Diego Maradona seemed to be having lots of fun on Tuesday night as Argentina just about overcame Nigeria 2-1 to squeeze into the 2018 World Cup last-16.
His performance, for want of a better word, included appearing to be possessed by emotion as Argentina scored and flipping the bird at Nigeria fans below at full time. He suffered a health scare later that night before being deemed to be "fine".
Of course, Maradona has always been expressive and extroverted. And as I discussed with Simon Hart, author of World In Motion: The Inside Story of Italia 90 in Part 2 of our chat (here's Part 1), not holding back was part of Diego's antics ahead of the 1990 World Cup final against West Germany.
World Cup 2018, Preliminary round, Group D, 3rd game day, Nigeria vs Argentina at the St. Petersburg Stadium: The former Argentina soccer player Diego Maradona standing in the stands. Photo: Cezaro De Luca/dpa
"Maradona, if you ever get the chance to see the footage when the anthems take place, the whole of the Stadio Olimpico's screeching and whistling as the Argentina anthem plays and Maradona's there shouting 'hijos de putas' (sons of w*****)" Simon told me, having set the scene in regard to the siege mentality and sense of paranoia within the Argentina camp in regards to refereeing.
"Today now players will cover their mouths before they even say something to their team-mates whereas here you've got the best player in the world, swearing into a camera before the World Cup final."
You can listen back to Part 2 of our interview with Simon Hart below or on iTunes:
And our in-studio panel went Goggle Box for the Argentina game as we chatted about the latest from the World Cup so far while trying to watch Argentina-Nigeria.
Recent interviews on Team 33 include former Man United cult hero Andrei Kanchelskis, ex-England international Carlton Palmer, former Newcastle and Everton left back Alessandro Pistone, Chelsea legends Bobby Tambling and Paddy Mulligan, Dutch legend Johan Neeskens, ex-England striker Darius Vassell, Liverpool legend David Fairclough, former Ireland midfielder Mark Kinsella, USA captain Eric Lichaj and former Everton forward Tomasz Radzinski. Plus our in-depth chats with Tony Coton, Packie Bonner, Nobby Solano, Ron Atkinson and Alan Curbishley are still available on iTunes. You can find them all in one place by subscribing to Team 33 on iTunes.
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