30 June 1998, Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Étienne. Argentina 2–2 England, after extra time. Argentina win 4–3 on penalties.
By Hamish McTavish
A Tuesday in Saint-Étienne, thirty thousand in a tight old bowl, and a morning paper that had already collected the debt. The Daily Mirror ran Diego Maradona’s fist and a line for eight o’clock: PAYBACK TIME. Twelve years after the Azteca, the same fixture, the same English certainty that this time it would be a foot. The Archbishop of York said he was rooting for England, hoping it would be the foot of an English footballer rather than the hand of God that made the difference. Adidas, less holy, had put David Beckham’s face on an advert that morning. After tonight, England v Argentina will be remembered for what a player did with his feet. They were all correct. Just not in the way they had packed for.
Glenn Hoddle had a side that had already lost to Romania in the group and so had been given this instead of a softer last sixteen. Michael Owen was eighteen. Alan Shearer had the penalties in him. Paul Ince, Tony Adams, Sol Campbell. Beckham, twenty-three, the right foot the advert had sold. Argentina had Gabriel Batistuta, Diego Simeone with the armband, Javier Zanetti, a free-kick they had been rehearsing for years. Payback, the paper said. The foot, the Archbishop said. The night had other plans for both.
They kicked off anyway.
Six minutes, and Simeone went down under David Seaman. Batistuta put the penalty away, his ninth at World Cups. Four minutes later Owen went past José Chamot, went down, and Shearer squared it from the spot. Then, just after the quarter-hour, the thing the advert had been trying to buy. Owen took it in his own half, went past Roberto Ayala, went past Chamot, and hit the far corner as if he had been doing it for a decade. Eighteen. Two-one. For half an hour Saint-Étienne belonged to a boy from Chester. On the stroke of half-time Argentina took a free-kick they had practised until the shape was a secret only they knew. Juan Sebastián Verón slipped it, Zanetti arrived where Ariel Ortega had once stood in the rehearsal, and lashed it past Seaman. Two-two, and the first half already a night.
England had forty-five minutes of a classic and a dressing room that still believed the morning paper. Payback was 2-2 and an eighteen-year-old. The advert was still on the hoardings. Then they came out for the second half.
Two minutes after the restart Simeone went through Beckham, went down on him, shoved his head into the grass. Beckham, on the ground, flicked a foot. Kim Milton Nielsen saw it. Red. A moment of madness, Beckham called it later, and he can have the phrase. Simeone later said knocking you out was a huge joy, which is the other half of the same sentence. England had ten men and an hour. They hung on, ten against eleven, in a last sixteen that the paper had sold as a debt collection. Argentina could not make the extra man tell. England, for a stretch, looked the more likely, which is the cruel sort of likely. In extra time Campbell rose and headed one in and the Geoffroy-Guichard went up as if the Archbishop had been right, and then the flag, Shearer judged to have fouled Carlos Roa. The goal that would have been payback stayed off. Sol Campbell had a World Cup last-sixteen winner for about four seconds. Penalties, again, the English afterthought that keeps turning into the main item.
Shearer scored. Argentina scored. Ince missed. They traded. Batty, on as a substitute, walked up needing to score to keep it alive after Roberto Ayala had put Argentina’s fifth away. Roa jumped twice and went the right way. Four-three. Hoddle called it the most emotional game he had ever been involved in as a manager. The Mirror, in the morning, did not file the emotion. 10 HEROIC LIONS, ONE STUPID BOY. The Mail had a moment of lunacy that cost cup hopes. The Sun had Beck-home. An effigy of Beckham went up outside a London pub. The dartboard page. The boy who had been on the advert was the whole story, which is how you can tell the paper had decided who to eat.
Owen had the run and the penalty won and a night that should have been his. Zanetti had the rehearsal. Batistuta had the first spot-kick. Shearer had two from twelve yards and the foul they gave. Seaman had the Simeone dive and the Zanetti shot. Campbell had the header that was a goal until it wasn’t. Ince and Batty had the kicks that missed. Roa had the jump. Simeone had the fall and the joy. Beckham had a flick, a red, and a year of darts. Hoddle had the emotion. The Archbishop had the foot. Adidas had the line. The Mirror had the boy.
They said payback. They said the foot of an English footballer. They said after tonight it would be remembered for what a player did with his feet. They said ten heroic lions. If you still think it was only the flick, a funeral is only a Tuesday. The flick was two minutes after half-time. The rest of it was a classic they turned into a scapegoat, and a morning that needed a child to shout at.
The film is up. FIFA still keep the thriller: the two penalties, Owen’s run, Zanetti’s arrival, the red, the shoot-out. Do not review it. Watch the advert come true in the only direction they cannot stand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArqJ__rxBhM
Related reading
- A little with the hand, a little with the rest of him — Azteca 1986, the debt the Mirror tried to collect
- Why the Hand of God tee exists — same fixture lineage, story first, then cotton
If Azteca already lives in your head, the street print is optional and available: Hand of God tee via /shop.
FAQ
What was the score when Argentina beat England in Saint-Étienne 1998?
Argentina 2–2 England after extra time; Argentina won 4–3 on penalties, on 30 June 1998 at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Étienne.
Why did the Mirror call it “one stupid boy”?
After David Beckham’s red card early in the second half, the Daily Mirror framed ten England players as heroic lions and Beckham as the scapegoat. The night itself was a classic; the morning needed a child to shout at.
Who scored in normal time?
Batistuta (penalty) and Zanetti for Argentina; Shearer (penalty) and Michael Owen for England. Sol Campbell’s extra-time header was disallowed.