Argentina lost this year's World Cup final to Spain (0–1 after extra time), but the semi-final comeback against England (2–1) four days earlier is described by the country's federation as a "great and historic" victory.
After reaching the final, the Argentine players celebrated the win over arch-rivals England by unfurling a banner reading "The Falkland Islands are Argentine," alluding to the 1982 Falklands War.
It was not the first tense football encounter between the nations. Four years after the war, Argentina won the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico - a match in which Diego Maradona first scored with the help of the “Hand of God” and then scored a spectacular winning goal after dribbling past several English players.
