Leading Argentina to a World Cup win over England is the one thing Lionel Messi's magical career is missing as he aims to emulate Diego Maradona

Lionel Scaloni moved quickly to try to downplay the significance of Argentina's opponents in Wednesday's semi-final.

"This is just a football game, OK?" the Albiceleste boss said. "That’s what I can say. It is a football game and we will be playing against a very tough opponent with an excellent coach. And this is a football game. That is all."

And he's right, in a way, but only in the sense that there will be one ball and 22 players on the pitch. Because Argentina-England is not just any football game.

As midfielder Jose Manuel Lopez said after the 3-1 win over Switzerland, "From an off-the-pitch perspective, it's a match-up with a lot of history with a lot of pain and a lot of history behind it."

England and Argentina's World Cup rivalry dates back to 1962, but the tension between the two has its roots in their second meeting four years later, when Three Lions coach Alf Ramsey labelled his team's opponents "animals" after an ill-tempered encounter at Wembley that the hosts won thanks to a contentious goal from Geoff Hurst.

Younger fans will obviously remember David Beckham's dismissal at France '98 - and his subsequent redemption in Japan and South Korea. But it doesn't really matter when you were born, the mere mention of England and Argentina in a footballing context immediately conjures up images of their epic 1986 World Cup quarter-final in Mexico, the most iconic and controversial clash in the tournament's history.

As Messi said himself, "Everything I have seen and remember [about that game] is from videos and images that Argentinians constantly watch and relive." And Maradona is the reason why.

While pondering his enduring popularity in his autobiography, 'Touched by God', Maradona wrote, "There are still 10-year-old kids out there today with my name on their backs. And that kind of insanity can only be explained by one goal. Or maybe two..." There's never been any 'maybe' about it.

On June 22, 1986, Maradona scored two goals that illustrated precisely why he remains the most polarising player in football history. In the 51st minute of the game at the Azteca, Maradona used his hand to flick the ball past the onrushing England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, and into the back of the net.

"We all saw it," former Liverpool winger John Barnes told GOAL. "All of us on the bench – the players, the coaches, the manager – we all saw it clear as day. We all knew he'd handled the ball, but I don't blame Maradona. I blame the referee and the officials for not seeing it. I never had anything against Maradona. He was the best player in the world. And I was just watching everything he did.

"Of course, I was following the game and cheering us on. But I even watched him warm-up. Watching the best player in the world – possibly the best ever – going through his repertoire was a thrill.

"And, you know what, his second goal wasn't bad, was it?" It certainly wasn't.

If anything, Maradona's second goal against England remains the greatest individual effort in football history, with the No.10 sliding the ball home after slaloming his way past five players, including Shilton, with 11 touches in just 11 seconds.

"At first, I went along with him," fellow forward Jorge Valdano later revealed, "but then I realised I was just another spectator. It was his goal and had nothing to do with the team. It was Diego’s personal adventure, one that was totally spectacular." Indeed, Valdano would later compare Maradona's journey to that of Ulysses

"The same descriptions applied to the hero of the Odyssey: sagacious, cunning, astute, shrewd, artful, crafty, deceitful, tricky," Valdano wrote in The Guardian. "Diego’s football was built on beauty, creativity, pride and bravery and, that afternoon against England, upon a deep feeling for Argentina too, as well as on his talent and awareness.

"Diego scored a goal that was stratospheric and another in which he cheated. And that is the best example of a phrase that gets used so often and in moments less appropriate than this: he was above good and evil."

Not a lot of Englishmen saw it the same way. The nature of the game's opening goal in Mexico City meant that the game was shrouded in controversy, particularly as England managed to halve their deficit in the closing stages, with Gary Lineker heading home a cross from Barnes. Bobby Robson and his players understandably felt that they wouldn't have lost had Maradona not cheated.

As a result, their sense of outrage was only exacerbated by the culprit effectively claiming divine intervention by saying he'd scored "a little with the head of Maradona" and "a little with the Hand of God". An irate Shilton was also upset by the politicisation of Argentina's win.

The quarter-final was played just four years after the Falklands War, which Argentina and the United Kingdom had fought over two British-dependent territories in the South Atlantic. Maradona insisted in the build-up that the game was "only about football", but both Valdano and England counterpart Lineker subsequently admitted that it was impossible for both sets of players to ignore the bitter backdrop.

Maradona also later confessed in Asif Kapadia's documentary that beating England was "a beautiful feeling, a type of symbolic revenge over the English" for the loss of las Malvinas. He has also claimed that he told his team-mates that he felt no shame about the deceitful nature of 'The Hand of God'.

"I said to them: 'Those who steal from a thief are entitled to 100 years of forgiveness'," he explained on his TV show 'La Noche del 10'. "And the English had done a lot of things to us..."

Wednesday's game in Atlanta won't be anything like as politically-charged as the 1986 quarter-final, but Argentina's players danced around their dressing room in Kansas City on Saturday, they vowed to beat England "For the Malvinas, for Diego and for Leo's last [World Cup]!"

Consequently, another tight, tense and fiercely competitive clash is guaranteed, particularly as the match is of the utmost sporting significance for England. The Three Lions haven't reached a World Cup final since winning the tournament in 1966, and the feeling is that this Argentina team is there for the taking after a string of underwhelming displays up until this point.

However, if the the reigning champions have disappointed thus far, Messi most certainly has not. While some of his team-mates are flattering to deceive, he continues to defy all expectations. After all, eight goals and two assists in six matches would be an incredible haul for any player, but it's absolutely extraordinary for a 39-year-old who can barely run anymore.

We thought we'd seen everything from Messi, but clearly we were wrong. He's not quite done yet. The story continues, and there's at least one more, potentially narrative-changing chapter still to be written. For all his remarkable records and astounding achievements, Messi's never quite matched the mythology surrounding Maradona. He probably never will, in fairness, and that probably has more to do with off-the-field matters than anything else.

However, a World Cup win over England would unquestionably add to a legacy that was already presumed complete. It really is the only box the GOAT has yet to tick, the one thing Messi's magical career is missing.

Truth be told, the odds are probably against him. Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham are probably more likely match-winners in Atlanta. But just as the 1986 quarter-final between England and Argentina was, as Barnes said, "all about Maradona", the 2026 semi-final could just as easily be all about another Argentine on a truly spectacular personal adventure, a virtual one-man mission to win a second World Cup.