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Old rivals, new battle: Argentina and England clash in World Cup Semifinal
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Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics From 1986 to today: Argentina and England’s epic rivalry Old rivals. New stakes. A World Cup final spot on the line. Argentina vs. England. Special Series Soccer Edition Follow the World Cup in the NPR App Find Your Station Sign up for Up First for Soccer Edition on Tuesdays The 2026 FIFA World Cup is from June 11 to July 19, 2026. Sixteen host cities across North America, including Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Kansas City, Miami, and New York/New Jersey in the United States. The NPR Network will have coverage from across the country leading up to and during the championship. Old rivals, new battle: Argentina and England clash in World Cup Semifinal Updated July 15, 202610:34 AM ET Originally published July 15, 202610:05 AM ET By
Natalie Alcoba
England and Argentina fans sit side by side during the FIFA World Cup match in Sapporo, Japan, on June 7, 2002. England won 1-0. The old rivals meet again this year in a World Cup semifinal showdown. Stu Forster/Getty Images Europe hide caption
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Football — or soccer as it's known in the U.S. — is more than a game, and the World Cup is more than a tournament.
This truism rings clear in the semifinal match between the reigning World Cup champions Argentina and England, a storied rivalry that comes to life today in Atlanta.
Despite Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni's message to fans that it is "a football game, period," the South American nation is vibrating with anticipation of the faceoff that is steeped in geopolitics and historical reckoning.
"I'm very anxious and nervous, but more than anything, I have a lot of faith," said Pablo Medina, 29, Tuesday night in Buenos Aires, on his way into the screening of a new documentary about the other famous World Cup match-up between the two nations, in 1986.
Moviegoers and football fans have been flocking to cinemas in Argentina to see El Partido ("The Game"), a documentary about the 1986 World Cup quarter-final against England, where Diego Maradona's infamous "Hand of God" goal helped secure victory and cemented his place as a football legend.
Four minutes later, Maradona dazzled the crowd with what is known as the goal of the century, dribbling past five English players to help Argentina clinch victory.
Argentina's Diego Maradona scores his infamous "Hand of God" goal over England goalkeeper Peter Shilton during the 1986 FIFA World Cup quarter-final at Mexico City's Azteca Stadium on June 22, 1986, as England defenders Kenny Sansom (top), Gary Stevens (center), and Terry Fenwick look on. Getty Images/Getty Images/Getty/Hulton Archive hide caption
While the match is celebrated in Argentina, it continues to evoke the trauma of one of England's most agonizing World Cup defeats.
"In that match we weren't just playing football, we were playing for everything that had happened with the Malvinas war," Maradona said years later.
It's a sentiment that persists today.
"More than anything, it's about the resentment we have towards the English — not the majority of the English, but they stole our land, and it's a huge lack of respect for us," said Franco Guido, 14, in the movie theater.
Argentine media reported that U.S. officials have deemed today's game in Atlanta to be "high risk" and have banned fans inside the Mercedes-Benz Stadium from displaying signs or shirts that mention the Malvinas.
The Falkland Islands are officially a British Overseas Territory, since a British naval force expelled an Argentine garrison in 1833, an act Argentina considers illegal.
In 1982, Argentina's deeply unpopular military dictatorship sent thousands of soldiers to assume control of the Falklands. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher responded by dispatching a fleet of warships to the South Atlantic Ocean. Some 649 Argentines, 255 Britons and three Falkland islanders died in the war that ended with Argentina's surrender.
The Argentine government continues to lay a constitutional, historical and diplomatic claim to the Falklands. It is also central to the Argentine identity. It is taught at school, is the subject of countless memorials and signs that say "the Malvinas are Argentine" are hung in shops or pasted to city buses.
In the hours before Argentina's quarterfinal victory over Switzerland, Argentine foreign minister Pablo Quirno wrote on X: "Malvinas: the strength of a just cause. By history, right and conviction, the Malvinas are Argentine."
Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, responded in the same medium: "This matter was decisively settled in 1982 with your emphatic defeat. Don't try it again."
England have won three of the five previous World Cup meetings, Argentina have won two. The Argentine squad, led by superstar Lionel Messi, will be wearing its dark blue "away" jersey in Atlanta — an homage to the dark blue jersey worn by Diego Maradona's side in its famous 1986 World Cup victory over England.
As she waited to see the documentary about that game, Florencia Wolf, 26, a political scientist, reflected on the symbolic meaning of Wednesday's semifinals. But she said it's important to separate the game from the conflict.
"There are a lot of people who died there. There is so much to discuss and grieve from that war for me; we shouldn't mix both things," she said. "In theory," she added. "In practice, of course, everything is mixed."
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− For Argentines, it was much more than a game, coming just a few years after a 74-day war over a disputed archipelago off the southern tip of Argentina known in Britain as the Falklands Islands and in Argentina as las Islas Malvinas.
+ For Argentines, it was much more than a game, coming just a few years after a 74-day war over a disputed archipelago off the southern tip of Argentina known in Britain as the Falkland Islands and in Argentina as las Islas Malvinas.