'I witnessed Maradona's Hand of God' - a goal still talked about 40 years on

'I witnessed Maradona's Hand of God' - a goal still talked about 40 years on 17 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Lourdes Heredia BBC World Service Archivo El Grafico/Getty Images I wasn't supposed to be there. I was 17, I had never been to a football match and I wasn't interested in the sport. But that afternoon, walking into the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, I was about to watch Argentina play England in a World Cup quarter-final - and to witness something I would only fully understand many years later. That morning, we had no plans. Then the phone rang. A friend of my father had two tickets he couldn't use. Would my mum and I like them? My father wasn't sure about his "princesses" going. This was less than five years since the end of the Falklands War and he was worried that tensions between Argentinian and English fans would spill over. My mother didn't hesitate. This was the World Cup, after all. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and she wasn't going to let her daughter miss out. Lourdes Heredia I dressed up for my first football game as if I was going to a party The excitement started as soon as we were en route, as we headed to cross the city to the stadium. Flags hung from car windows and strangers shouted chants across traffic. I joined in, of course-shouting "Viva México!" with everyone else, even though our team had already been knocked out of the tournament. Football didn't matter much to me, but being part of the moment did. If anything, I treated it more like a party than a match. I dressed up, wore far too much make-up, and imagined the stadium would be full of handsome foreign fans rather than legendary players. My mother raised an eyebrow, but let it slide. Inside the Azteca, the scale of it all was overwhelming. The noise, the colours, the sense that the whole world had gathered in one place. Around us were fans from everywhere - singing, laughing, dressed in costumes, faces painted in bright colours. I remember thinking less about the game itself and more about how exciting it felt to be there among them. Monte Fresco/Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix via Getty Images Argentina and England fans at the Azteca before the game When the match started, I barely followed what was happening on the pitch. I was too busy joining in the Mexican wave - known as "la ola" in Spanish - caught up in the rhythm of the crowd. The football felt distant, almost secondary. Suddenly, everyone was on their feet. For a second there was celebration then confusion, arguments, noise swelling in different directions. It was a moment that would be talked about for decades. The ball was airborne above the England penalty area. Argentina's star player Diego Maradona launched himself into an aerial contest with English goalkeeper Peter Shilton who had also leapt up in an attempt to punch the ball away. But instead it bounced off Maradona and crossed the goal line. It looked as if he had headed the first goal - and that is when things changed for me. Sud