It has taken Peter Shilton years to come to terms with it. Peter Reid gets asked about it most days. Terry Butcher’s route through the pain is driven by dark humour.
Mexico 1986. Diego Maradona and all that. After the 1966 World Cup final, it’s probably the most famous date in English football history, just with completely different connotations.
Four minutes is all it took. Four minutes to turn a rather slow and drab World Cup quarter-final into something remembered, talked about and dissected throughout the decades that have followed.
Maradona scored twice for Argentina, in minutes 51 and 54. Once with his hand – raised high above the challenge of England goalkeeper Shilton – and once with his right foot, the ball passed in to the net at the end of a slaloming run from his own half that left England defensive players – Reid and Butcher among them – fallen and broken in his wake.
More than 115,000 were in the Azteca Stadium that day. Those dressed in white on the field have never been allowed to forget it.
‘We lost because of Maradona’s brilliance and his cheating,’ says Reid now.
‘I still get stick today for not being able to catch him for the second but he went past five other players. My chest felt like it was going to explode in the Azteca that day, such were the conditions with heat and altitude.’
Diego Maradona scored his infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal against England at the Azteca in 1986
Peter Shilton was England’s goalkeeper on the day. He recalls how tough the conditions were as England prepare to face Mexico at the same venue
Despite concerns over the weather, Thomas Tuchel’s England should be spared the cheating in the early hours of tomorrow morning when they return to the same stadium to face World Cup co-hosts Mexico. VAR is starting to have an increasingly busy tournament at World Cup 2026.
But Mexico have lost only twice in 89 competitive matches in their national stadium and are yet to concede a goal in this tournament. England will face a team emboldened by fanatical support in an altitudinous environment in which they have had no time to prepare.
Sir Bobby Robson’s England had been in Mexico for weeks before the tournament started in 1986. Tuchel’s players – required to play only once outside the USA in their time at this World Cup – have had no such luxury. By the time kick-off arrives at 6pm local time, England will have been at altitude for less than two days.
‘We had to go over for a month before the tournament to acclimatise,’ Shilton tells Daily Mail Sport.
‘How it’s going to be for the players now just going over there and going straight into it…I don’t know.
‘England had their first game [and the last 32 win over DR Congo] in a stadium which was air-conditioned.
‘But when you get out in those Mexico conditions, it’s going to be a totally different scenario for them.
‘I think they’ve just got to go out there and be mentally strong.
‘The biggest thing about playing in altitude for a goalkeeper is that the ball moves through the air faster.
‘Shots from 30 yards are like shots from 20 yards. So that’s another thing.’
England’s arrival in Mexico this time round has been planned to minimise the effects of suddenly being 7,350 feet above sea level. For reference, that’s more than twice the height of England’s highest mountain, Scafell Pike, which sits at just 3,209 feet.
Without a doubt it will impact on how they approach this game. Tuchel has often said he wishes his England side to play with the intensity of a Premier League team. That will not be possible for 90 minutes on this occasion.
Watching the 1986 game back, it is noticeable how slow the football is. Shilton says the game was played in a poor surface – ‘not good enough for a top stadium’ – but that is not the only reason.
The first half of a game eventually won by Argentina 2-1 and played just four years after the end of the Falklands War was frankly dreadful but two things of note occurred.
Maradona also netted one of the best goals ever scored at a World Cup during the same ‘Hand of God’ game
Firstly, Terry Fenwick – Butcher’s partner at centre half – was booked for an early foul on Maradona. It meant the Tottenham player was on a knife-edge from that point on. Secondly, Argentina’s superstar was forced to leave the field with an injury for seven minutes only to come back on.
Maradona – described by England substitute John Barnes as the ‘best player I ever saw close up’ – was not only extraordinarily gifted but stubborn and brave too.
‘This guy ruined my international career over 90 minutes,’ said Fenwick after Maradona’s death six years ago.
‘But it was not for 20-odd years did I sit down and realise I’d played against the best player there’s ever been.
‘It wasn’t just Terry Fenwick. This guy slaughtered teams wherever he went.
‘I belted him two or three times. I thought: ‘That’s him done’.
‘But when I turned round he was warming up to come back on. He was built like you wouldn’t believe. He was a pit bull and he came back for more all the time.
‘I tried to intimidate him but he was always there. I didn’t say two words to him but he was chatting to me from start to finish.
‘That was the confidence of the man. He knew he was better than the rest.’
Argentina won that World Cup in 1986. For England, it was a near miss. Robson had a good team with him that summer. It had Peter Beardsley, Glenn Hoddle and Gary Lineker in it while Reid was a European Cup Winner’s Cup winner and league champion with Everton.
Former Tottenham manager David Pleat, ITV’s co-commentator on the night, believes to this day that a chance was missed.
‘We had world class players in Shilton, Butcher, Hoddle and Lineker,’ Pleat tells us now.
‘Wingers John Barnes and Chris Waddle started on the bench. Maybe we were short of legs in midfield.
‘The Azteca was ablaze with colour. The heat was searing and a there was a continual humming and buzzing from the crowd. It was like a nest of bees.
‘The traffic in Mexico City was the worst I’ve ever known. Police approached at the traffic lights asking to see documents and looking for reasons to demand money.
‘Anticipation was intense and our hopes for the game were high.
‘Did Maradona handle it on purpose? I’ve always believed he was expecting a challenge and, fearful of getting hurt, put his arm up to protect himself.
‘Maradona was never going to admit it but he looked sheepish. For sure England were cheated.
‘Bobby Robson was one of the great gentlemen of the game he lost his temper afterwards.
‘Pristine in his suit, he was still agitated and angry when he faced the cameras.’
Lineker scored an 81st minute goal from a Barnes cross to prompt a late charge from England. Several minutes later, he almost did it again as Barnes delivered deep to the far post in almost identical fashion.
Gary Lineker scored scored an 81st minute goal in England’s defeat by Argentina 40 years ago
Peter Reid says he felt like his chest was going to explode because of the heat and altitude
Once seeing on Twitter that someone had asked why he didn’t make contact with that one, Lineker was quick to reply that he actually had. The footage does indeed show the ball somehow rebounding off the head of Argentina defender Julio Olarticoechea.
Afterwards, it was unpleasant in the tunnel. Butcher – another European winner at the peak of his formidable powers and on the verge of joining Rangers – went after Maradona.
‘They were singing about the ‘Malvinas’ (the Falklands) and Terry wanted to box a few,’ recalls Reid.
‘There was a bit of fisticuffs before security bundled us all into the dressing rooms.’
England knew they had been robbed and the truth is that the memory has never really faded. It took a promotional visit to Argentina some years ago for Shilton to accept it and move on. People were kind to him and it left a mark.
Asked to meet Maradona for a TV appearance, he refused. Frankly he suspected a trap. Maradona passed away in 2020 without the two men ever exchanging a word.
Reid – a more phlegmatic character – adds: ‘I met Diego, a couple of times over the years.
‘Once in Abu Dhabi I got criticised for kissing his hand when I wanted to try and bite it.
‘He didn’t speak English, so I said to the interpreter: ‘Tell him he’s a cheat’. He just came back with: ‘Reid, you were always very slow’.
‘He did sign a few shirts for me though. One said: ‘To my mate, Peter’.
‘I’m not sure I’d sell that one… unless someone’s got a spare £7m.
Reid’s reference is to team-mate Steve Hodge’s decision to sell Maradona’s shirt – swapped in the tunnel of the Azteca after the game – at auction. It raised £7.1m four years ago.
Later that same year, the match ball was also presented at auction. This week in Dallas it was due to sold off again.
‘It’s nice to be in the same room as it,’ said Butcher after being invited to the first event in London.
‘During that game, we only touched it about five times.’
