Goal of the Century
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- For other uses, see Goal of the Century (disambiguation)}}}.
The winning goal was the second goal by Diego Maradona in the 1986 FIFA World Cup quarter-final match, for Argentina against England on June 22 1986, at the Azteca stadium, Mexico City; it came shortly after Maradona's infamous Hand of God goal. Nine minutes into the second half, Héctor Enrique passed the ball to Maradona some ten metres inside his own half. Maradona then began his 60 metre, 10 second dash towards the English goal, dodging five English outfield players (Hoddle, Reid, Sansom, Butcher and Fenwick) as well as goalkeeper Peter Shilton to make the score 2-0 to Argentina. Gary Lineker scored a goal for England 25 minutes later, but England was unable to equalize and Argentina won 2-1.
About the goal, Maradona said, "I made the play to give it to Valdano, but when I got to the area they surrounded me and I had no space. Therefore, I had to continue the play and finish it myself." A statue of Maradona immortalizing the moment has been erected outside the stadium.
Recently, Maradona said he could not have scored such a beautiful goal if it had not been against the honest English team, who did not knock him down as most defenses used to do. "They are probably the noblest in the world," he added.[link]
On the goal, English striker Gary Lineker said "[it was] probably the one and only time in my whole career I felt like applauding the opposition scoring a goal."[link] Lineker scored the only English goal of that match.
The Top 10
The top 10 goals, as decided by the poll, were:
- Diego Maradona (Argentina), 1986 FIFA World Cup vs England 18,062 votes -- a run across half the pitch, duping the whole English defence and keeper
- Michael Owen (England), 1998 FIFA World Cup vs Argentina 10,631 votes -- picked the ball up on the half-way line, beat three defenders, then finished off the wonder goal with a shot into the top corner of the net
- Pelé (Brazil), 1958 FIFA World Cup vs Sweden 9,880 votes - a lob over a Swedish defender followed by a precise volley shot past the goalie
- Diego Maradona (Argentina), 1986 FIFA World Cup vs Belgium 9,642 votes
- Gheorghe Hagi (Romania), 1994 FIFA World Cup vs Colombia 9,297 votes
- Saeed Owairan (Saudi Arabia), 1994 FIFA World Cup vs Belgium 6,756 votes
- Roberto Baggio (Italy), 1990 FIFA World Cup vs Czechoslovakia 6,694 votes
- Carlos Alberto (Brazil), 1970 FIFA World Cup vs Italy 5,388 votes
- Lothar Matthäus (Germany), 1990 FIFA World Cup vs Yugoslavia 4,191 votes
- Vincenzo Scifo (Belgium), 1990 FIFA World Cup vs Uruguay 2,935 votes
External links
- [Official site]
- [Final top 10] (official)
- [Video of the Goal]
- [Maradona's goal of century]
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