The hype made it seem like we were going to play out another war. But in reality, England was winning 20–0.
They told us that we were winning the war.
In the 2019 documentary film Diego Maradona directed by Asif Kapadia, Maradona links the event to the Falklands War four years earlier, saying "e, as Argentinians, didn't know what the military was up to. In the original text of the interview, it could be seen that Maradona had never asked for forgiveness for the goal from the Hand of God.įalklands War and "symbolic revenge" A los cuarenta y siete años me parece que pedirles disculpas a los ingleses es una estupidez.») Ī few days later, The Sun newspaper confirmed that it had modified the interpretation of Maradona's words and asked to change the name to The Devil's Hand. ¿Para qué? ¿Para ganarme a quién? Lo que más me jode es que se hacen eco en Argentina y hacen hablar a. Aparte no tengo que pedir perdón yendo a hacer una nota a Inglaterra. Yo nunca le pedí perdón absolutamente a nadie. Así que la historia ya está escrita, ya no la puede cambiar nada ni nadie. Hablé solamente de que la historia no se podía cambiar, de que yo no tengo por qué pedirle disculpas a nadie, porque fue un partido de fútbol en el que había cien mil personas en el Azteca, veintidós jugadores, que había dos líneas, que había un árbitro, que Shilton «el arquerazo ese» sale a hablar ahora y él no se había dado cuenta, se lo tuvieron que decir los defensores. At forty-seven I think that apologizing to the English is stupid." For what? To please who? What pisses me off the most is that they repeat this in Argentina and talk to people who know me. Besides, I don't have to apologize by making a statement to England. So the story is already written, nothing can change it. I said only that the story could not be changed, that I do not have to apologize to anyone, because it was a football game in which there were 100,000 people in the Azteca stadium, twenty-two players, that there were two linesmen, that there was one referee, that Shilton (the goalkeeper) speaks up now and he hadn't noticed, the defenders had to tell him.
Illustrated sequence of the move of the "Hand of God" goal ¿Qué mano de Dios? ¡fue la mano del Diego!") ("Ahora sí puedo contar lo que en aquel momento no podía, lo que en aquel momento definí como «La mano de Dios». What hand of God? It was the hand of Diego! Now I can say what I couldn't at that moment, what I defined at that time as The Hand of God. Mexican photographer Alejandro Ojeda Carbajal immortalized this moment in a photograph in which Maradona can be seen hitting the ball with his hand. Tunisian referee Ali Bennaceur gave the goal, but after the English players' protests he sought the advice of his second linesman who confirmed the goal. He then fully celebrated the goal when it was given. Maradona began to celebrate while glancing sideways at the referee and the linesman for confirmation. Maradona's fist, which was raised close to his head, touched the ball first and hit the ball into England's goal. Shilton jumped forward with his right hand, while Maradona did so with his left arm outstretched. Alone inside the penalty box and with the ball dropping down, Maradona contested the ball with goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who stood 20 centimetres (8 inches) taller than Maradona. Valdano tried to take on several English defenders, but the ball was intercepted and thrown back and forth and eventually cleared towards England's goal by English midfielder Steve Hodge.īecause of the position of the players, Maradona would have been caught offside, but as the ball came off an opponent, he was onside. Six minutes into the second half of the game, Maradona took the ball out of the box with his left leg and passed it to teammate Jorge Valdano. The moment when Diego Maradona flicks the ball with the hand past the outstretched arm of Peter ShiltonĪt the end of the first half, while the game was still tied at 0-0, Maradona was beginning to influence the end outcome of the match.