The 1982 World Cup - Brazil V Argentina DVD

The 1982 FIFA World Cup the 12th FIFA World Cup was held in Spain and was marked by a series of great matches and is widely regarded as the second-best ever after the 1970 tournament. This was also the first World Cup to feature 24 teams an expansion from at most 16 in the previous tournaments. The format of the competition had also changed from 1978: for the first time 24 teams qualified divided into six groups of four. The top two teams in each group advanced to the second round where they split into four groups of three. The winners of each group advanced to the... semi-finals. This was the only World Cup to be played under this format. It was the second group phase and Argentina under C''sar Menotti still had the nucleus of the side that had lifted the trophy four years earlier with one notable addition: a young Diego Maradona. Brazil for their part had a start-studded line-up that included Falcao Zico S''crates and Cerezo and were hotly tipped to go all the way. Barcelona was the impressive setting for the first-ever meeting of the sides in the FIFA World Cup finals. Having lost the group opener to Italy Argentina had to win the game and the 44 000 spectators saw a no-holds-barred clash with some ferocious tackling. The Sele''ao then under Tel'' Santana had the measure of the Albiceleste and established an early lead through Zico on 11 minutes. Serginho (66) and Junior (75) added two more in the second half to put the game beyond their opponent's reach. The combination of Brazil's obvious superiority that day and Argentina's own impotence was too much for Maradona who received his marching orders from Mexican referee Mario Rubio V''zquez for cynically kicking out at Batista. Recalling the incident years later in his autobiography Maradona said: Poor Batista I kicked him out of sheer frustration. It was actually intended for another of their players who was really winding us up. [show more]

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