1986 World Cup Mexico

The 1986 Football World Cup was held in Mexico making them the first country to host the World Cup twice, having hosted it only 16 years earlier.  Originally the tournament was to have been hosted by  Colombia, but in 1982 the Colombian authorities announced that they could not afford to host the event.

There was another change in competition format although the first round remained the same with the 24 teams divided into six groups of four.  This time the second round was replaced by a knockout competition, for which 16 teams - six group winners, six second place finishers, and four best third place finishers - would qualify.

The tournament was notable for several events: the Portuguese national team went on strike and players refused to train between  games and were surprisingly eliminated by Morocco. Both Iraq and Canada took part for the first time in the tournament, both sides being dismissed from group play with three losses.  Jose Batista of Uruguay was sent off after less than a minute against Scotland - a record that still stands in World Cup finals.

Diego Maradona was the player of the tournament and captained Argentina to the title.  His most famous performance was during the quarter final victory over England.  He scored both goals for Argentina, on a fantastic goal where he dribbled half the length of the pitch past most of the England team to score, the other the controversial "hand of God" goal where hi used his hand to score but the referee did not see this.  The match was given extra spice by the fact that the two nations had fought a war over the Falkland Islands only four years previously.

Germany defeated France in the semi-final for the second World Cup in a row only to lose the final for the second consecutive time.

Argentina triumphed 3-2 in a close fought final against West Germany in front of a massive crowd of nearly 115,000 in the Azteca stadium in Mexico City.

Top Scorer

6 Goals - Gary Lineker (England)

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