LONDON: The FBI has described England’s semi-final with Argentina in Atlanta on Wednesday night as the highest-risk match because of the fierce and enduring rivalry between the two sides.Forty years ago, when Argentina beat England 2-1 in the quarter-finals of Mexico ’86 at the Azteca Stadium, the English were incensed. “I cheated,” England goalkeeper Peter Shilton said. “I have shown no remorse.”Argentina’s first goal, scored by Diego Maradona, came when he punched the ball past Shilton into the net with his fist. Despite England’s protests, the referee said he didn’t see it and allowed it. Minutes later, Maradona scored the greatest World Cup goal of all time. Argentina would go on to lift the World Cup, and Maradona would describe his first goal in England as “the hand of God”.Maradona later admitted in his autobiography that he did use his hand and said it was “a sort of symbolic revenge against the English” for the 1982 Falklands War, in which 649 Argentines and 255 British troops died. Of the Argentines killed, 323 were aboard the ARA Belgrano, the Argentine naval ship, when UK PM Margaret Thatcher authorized its sinking.“All I wanted to do was honor the memory of the dead,” Maradona said. “To wipe England off the world map – the world football map, that is.”On Wednesday, Maradona’s son Diego Sinagara urged fans to remember those who died, telling Spanish newspaper Marca: “For all Argentinians and Maradona fans, it will be a different kind of match, one that brings to mind everything related to the Malvinas (Falklands War) and all our brothers who died here…”Last week, Argentina’s national soccer team released a video showing players celebrating in their dressing room with Argentina’s World Cup fan anthem, La Cuarta Estrella, which includes the lyrics: “I’m Argentine from the cradle to the grave, for the Malvinas, for Diego.”“Las Malvinas” is the Argentine name for the Falkland Islands. This week, Argentina’s foreign minister, Pablo Quirrno, called the Falklands an “artificially implanted” population in an essay in the Argentine newspaper La Nacion, demanding that Britain enter into talks to hand over the territory. I stated that the 2013 referendum was illegitimate.The official spokesman for the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom replied: “The Falkland Islanders are British with the right to determine their future. The position of the United Kingdom is clear. The islanders have repeatedly expressed their desire to remain a British overseas territory.”This bitter rivalry, however, extends even before the Falklands War. In 1966, when the two sides met in the quarter-finals of the World Cup at Wembley, the Argentine players used violent tackles, spitting, hair-pulling and severe intimidation tactics. England manager Alf Ramsey famously “petted” and Argentina captain Antonio Rattin, who died at the weekend, was sent off for dissent over the dispute with the referee. The police had to be called to remove him from the field.The two sides met in France ’98 when David Beckham was shown a red card for a tackle on Argentine midfielder Diego Simeone. Simeone later admitted that he had done everything possible to provoke the English midfielder. England lost on penalties. “The English players are more naive. We are looking for ways to destroy them,” former Argentina captain Roberto Perfumo told the Guardian in 2002.While Argentine football culture seemed to be all about stoking anti-English sentiment, football was ironically introduced to Argentina in 1867 by the Hogg brothers who were Englishmen from Skelton, Yorkshire.Pubs across Britain are decked out for the biggest night of the year with flags at the ready. England fans are confident that England can win. They also see the match as revenge for Maradona’s “Hand of God”.