 20-year-old boys or barely older, to die at the hands of the then military dictatorship.

The goal - or rather, the impossible feat - was to conquer the islands known to the British as the Falklands, in order to gain popular support for a regime already in decline. It was a total suicide, whose historical consequences were skillfully used by Maradona to instil in his teammates the bitterness needed to take the field and seek sporting revenge for a real massacre.

Blame the linesman...

In an era without VAR or even goal-line technology, the Argentine number 10 used the art of South American cunning, beating the British goalkeeper Peter Shilton to the ball with his fist, then celebrating to convince everyone - including his own teammates - of the legitimacy of his action. Even the referee was completely fooled.

Appointed by FIFA to officiate the match, since neither a European nor a South American could take charge, Tunisian Alí Bennacer was chosen also for his ability to handle major physical demands. 

From his native Tunis, where I managed to meet him, he recalls: "I had been a long-distance runner and even a marathoner, so I was more than prepared for the effort. And I had already refereed the Africa Cup final between Cameroon and Egypt in 1984, so I had the right credentials for the occasion."

The English anger, more than justified, stemmed from the alleged negligence of those who were supposed to ensure the game was played fairly.

... and an Englishman

Bennacer, however, explains himself this way: "I didn't see the handball goal, I was confused by Shilton's hand, which blocked my view of Diego's, but the Bulgarian linesman Dotchev had a better angle than I did and told me it was a regular play, so I applied the rules exactly as FIFA had instructed us before the World Cup."

The North African referee also recalls that the conduct guidelines for the tournament were given by an Englishman: "I think his name was Walton."

At the end of the match, after Argentina's triumph, the English players came to congratulate him for how he handled the game, but showed no mercy to the Bulgarian linesman, who, according to many, "should have been beheaded," Bennacer recalls, using the French word degorge. 

Whistle in mouth

The best was yet to come. A mystical aura had settled over the Azteca, where the shadow of the loudspeakers seemed to cast the sun itself onto the pitch. And it was around that star that Maradona performed the most memorable, on-the-run tango of the World Cup, ending his romantic and breathtaking run by sending the ball into the empty net after leaving six opponents behind.

"I was amazed by what I was seeing, and I tried to keep up but was mesmerised," says Bennacer.

The referee then admits he was out of breath also because "I already had the whistle in my mouth because I expected someone would bring him down somehow, but they just couldn't."

The impact of the play swept through the entire stadium, even stopping one of the many brawls between ultras of the two teams in the stands. 

Five minutes

History had been written twice, becoming legend. The sun shone brightly over Mexico City, blessing what had happened. And in the final minutes, after Lineker's 2-1 goal, the Argentinians suffered to bring home the most emotional battle.

Bennacer's memory, who would meet Maradona again almost thirty years later, helps him recall a unique feeling: "I wish England had equalised and the match had gone to extra time, because I didn't want that spectacle to end."

The eternity of those five minutes will probably remain unique in World Cup history. Lineker's goal and the back-of-the-head clearance by Julio Olarticoechaga that denied England's equaliser at the end would go down as secondary events.

In just a few ticks of the clock, all of Maradona's essence - both rogue and genius- was on display. And years later, in Tunisia for a promotional event, he would meet Bennacer again and give him an Argentina jersey on which he wrote: "For Alí, my eternal friend." Better late than never.