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Legends
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The man who, legend has it, escaped from a early grave when his uncle pulled him from drowning in a cesspit is notorious for his dirty deeds but what cannot be forgotten are his achievements in the 1986 World Cup. Mexico '86: Maradona inspired Argentina to their second World Cup(Photography/Allsport) Forget the handball against England, feel the quality of his 50-yard solo goal in the same game and the near repeat performance in the semi-final against Belgium. If any man can be given the accolade of having won a tournament single-handedly it's this squat, bull-like figure from the barrios. The Argentina side of 1986 were functional and hard-working but it was Maradona who fired them to the final and then set up two of the goals in their 3-2 win over West Germany in the final. In 1990, a barely-fit Maradona dived and complained his way to the final where the Germans took their revenge. Few people shared Diego's post-match tears. In fact many rejoiced that such an ugly brute of a team had lost. Eight years before, in Spain, Maradona, then newly arrived at Barcelona, disgraced himself by being sent off in a Second Phase game with Brazil. Even four years before that the 18-year-old Maradona was a source of great controversy when he was left out of the victorious squad that won on home ground. USA 1994 was the end for Maradona as a player. Playing in an Argentinian side that had hammered Greece, put the promising Nigerians to the sword and bore all the best signs of being tournament winners, Maradona looked back to his best. But then, after the Nigeria game, he was picked for drugs-screening and tested positive for banned stimulant ephedrine. He was banned from the rest of the tournament and the team fell apart, going out in the second round to Romania. It was probably the biggest scandal in World Cup history but when talking of Maradona, one must accept the controversy and scandal alongside the image of a footballing demi-god. World Cup Legends - Roberto Baggio (Italy) As with Romario and Zinedine Zidane, the Divine Ponytail has a (sadly fading) chance to add to his status as a World Cup hero. Baggio: His penalty miss tarnished a superb World Cup(BenRadford/Allsport) Baggio had hit the headlines before Italia '90 when Fiorentina fans rioted after his record sale to Juventus. But football fans had to wait until the third game in the group stage to get a real glimpse of Baggio. He didn't disappoint and struck up a great parnership with Salvatore Schillaci that displaced the previous first-choice pairing of Andrea Carnevale and Gianluca Vialli. That game saw Baggio score the goal of the championships. Picking up the ball just inside his own half, Baggio took on the Czechoslovakian defence and then wrongfooted keeper Jan Stejskal. It was the moment the world saw that in Baggio Italy possessed a real great. However, Italian boss Azeglio Vicini did not seem to share that feeling and as soon as Vialli returned to full fitness, he was played in the semi-final against Argentina. It turned out to be the wrong decision as Maradona's team squeezed past them on penalties. Four years later Baggio was a player in his prime. After a slow start (he was even substituted early in the game against Norway), he was the driving force in Italy's march to the final. A late equaliser against Nigeria was followed by the winner in the same game. He repeated that trick with a late winner against Spain. In the semi-final a Baggio brace saw off Bulgaria. All through the tournament Arrigo Sacchi's team huffed-and-puffed only for Baggio to bail them out. In the final, Baggio, carrying a knee injury which should have prevented him from playing, could not weave his magic and in a tournament where he had shone it was his missed spot-kick in a shoot-out which lost the trophy he had fought so hard to win. That wasn't the end for Il Principe though, he was back at France 98 and starred in the early group stages before being replaced by Alessandro Del Piero, Cesare Maldini's first choice as Christian Vieiri's partner. He even managed to bury his spot-kick ghost with a succesful conversion in the quarter-final with France.
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