In 1986, the World Cup in Mexico became a real celebration of sports. The best players of the time gathered at Mundial: Maradona, Platini, Lineker, Belanov, Blokhin, Zavarov, Feller, Matteus, the Laudrup brothers and many others. The victor of the tournament was the Argentine national team, which in a breathtaking final match defeated the German national team. It is about the World Cup 1986 that will be discussed in our article.
Tournament Background
The 13th World Cup in 1986 was originally supposed to take Colombia. Due to the difficult economic situation in the country, for the tournament I had to look for another place. Then Mexico offered its stadiums, which already hosted a similar tournament in 1970.
Despite the lack of a lot of time for preparation and a strong earthquake that claimed a large number of lives, the country managed to prepare well all the necessary infrastructure for the World Cup.
For the first time, not 16, but 24 teams from all over the world came to the final part of the World Cup. There was a place among them for three newcomers to similar tournaments - the national teams of Iraq, Canada and Denmark. If the first two countries could not oppose anything to more experienced teams, the Danes eventually took first place in their group.
Group stage
At this stage of the 1986 World Cup, all teams were divided into 6 groups, the matches in which were to determine the 16 participants in the playoff round.
The stage went practically without sensations. The only exception was the Moroccan team, which unexpectedly took first place in the “death” group, where in addition to the African team there were teams from Poland, England and Portugal. In other quartets, Argentina, the USSR, Brazil, Denmark and the tournament hosts became the best.
The most productive was just the Soviet team, which included a lot of players from Dynamo Kyiv, which won the Cup of Cups that year.
Playoffs
At the 1986 World Cup, the USSR national team was considered one of the main favorites of the tournament, so few doubted its victory over more modest Belgium. The Soviet team twice led the score, but in the end sensationally lost in extra time. In addition to the USSR, at the stage of the 1/8 finals, such strong teams as Denmark, Uruguay and the current world champion, the Italian team, completed their performances in Mexico.
In the quarter finals, lots brought Brazil and France together. This match is considered the best at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. The Brazilians were the first to take the lead, but even before the break, Michel Platini restored the balance with an accurate blow. The game ended in a draw, and in the penalty shootout the French were the best.
In another two quarter finals, the winners identified a series of 11-meter shots. Belgian football players were more precisely for the Spaniards, and the German national team beat the tournament hosts - the Mexican team.
The match between Argentina and England turned out to be very interesting. At the beginning of the second half, the legendary Diego Maradona became the real hero of the match, who signed the rivals' goal twice within four minutes. And he scored one of the goals with his hand, which the judge from Tunisia could not notice. This moment subsequently spread all the news, and Maradona said that it was not he who played with his hand, but the Lord himself. England was able to answer this only with a goal from Lineker.
In the semifinals, Argentina played with Belgium. Maradona was the best player here too - it was his two goals that led the South American team to the final.
In the second semi-final, footballers from Germany, whose national team at the 1986 World Cup showed a not very expressive, and sometimes quite boring game, beat Bremen thanks to goals from Breme and Feller. Michel Platini again lost the opportunity to compete for the most prestigious football trophy.
In the “bronze" finals, the French defeated the Belgians in extra time and took third place.
The final of the tournament and its results
The final of the 1986 World Cup became a real decoration of the tournament. The match began with massive attacks by the Argentines, who by the 55th minute of the match won 2-0 thanks to goals from Brown and Valdano. But the Germans did not give up - at first Rummenigge managed to close the gap, and in the 82nd minute Rudi Feller equalized.
Everyone was already mentally preparing for additional halves, but Maradona did not agree with this. In the 85th minute, he gave a brilliant pass to Burrucaga, who scored the winning goal and made Argentina a two-time world champion.
It is not surprising that Diego Maradona was recognized as the best player of the tournament. The most productive player in the finals of the 1986 World Cup was England striker Gary Lineker, who scored 6 goals.