Don't cry for me Argentina

Last updated : 07 June 2002 By Tony Scholes

1-0 Beckham scores from the penalty
It is the first time we have beaten Argentina in the World Cup since Geoff Hurst secured a 1-0 win against Antonio Rattin's animals in 1966. That was the quarter-final at Wembley and since then we have suffered heartache on two occasions.

The first of these was in 1986 when Diego Maradonna used the Hand of God to beat us. How anyone could describe it as a hand of God is hard to believe, it was in fact nothing but downright cheating. The next time saw David Beckham sent off for kicking Daniel Simeone so it was even better today that it was Beckham who scored the winner.

Winning games is great, in the World Cup even better, but there is something very special about beating either the Germans or the Argentinians. Today we have beaten one of the best teams in the world, a team that has not been beaten since June 2000. Surely that should mean we will reach the next phase with just a point now needed against Nigeria.

Well done England.