The Story of Argentina in The World Cup Part 4

We continue our story about the last crowning of the Argentina national team in the World Cup, in 1986 in the tournament hosted by Mexico.

After we mentioned a previous topic, Argentina's path from the championship to the quarterfinals, here we are, reaching the semi-finals.

The Semi-final Match

On 25 July 1986, the Azteca Stadium in the Mexican capital, Mexico City, hosted the 1986 World Cup semi-final match between Argentina and Belgium, with an attendance of more than 100,000 spectators.

at the 51st minute of the match, the legend Maradona opened the scoring, taking advantage of a mistake in positioning from the Belgian team's defense, and at the 68th minute, and in his own way, Maradona alone manipulated the Belgium defenders and scored the second goal, announcing Argentina's qualification to the World Cup final at the time.

The Final Match

On July 29, 1986, the Azteca Stadium in the Mexican capital, Mexico City, hosted the final match, which brought together the teams of Argentina and West Germany, with an attendance of more than 100,000 spectators.

In the 23rd minute, Jose Luis Browne opened the scoring for Argentina with an elegant header.

The West German team then rushed to score the equalizing goal, leaving many gaps in its defense, one of which Jorge Valdano took advantage of and faced the goalkeeper head-on, shooting the ball into the right corner, scoring the second goal for Argentina.

Despite the 2-0 delay, and as usual, Germany did not give up, but dominated the match and had many chances before Karl-Hans Rummenigge managed to score a goal to reduce the difference in the 74th minute, as he fired the ball from the door of the goal, taking advantage of a fatal mistake in the coverage of Argentina defense.

Thus, the Germans' spirits raised up, and they increased their pressure on the Argentina goal so that Rudi Voller scored the equalizer in the 80th minute after a ball raised from a corner kick caused confusion in the Argentine defense before it reached Voller, who shot it with full force into the net.

From a counterattack and an elaborate pass from the legend Maradona, Jorge Burruchaga put it in complete isolation with the goalkeeper, so Burruchaga scored the third goal for Argentina in the 83rd minute.

The match ended 3-2 in favor of Argentina. Thus, the Argentine national team won its second World Cup title (the two crowns were inside South America).

In a tournament considered by many to be Maradona's championship, due to his great contribution to Argentina's victory in the world title.

Despite that, Englishman Gary Lineker was crowned top scorer for the tournament with 6 goals, followed by Maradona, Brazilian Carica, and Spain's Emilio Butragueño with 5 goals.