Sixty years after rivalry took root, England and Argentina duel for place in final
Their meetings before the 1966 tournament had passed without incident.
England claimed the first at Wembley Stadium in London in May 1951, winning 2-1, before a friendly two years later in Buenos Aires ended goalless.
Their first competitive encounter came at the 1962 World Cup, where England emerged 3-1 winners. In 1964 at a mini-tournament staged to mark the 50th anniversary of the Brazilian FA, Argentina got their revenge with a 1-0 win.
Start of the acrimony
The rivalry began in earnest in 1966, in a bruising World Cup quarter-final.
Even by the standards of an era when defenders such as Ron "Chopper" Harris and Norman "Bites Yer Legs" Hunter prowled English pitches, the match was brutal.
Argentina captain Antonio Rattin was sent off in the 35th minute, refused to leave the field and had to be escorted off by police.
At the final whistle, England manager Alf Ramsey marched on to the pitch to stop his players swapping shirts with their opponents.
He told journalists after the game: "England's best football will come against the right type of opposition: a team who come to play football, and not act as animals."
Eight years passed before another match between the sides – a friendly at Wembley in May 1974, as Argentina prepared for the World Cup in West Germany. Further friendlies followed in 1977 and 1980, in Argentina and England respectively.
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Aftermath of the Falklands War
The Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina lasted 10 weeks, between April and June 1982. More than 250 British and 649 Argentine troops were killed during the fighting, along with three Falkland Islanders.
The conflict was still fresh in collective memory by the time of the 1986 World Cup quarter-final between England and Argentina.
The resulting tension was compounded when Argentina captain Diego Maradona used his hand to guide the ball past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton for Argentina's first goal – a move that would have been caught in today's era of video assistant refereeing.
His second goal, however, was a thing of beauty. Picking the ball up near the halfway line, he scythed through England's players to score what was later dubbed "the goal of the century".
Maradona wrote of Argentina's victory in his autobiography, El Diego: "More than defeating a football team, it was defeating a country. Of course, before the match we said that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas War [Falklands War], but we knew a lot of Argentine kids had died there, shot down like little birds. This was revenge."
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Beckham sent off
The rivals' next meeting, at the 1998 World Cup, was equally controversial. England midfielder David Beckham was sent off for a petulant kick on Diego Simeone during the last-16 tie. England were then eliminated following a penalty shoot-out.
Four years later, at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, Beckham found redemption, scoring from the penalty spot in a 1-0 win during the group stage.
Their most recent meeting was a friendly in Geneva in 2005, meaning none of the current crop of players have taken part in one of their national team's most loaded fixtures.
"It's a football match. Period," said Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni last Saturday, after his side had beaten Switzerland to set up the semi-final against England. "Let's not look for anything else."
Other than a place in Sunday's final against Spain.