On This Day – 23rd July
“We have still to produce our best football. It will come against the right type of opposition, a team which comes to play football and not act as animals.”
These were the words from Alf Ramsey after England beat Argentina 1-0 in the World Cup Quarter Final on this day back in 1966.He likened the Argentinian players to animals because of their persistent fouling and dirt tricks that caused plenty of disruptions over the course of the 90 minutes.
Argentina’s captain Antonio Rattin was sent off after receiving his second caution after minutes after saying something to the referee. According to Rattin, he pointed to his armband and said that he wanted an interpreter as the referee was German and neither man spoke each other’s language.
After being sent from the field of play, Rattin refused to leave the pitch and sat on the floor. The game was held up for several minutes before police lead him off!
The game itself was level until Geoff Hurst leapt to nod in from a cross by Martin Peters after 77 minutes. The Argentine players claimed that the goal was offside and the game became known as ‘The Theft of the Century’ in Argentina.
They would have twenty years to exact their revenge for the defeat, beating England at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
After the game, Alf Ramsey spotted George Cohen trying to swap his shirt with one of the Argentinians. He raced over and stopped Cohen from doing the swap.
The famous picture was taken of the incident and is at the top of this article.
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