Six minutes into the second half, Maradona cut inside from the left and played a diagonal low pass to the edge of the area to team-mate Jorge Valdano and continued his run in the hope of a one-two movement.

England’s Hodge tried to hook the ball clear but miscued it. The ball screwed off his foot and into the penalty area, toward Maradona, who had continued his run.

England goalkeeper Peter Shilton came out of his goal to punch the ball clear. Maradona, despite being 8 inches (20 cm) shorter than the 6-foot-1 (1.85 m) Shilton, reached it first with his outside left hand.

The ball went into the goal. At the post-game press conference, Maradona facetiously commented that the goal was scored ‘a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God’.

Just four minutes after the Hand of God goal, however, came The Goal of the Century, so called because it is often claimed to be the greatest individual goal of all time.

Midfielder Héctor Enrique passed the ball to Maradona inside his own half whoi began his 60-yard, 10-second dash towards the English goal, passing four English outfield players – Peter Beardsley, Peter Reid, Terry Butcher and Terry Fenwick.

Maradona finished the move with a feint that left goalkeeper Peter Shilton on his backside and scored the Goal of the Century.