England's 5 most painful World Cup exits

#2: World Cup 1986

In most of their other World Cup exits, England could usually blame some sort of factor, or mix thereof, be it penalties, disallowed goals, over-confidence, injuries, you name it really.

But their exit in the 1986 edition of the tournament is the only one that fans of the Three Lions could blame outright cheating for, hence why it ranks so highly.

After a slow start that saw Bobby Robson’s side lose to Portugal, and draw with Morocco in the group stage, a 3-0 victory over Poland was enough to send them into the round of 16 in second place. There, they really seemed to hit their stride, thumping Paraguay 3-0 in one-sided fashion.

That win set up a quarter-final with Argentina, who sported the world’s best player at the time (Diego Maradona), within their ranks.

Given that England and Argentina had been at war over the Falkland Islands just four years prior, it made for a tense showdown.

It was Maradona who decided the tie in the end. Early in the second half, England’s Steve Hodge miscued a clearance and the ball sliced up into the air inside the penalty box. Maradona leaped for it with England keeper Peter Shilton, and blatantly punched the ball over him and into the net.

Somehow the referee failed to spot the foul and awarded the goal, and it was a sucker blow that England just couldn’t recover from.

Four minutes later, Maradona went on a slaloming run through England’s defence, cutting them to shreds en route to scoring one of the greatest World Cup goals of all time.

England pulled a goal back through Gary Lineker, but it was too little, too late in the end, and they were eliminated, while Argentina went on to lift the trophy.

It was a loss that still hurts to look back on today because if the referee had spotted Maradona’s infraction, he may have been sent off, thus would never have been on the field to score his amazing second goal.

In essence, England were undone by a moment of pure cheating.