After confirmation that match 102, one of the World Cup semi-finals, would be England v Argentina, the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas conflict was mentioned at Lionel Scaloni’s press conference. “No, no, no,” the Argentina head coach tut-tutted emphatically. “This is just a football match. Let’s not look for other stuff. It’s a football game against a great team, with a great manager who I admire. But it’s a football match. End of.”
The Argentina midfielder Rodrigo De Paul concurred: “We understand it’s a football game that transcends; it brings back memories of what Diego did. We sing songs about our Malvinas heroes, mainly to remember them, but we have to understand that it’s a football match and that the Malvinas have to be discussed elsewhere. What happened was an atrocity and we always remember the fallen, but what we want is to win this match to get to the final.”
