Stirring the underlying tension is the Argentines' age-old desire, shared by all the world's football-playing nations, to beat the country that invented the game, to prove son is better than father.

This extra motivation has tainted the history of confrontations between the two sides, reaching its ultimate expression in Diego Maradona's `Hand of God' goal in the 1986 quarter-final in Mexico City.

The 2-1 win over England was sealed minutes after Maradona's first hand-ball strike by the goal regarded by many as the best ever in the World Cup. It was seen by many Argentines as revenge for the country's defeat by Britain in the Falklands War four years earlier.

England have wanted to settle the score ever since, but Graham Taylor's side were held 2-2 in a friendly at Wembley in May 1991 after leading 2-0.

No Argentine footballer sets out purposely to cheat England into defeat and thiswill be particularly true of Daniel Passarella's clean-cut, disciplined class of 1998 in their second-round match in St Etienne tomorrow.

Trick yes, with their skill, but not cheat. There is much respect for English football and England's sense of fair play in Argentina with Sir Bobby Charlton the role model.

But 1930 finalists Argentina, having made a hash of their return to World Cup football in Sweden in 1958 after 24 years of self-imposed political exile, lost their way in their efforts to get back on track.

Fans threw coins at the players on their return home from Sweden after conceding 10 goals in their group games.

Argentina's reaction was to consider that if their innate skills were not sufficient then a South American version of European toughness was necessary.

An Argentina side in transition were beaten 1-3 by England in the 1962 finals in neighbouring Chile and went out in the first round, an unacceptable failure so close to home.

Enter the 1966 side captained by AntonioRattin.

Having impressed opponents both with their skill and their toughness in a group won on goal difference by West Germany in Birmingham, Argentina travelled to Wembley for the quarter-final against the hosts.

Towering centre-half Rattin committed no fouls, although some of his hard colleagues in the back four did, but he bothered the diminutive German referee Rudolf Kreitlein to the point of distraction with his demand for explanations of his decisions which he believed were biased.

After little more than half an hour, Kreitlein had had enough and sent Rattin off. Rattin's behaviour as he left the field, sitting and then spitting on Wembley's royal carpet, helped win Argentina Sir Alf Ramsey's tag of `animals'.

Geoff Hurst scored the only goal to keep England on course for the title, while Argentina went home to look in the mirror yet again, resurfacing only in 1974 after their lowest ebb, failure to qualify for the 1970 finals in Mexico.

That 1966 clash and Argentina's contention that Englandwere favoured by a German referee and the West Germans by an Englishman in their quarter-final against Uruguay is at the root of soured soccer relations between the two nations.

The next meeting between the two countries, a 1974 friendly with the Wembley crowd chanting `animals', was refereed by mutual agreement by Argentine Andres Ithurralde and finished with the teenaged Mario Kempes scoring a last minute penalty equaliser in a 2-2 draw.

In 1977 in Buenos Aires, Daniel Bertoni equalised for Argentina in a 1-1 draw and later became the second player sent off after England's Trevor Cherry in the first half.

To rub salt into English wounds, both matches were warm-up for Argentina ahead of the World Cup finals of 1974 in Germany and 1978 at home, both of which England failed to reach.

An exciting friendly at Wembley in 1980 in which England beat Cesar Luis Menotti's world champions 3-1 did something to heal the wounds of 1966.

The inimitable Maradona, however, then managed to re-open them in 1986 whenhe encapsulated in four minutes the essence of Argentina face to face with England: trick and treat.