Michael Owen has reopened one of England football’s deepest emotional wounds ahead of the World Cup semi-final with Argentina, recalling the night he first understood that this fixture was never just another match.
In 1998, I had heard about the England-Argentina rivalry, but I was just an 18-year-old running by defenders
I probably didn’t appreciate the battlefield it was – and what stands now is something from off the pitch as much as on it
The former England striker, whose breathtaking solo goal against Argentina at France 1998 became one of the most iconic moments of his career, admitted that as a teenager he did not fully grasp the weight of the rivalry. He knew about the Falklands conflict and Diego Maradona’s infamous Hand of God goal, but at 18 his world was simpler: run at defenders, score goals and play with fearless instinct.
That changed after England were knocked out on penalties in Saint-Etienne. Owen remembered the silence on the team bus after the defeat, with David Beckham devastated after his red card and the squad consumed by a sense of what might have been. Then, through the window, the England players saw the Argentina bus parked nearby, shaking with music, celebration and noise.
For Owen, the decisive moment came when Alan Shearer stepped onto the bus, pointed towards the partying Argentina players and delivered a message that stayed with him for years. Some of those England players, Shearer told the squad, would be lucky enough to face that team again – and if they did, they had to remember that feeling.
Owen says that was when the rivalry truly became personal. Four years later, at the 2002 World Cup in Japan, England did get another chance. Beckham, Owen, Paul Scholes and Sol Campbell were among those who had lived through the pain of 1998, and they carried that memory into the group-stage meeting with Argentina.
The key moment arrived just before half-time. Owen drove into the area, went past Mauricio Pochettino and was clipped by the defender. He insists there was contact and that the challenge even drew blood, while also acknowledging that he could probably have stayed on his feet. His description is blunt: he accepted the invitation. Beckham scored the penalty, England won 1-0, and for the players who had suffered in 1998, it felt like redemption.
Owen also reflected on how differently the same incidents are remembered depending on which shirt you wear. England supporters still see Maradona’s Hand of God as injustice, while Argentina fans regard it as genius. In the same way, the 2002 penalty remains a source of frustration for some Argentinians, including Pochettino, who years later did not appear amused when Owen raised it during a television interview at Tottenham.
I won a penalty via Mauricio Pochettino four years later – and he doesn’t see the funny side of things to this day
We had the last laugh in 2005 – now it’s time for the current generation to make history
By 2005, Owen fully understood the emotional charge of the fixture. In a so-called friendly in Geneva, England trailed Argentina 2-1 with five minutes to play before Owen scored twice, including a stoppage-time header after beating Peter Crouch to Joe Cole’s cross. The celebrations, he recalled, felt more like a knockout tie than a non-competitive match.
Now Owen believes the current generation has its own opportunity. Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and their team-mates will face Argentina in Atlanta with a place in the World Cup final at stake. The history is unavoidable, but Owen argues England’s players do not need old grievances to inspire them. Most of them were not born when he scored in 1998, and the stakes in front of them are already enormous.
His message is clear: this England side should not be distracted by the past, the Falklands, Maradona, Beckham, Simeone or the decades of bitterness around the fixture. They are one game from a World Cup final, and their job is to shape the future rather than correct history.
For Owen, the Argentina rivalry will always be real. He has felt the pain, the payback and the chaos of it across three meetings. But this semi-final belongs to England’s modern stars. If they win, they will not merely settle an old score. They will create a new chapter of their own.
