'Animals', Hand of God and Beckham - Argentina and England's World Cup rivalry

It's a footballing rivalry that goes back generations.

England v Argentina for a place in the World Cup final. Iconic. Generational. Classic. It's hard to find the words to do the occasion justice.

On Wednesday in Atlanta, Lionel Messi will be playing against England for the first time in his career as the defending world champions bid to stop Thomas Tuchel's Three Lions ending 60 years of hurt.

It's a World Cup rivalry that started back in 1962 and has featured wonder goals, controversy and red cards ever since.

But it's not just an on-field rivalry. Political tensions, especially around the Falklands War in the 1980s, dominate the relationship between the two nations. Argentina players and fans still reference the conflict in football songs.

Before one of England's biggest matches in history, BBC Sport takes a look back at the World Cup rivalry between the two sides.

It may surprise many that of the five World Cup matches played between the two sides, it is England that are on top, but it has been a while since they won one that really mattered.

With their last World Cup meeting back in 2002, many of the countries' younger generations won't even remember the rivalry, so BBC Sport revisits six decades of controversy.

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1962: England 3-1 Argentina (Rancagua, Chile -group stage)

A tame affair compared to what was to follow.

Goals from Ron Flowers, Bobby Charlton and Jimmy Greaves put England into an unassailable 3-0 lead, with a late consolation from Argentina.

Both sides finished the group stage with a win, defeat and a loss, but England edged through at the expense of Argentina thanks to a superior goal difference.

The Three Lions were knocked out by Brazil in the quarter-finals.

1966: England 1-0 Argentina (Wembley, England - quarter-finals)

Was this the moment the footballing rivalry between the two sides really developed? Possibly. Probably.

The two teams met in the quarter-finals in a match Argentina, to this day, insist they were robbed in, claiming Geoff Hurst's winning goal was offside.

That was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to controversy though, with Argentina captain Antonio Rattin sent off after just 33 minutes for two offences in the space of three minutes.

The first was for a trip on Bobby Charlton, the second was for continuing to argue with German referee Rudolf Kreitlein.

The match was delayed for almost eight minutes as Rattin refused to leave the pitch.

England held on, in an incredibly ill-tempered affair, with Three Lions boss Alf Ramsey describing the Argentine side as 'animals' and insisting that his players did not swap shirts.

England's 1966 World Cup-winning defender George Cohen reflected on the match in the Guardian in 2009.

"Tackling is fine," he said. "But it was some of the snidey things, the spitting and pulling the short hairs on your neck, pulling your ear. They were trying to intimidate us. The trouble was when they found out they weren't going to get their way they fell into some of the worst excesses I've ever seen.

"I just consider it the greatest shame that they didn't play the game they were capable of. We might even have got beaten but they just should have got on and shown what they could do.

"There was a lot of commotion in the tunnel after the game. Nobody was allowed out so we didn't see it."

The match is also believed to have led to the introduction of red and yellow cards, which were first used in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Previously, referees had to rely on verbal warnings.

Rattin, who represented Argentina from 1959 to 1969 and played at the 1962 and 1966 World Cups, died at the age of 89 on Saturday.

1986: Argentina 2-1 England (Mexico City, Mexico - quarter-final)

This quarter-final was played just four years after the two countries had fought the Falklands War. This wasn't just a football rivalry, political tensions were huge as well.

The Argentine media and public framed the match as a way to express their resentment at the conflict, while their British counterparts also leaned into it, using nationalistic language to heighten the animosity between the countries.

BBC World Service's Lourdes Heredia, who was at the game in the Azteca Stadium, said: "My father wasn't sure about his 'princesses going'. He was worried that tensions between Argentina and England fans would spill over. My mother didn't hesitate. A once in a lifetime opportunity."