Maradona later gave contradictory accounts of what had happened. He said at first that he never touched the ball with his fist; then he said he did it by accident; then he attributed the goal to divine intervention, the “hand of God”.
This angered the English.
“Shaken and shameless, Maradona was all mocking innocence, talking about‘ God’s hand, ’” Brian Glanville wrote in his book, The History of the World Cup. “England had more of a devil’s hand.”
Four minutes later, Maradona scored again, eventually scoring 2-1 for Argentina. His second goal was followed by a 70-yard drip through five English players and he passed Shilton to get the ball into an empty goal. He deftly changed direction like a slalom skier hacking from one gate to another.
In his book, “The Easiest Game,” Paul Gardner described the run as “10 seconds of pure, unimaginable soccer skill to score one of the greatest goals in World Cup history”.
In the 1986 final, Maradona’s pass in the middle of the West German defense set the winning goal with Argentina’s 3-2 victory. “In the history of the World Cup, no player has dominated the way Maradona ruled over Mexico-86,” Gardner wrote.
Maradona threatened to lead the 1990 World Cup – gathering a loose ball, fainting around a defender, and passing through a dense bench to help with a single goal in the quarterfinals against Brazil. In the semi-finals against Italy, the host team, Maradona scored a penalty kick that brought Argentina forward when they won the shootout.
It was Maradona in its glory. The match was played in the angry port city of Naples, where Maradona played professional games and led two titles to Napoli in the Italian League. He boldly asked the fans there to comfort Argentina over Italy.
