Liverpool FC Forum

The two teams met in the quarter-finals of the tournament, a game referred to in Argentina as el robo del siglo (the theft of the century)[7] that England won 1–0 thanks to a goal from striker Geoff Hurst, disputed by the Argentines due to a claimed offside.[8] However, the game was particularly noted for the sending off of Argentina captain Antonio Rattín, which Argentines considered to be unfair, including Rattín himself, who had to be escorted from the pitch by police before he would leave.

It was reported in Argentina that the German referee, Rudolf Kreitlein, said that he had sent off Rattín because he didn't like how he had looked at him,[9] while British newspapers cited the official as having given the reason as 'violence of the tongue', even though the referee spoke no Spanish [10] Rattín's intention appeared to have been to speak with the German referee, as according to the Argentines he was ruling in favour of the English team. Rattín made a visible signal showing his captain's armband and intention to call a translator.[11]

Ken Aston, the English supervisor of referees, entered the field to try to persuade Rattín to leave, but he only exacerbated the situation since the Latin American teams had already suspected that the English and Germans were collaborating to eliminate them from the competition.[6] After his dismissal, Rattín finally sat down on Queen Elizabeth II's red carpet for a moment.

After the match, England manager Alf Ramsey refused to allow his players to swap shirts with the Argentines (as is traditional after the conclusion of a football match) and later described the South Americans as "animals" in the press. The Argentine press and public were outraged, and one Argentine newspaper published a picture of the official World Cup mascot, World Cup Willie, dressed in pirate regalia to demonstrate their opinion of the England team.

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Thu Dec 19, 2013 5:11 pm wrote:souness sorted goikoetxea out when we played them in the european cup, that was the game where souness famously stood on the ball and gestured to their 3 hardmen to come and get it off him, by that time they didnt want to know, it was the only time that souness played up to the crowd, i suppose he was a bit proud of himself because the opening 20 minutes of that game was brutal.
our team got a standing ovation from the bilbao crowd that night, not many teams went there and won, and not many teams went there and physically dominated them, fair dues to their crowd they recognized that.