Another entertaining game at Wembley but also a disappointment for England who let a two-goal lead slip against Argentina. The draw was enough to give England the trophy on offer, but after outplaying the South Americans for so long, a victory would have been much satisfying.

The first hour was dominated by England. Playing fast, open football their neat passing movements repeatedly tore large holes in the Argentine defence. The home side deservedly opened the scoring after 15 minutes when Stuart Pearce's deep free-kick caught out Argentina who tried to push too far forward. It left Gary Lineker the opportunity to steal in and guide a marvellous diving header past Goycochea. It was his 40th goal for England and he now was only four behind the legendary Jimmy Greaves who held second spot in the all-time list of goalscorers.

Everything looked perfect for England at this point. David Batty was really impressive in his first full game and David Platt was showing some excellent touches. Geoff Thomas completed a very good midfield and the Argentinians had little answer to the play from the home team. Goycochea made a fine save from Platt and then his flying leap prevented John Barnes from curling a wonderful shot into the far corner. It seemed only a question of time before England would score again.

Seven minutes into the second half, Platt duly obliged with a second goal. Again Pearce featured in the move and his fine cross was headed home with some panache by the Aston Villa star. Everyone thought the game was as good as over for Argentina, but how wrong can you be?

With 66 minutes gone, England committed the cardinal sin of letting in a goal from a set-piece. Mohammed's corner found Garcia totally unmarked and he headed home unchallenged. Where all the home defenders were left everyone puzzled and David Seaman's positioning also left much to be desired. Seven minutes later, things went from bad to worse as England did it again. Another corner was met by Franco, who outjumped the defenders to power home an excellent header to equalize.

England were shell-shocked but they gradually settled down again and took the game to the visitors. Sadly, once again the Argentines showed the nasty side of their temperament. Cynical fouls on Lee Dixon and Smith won few friends in the crowd and they became incensed at these antics. Mind you, England were not blameless and a Mark Wright foul deserved a booking. The referee tried to show leniency but perhaps an earlier yellow card or two might have diffused a volatile situation. Sad to say the Argentinians walked off the Wembley pitch to a chorus of boos especially when they removed their shirts and taunted the crowd by waving them in the air. That was very silly.
   

Argentina had been well beaten in 1980, their last visit to Wembley, but had knocked out England in the quarter-finals in Mexico City on their way to winning the World Cup in 1986. Diego Maradona, scorer of the controversial 'hand of God' goal in that match, was now banned from football for drug offences after leading his team to their second successive World Cup final the previous year.
This was the last game of the three-team tournament for the England Challenge Cup. Two days earlier, Argentina had drawn 1-1 with USSR at Old Trafford.
Gary Lineker's header to put England, wearing red shirts, in front came from a Pearce free-kick from just inside England's half. After the interval, Pearce's cross was headed brilliantly past Goycochea by David Platt and the England Challenge Cup appeared to be comfortably in the bag.
But midway through the second half, substitute Mohammed's corner was headed in by the unmarked Claudio Garcia. Then, a corner from the same player was headed in by Dario Franco in almost identical fashion. Just as i their 1974 visit, Argentina had pulled back a two-goal deficit but it was England who won the tournament.
Argentina did not appear at Wembley again until 2000.
 

England carelessly let a two-goal lead slip in a four-minute spell midway through the second-half of a game that was always niggly and bad-tempered, with the Argentineans giving better than they received in the nasty tackles department. Gary Lineker scored in the fifteenth minute (his fortieth goal) and David Platt made it 2-0 five minutes after half-time. Lineker had the hollow honour of collecting the Challenge Cup as the Argentineans trudged off to a chorus of boos. Nothing had been achieved in the area of repairing the poor relationships between the two nations.

Source Notes