England will face Argentina in Georgia on Wednesday night with a place in the World Cup final against Spain after Luis de la Fuente’s side defeated favorites France.
Argentina fans gathered in Buenos Aires (Image: Luis Robayo/AFP)
Argentina’s vice president launched a blistering attack on England, using the term “pirate usurpation” in a social media post referencing the history surrounding the Falklands War, on the eve of the two countries’ clash in the World Cup semi-finals.
The history between the two countries and the Falklands War figure heavily in the build-up to tonight’s match in Georgia, with Victoria Villaruel, daughter of a Falklands veteran and the country’s vice president.
But her attacks on social media have raised eyebrows, particularly after Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said it was “totally wrong” to make a game about war.
Villarruel wrote on his X account: “Tomorrow we play against the usurper Pirates. This is not just another match. I don’t mean to be politically correct or cruel. A match against the English is always more than that. It’s the Malvinas, it’s Diego, it’s the last game for Leo[Messi]go Argentina! Because until our last breath, we are going to claim what is ours!”
More than 900 people died in the 1982 war, and Argentine fans have been singing about the Falkland Islands at tournaments.
But Scaloni has sought to defuse tensions, insisting it would be disrespectful to confuse a confrontation with a match. “This is a football game. You can’t mix things up out of respect for what happened all those years ago,” he said.
“It was a very sad period in our history. There’s not much we can do about it. It would be madness to mix the two. We criticize that there was a war. We criticize that there was a war.”
“Of course people remember the history and what happened. This is a football game and we need to keep things separate.
Lionel Scaloni tried to separate the match from the Falklands
“Certainly we remember the Argentine people and those lost in the war, but let’s not confuse things.
“What do the players of today have to do with those of years ago?
“It was a sad time. Of course we remember this, but it’s just wrong to put this into the game.”
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