It was more a feeling of revenge than liberation. In 1982 my family and the entire country was at war with an Argentinean dictator, when suddenly Margaret Tatcher, an unpopular Prime Minister at that time, instead of de-escalating the situation with the Argentine dictator decided to go to war with a country that was already at war and fighting for democracy. For that reason, Argentine people felt betrayed by England. Both countries were close friends for more than 100 years, since 1810 when Britain and Argentina signed a treaty of friendship proposed by Woodbine Parish. His cousin, John P. Robertson, was a good friend of General San Martin. Argentina and England had 2 enemies in common: Spain and France. Both countries were allies until the beginning of world war 2, when General Perón became a good friend of Mussolini. The dictators and facists Videla a Galtieri went to war with the UK, US and NATO. In 1982 there was no democracy in Argentina, and no diplomats to stop the war. There was no Congress and Senate at that time, making the war illegal. The fact that Maradona scored an "illegal" goal against England was seen as a revenge for loosing a war that no one wanted to fight. No one except Tatcher.
Sim hermano. When I mentioned “liberation” I meant the psychological catarse of the moment those 2 goals must have inflicted and meant to the Argentinean people. I totally understand how Tatcher used this war (as it is common to Great Britain) to pump popularity up when neo-liberalism was not really working. UK military killed some ~1500 Argentineans to achieve so. And while they thought they were the smartest, Maradona showed them otherwise.
