LONDON: The FBI has labeled England’s semifinal with Argentina in Atlanta on Wednesday night as the highest-risk match because of the fierce and enduring rivalry between the two sides.Forty years ago when Argentina defeated England 2-1 in the quarterfinal of Mexico’86 at the Azteca Stadium, the English were furious. “He cheated,” England goalkeeper Peter Shilton said. “He didn’t show any remorse.”Argentina’s first goal, scored by Diego Maradona, came when he punched Shilton’s ball into the net with his fist. Despite England’s protests, the referee admitted he didn’t see it and allowed it. Minutes later, Maradona scored the greatest World Cup goal of all time. Argentina later went on to lift the World Cup, and Maradona described his first goal in England as “the hand of God”.Maradona later admitted in his autobiography that he actually used his hand and said it was “a kind of symbolic revenge against the English” for the 1982 Falklands War, in which 649 Argentinian and 255 British troops died. Of the Argentinians killed, 323 were aboard the ARA Belgrano, the Argentine naval ship, when UK PM Margaret Thatcher authorized its sinking.“What I want to do is honor the memory of the dead,” Maradona said. “To wipe England off the world map – the world football map, that is.”On Wednesday, Maradona’s son, Diego Sinagara, urged fans to remember the dead, told Spanish newspaper Marca. “For all Argentinian and Maradona fans, this is a different kind of game, one that reminds everyone about the Malvinas (Falklands War) and all our brothers who died there…Last week the Argentina national football team released a video showing the players celebrating in their dressing room with Argentina’s World Cup fan anthem La Cuarta Estrella, which included the lyrics. “I am an Argentine from the cradle to the grave, for the Malvinas, for Diego.”“Las Malvinas” is the Argentine name for the Falkland Islands. This week Argentina’s foreign minister Pablo Quirrno called the Falklands Islanders an “artificially planted” population in an essay in Argentina’s La Nacion newspaper, asking Britain to enter talks to hand over the territory. He admitted that the 2013 referendum was illegitimate.The UK Prime Minister’s official spokesperson responded. “The Falkland Islanders are British with the right to determine their future. The UK’s position is clear. The islanders have repeatedly expressed their desire to remain a British overseas territory.”This bitter rivalry, however, continued even before the Falklands War. In 1966, when the two sides met in the quarterfinals of the World Cup at Wembley, Argentina’s players used violent tackles, spitting, hair-pulling, and extreme intimidation tactics. England manager Alf Ramsey famously called them “animals” and Argentina captain Antonio Rattin, who died at the weekend, was sent off for dissent over an argument with the referee. The police had to be called to remove him from the pitch.The two sides met in France ’98 when David Beckham was shown a red card for kicking Argentina midfielder Diego Simeone. Simeone later admitted that he did everything possible to challenge the England midfielder. England lost on penalties. “The English players are more useless. We are looking for ways to destroy him,” Roberto Perfumo, a former Argentina captain, told the Guardian in 2002.While Argentinian football culture appears to be all about stoking anti-English sentiment, football was ironically introduced to Argentina in 1867 by the Hogg brothers who were Englishmen from Skelton, Yorkshire.Pubs across Britain are decked out for the biggest night of the year with flags at the ready. England fans are confident that England will win. They also saw the game as revenge for Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’.