My Greatest Mexico '86 XI - Steven Scragg
Steven Scragg is an award winning football author who has written a number of books on European and world football, including A Tournament Frozen in Time and Where the Cool Kids Hung Out.
His latest publication is In the Heat of the Midday Sun, documenting the Mexico'86 World Cup.
So who better to share his greatest XI from the Mexico'86 tournament...
The Starting XI (4-3-3)
GK: Joël Bats
RB: Josimar
LB: Branco
CB: Oscar Ruggeri
CB: Andoni Goikoetxea.
RM: Jan Ceulemans
CM: Michel Platini
LM: Diego Maradona
FW: Preben Elkjær
FW: Igor Belanov
FW: Careca
Substitutes
GK: Harald (Toni) Schumacher
The World Cup's traditional pantomime villain: four years on from Seville, Battiston and all that, Schumacher went on to play in his second World Cup final. You don't get to play in back-to-back World Cup finals without being a supremely talented goalkeeper and his role of football's bogeyman helped facilitate that, at a tournament where he was on his best behaviour on the pitch, yet fractious off it. Very nearly dropped by Franz Beckenbauer.
DF: Manuel Amoros
Played every minute of the tournament for France, bringing some much-needed experience and continuity from four years earlier, plus his nation's success in the 1984 European Championship. Nerveless in his dispatching of a penalty in the quarter-final shootout against Brazil and only denied a starting role in this team by the rampaging enthusiasm of Josimar.
AM: Michael Laudrup
Elkjær might have scored a hat-trick against Uruguay, but Laudrup stole the show with an incredible weaving effort that simply took the breath away. A player that could not only see all the angles on a football pitch, but one who could also invent new ones, he would drop deep, pull wide, and press high, all within a matter of seconds, this in the cloying heat and insufferable altitude of Mexico. A complete and utter genius, he was still around when Denmark reached their next World Cup, 12 years later.
FW: Emilio Butragueño
Four goals in 45 mad minutes of football against the ludicrously talented Denmark will always be the reset image of Butragueño to an entire generation of football lovers, no matter what else he did in the rest of his illustrious career. A player that could blow hot and cold, he would go on to experience a goal drought during the Euro 88 qualifiers, but in Mexico, against Denmark, every time he ventured into the penalty area a goal felt inevitable. Also scored the opener against Northern Ireland.
FW: Gary Lineker
Top scorer at the 1986 World Cup, yet the combined aggregate distance of his six goals is probably shorter than the one Vasyl Rats scored against France. The penalty box poacher's penalty box poacher of choice, Lineker's hat-trick against Poland likely saved Bobby Robson's job, while the two he snared against Paraguay showed it had been no flash in the pan. Scorer of a goal against Argentina in the quarter-final that is less spoken about that 'that' miss.

This Mexico'86 XI was selected by Steven Scragg, the author of In the Heat of Midday Sun - The Indelible Story of the 1986 World Cup.
You can find Steven on Twitter and details of where to buy his book on Pitch Publishing:
- Twitter - @Scraggy_74
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