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perceptions had changed that few fears were expressed of a rerun of 1977's ugly confrontation. This time, all the expectarions surrounded

the new wonderboy of Argentinian football

-

l8-year-old Diego

Maradona.

Many had expected Maradona to feature in the \7orld Cup. He had made his international debut in February 1977 when only 16, and had been part of Menotti's squad during the build-up ro the competition. In the end the manager had decided against including him. Menotti claimed that Maradona was neither physically nor emotionally ready for such pressure, his opponents that Menotti was unwilling to share the glory. \Thatever his motive, victory had vindicated him. Argentina had played no matches between their \7orld Cup triumph and their current European tour, which had begun five weeks earlier with a win in Bulgaria. Since then they had drawn in Berne, Rome and Dublin. Sixry-rwo thousand turned up to watch them at Hampden Park, and had a real treat, despite seeing their own team lose. Maradona set up the first of Luquet rwo goals in a 3-1win, and scored the third himself with a breathtaking piece of skill, bemusing a posse of surrounding defenders and goalkeeper lVood with a succession of feints and dummies before cracking the ball just inside the post. Almost a year later he and fugentina were back in Britain, this

time to take on England at 'Wembley. In the Daily Mail Jeff Powell reflected the huge interest in Maradona and the way that attitudes towards Argentina had changed. They were 'worthy champions' he said; they had 'set standards ofsustained attacking football at pace for others around the world to emulate'. The change of attitude, it has to be said, was not readily apparent before the kick-off on 13 May. Perhaps inspired bySAS heroics at the Iranian Embassy siege the previous week, the W'embley crowd was ar its chauvinistic worst, belting out the national anthem as if lives depended on it, and showering the visitors with abuse. But then something extraordinary happened. Maradona picked up rhe ball around the halfway line and set off on a trademark gambeta, slaloming his way through Englandt defence and rolling his shot only inches wide of Clemence's post. A moment of stunned silence was followed by a

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