The Match

Juan Cabral's 2026 documentary reconstructs the Argentina England quarter-final at the 1986 World Cup. The match is remembered for Maradona's handball goal and the second goal that followed it, but the film's subject is wider than the goals. The documentary places the match immediately after the war between the two countries. How the players on the pitch carried that context, how the press framed it and how the stands received it are each covered; players from both sides speak. Figures who were there, among them Gary Lineker, Jorge Valdano, John Barnes and Jorge Burruchaga, appear on record. Rather than following the match minute by minute Cabral follows memory, continually comparing how different people recall the same moment. Who it's for: those interested in football history and moments where sport meets politics. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a neutral account of the war; the documentary passes over the political background briefly and through the match.