Today is 'A' and exactly nine years on from our World Cup defeat at France '98, A is for Argentina...

One of England's biggest rivals on the football field, Argentina have played their part in some exciting matches over the past 50 years against the Three Lions. Each clash has been packed full of great goals, controversy and thrilling football.

The rivalry between the two sides is one of the most intense in world football, known as a 'classico' in Argentina and came to the fore in England's victorious World Cup campaign of 1966.

The Quarter-Final clash at Wembley is best remembered for the sending off of Argentine captain Antonio Rattin towards the end of the first half for 'violence of the tongue' and his refusal to leave the field held the game up for 10 minutes. England went on to win the game through a Geoff Hurst goal en-route to glory.

Argentina were the first foreign team to face England in an international at Wembley Stadium in May 1951, with England triumphing 2-1. They also locked horns in the 1962 World Cup in Chile where England won 3-1 in the group stage.

Another memorable clash between the two came in 1986. Again it was a World Cup Quarter-Final but this time Argentina won and went on to lift the trophy. Diego Maradona was the man who broke English hearts with an outstanding solo goal to make the score 2-0 - though it was his first goal that caused outrage.

Later described as the 'Hand of God', Maradona challenged Peter Shilton in the air and punched the ball into the net to the fury of the English.

England were again on the losing side in a last-16 meeting at the World Cup in 1998. Argentina took an early lead which was wiped out by an Alan Shearer penalty before a young Michael Owen scored one of the greatest goals in Finals history to make it 2-1, beating two defenders before coolly lifting the ball over the keeper and into the top corner.

Argentina levelled things up from a well-worked free-kick before David Beckham was shown the red card. The ten men of England held on heroically for the rest of the game and through extra time but were eventually eliminated on penalties.

England were made to wait four years to get their revenge on Argentina in the 2002 World Cup where they won 1-0 thanks to a Beckham penalty.

The most recent meeting occurred in Geneva for a friendly match in 2005 and was another thrilling encounter as Owen scored two dramatic last minute goals to guide the Three Lions to a famous 3-2 victory.