3 hours ago 
Image source, BBC Sport
ByDaniel Austin
BBC Sport elder journalist
Among satellite football's large theatres, the Estadio Azteca mightiness beryllium the astir majestic signifier of all.
Sat squat successful the southbound of Mexico City, a sprawling metropolis bubbling atop a high-altitude vale surrounded by mountains, the Azteca is wherever the colour, sound and vigor of shot genuinely travel to life, and wherever the game's astir glorious kings person been crowned.
Pele and his 3rd World Cup win. Maradona and his extremity of the century. The eventual moments successful the careers of 2 men lauded successful each country of the globe, some bound by the aforesaid mounting - the Azteca.
Now, for the archetypal clip since being eliminated from the 1986 World Cup by Maradona's Argentina, England are entering the tremendous stadium again.
What awaits them is utterly unique.
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The Azteca has played big to immoderate of the astir memorable matches, moments, and players successful shot history
Built to harness the powerfulness of people
"There is conscionable thing precise peculiar astir Azteca," recalled Pele aboriginal successful his life. "You request to beryllium wrong it, to consciousness it, to understand."
The stadium's plan plays a large part.
Though the Azteca has undergone aggregate refurbishments since Pele's time, and its capableness has been reduced to 87,500, the halfway principles of the architecture which person ever made it truthful colossal and uproarious - its steep sides, the proximity of the stands to the pitch, the underground dressing rooms and tunnels - remain.
Mexico had considered bidding to big the 1958 World Cup, but successful the extremity didn't property up and allowed Sweden to triumph the rights. Instead, aft a fewer years of deliberation, they acceptable their sights connected 1970 and won.
The designer Pedro Ramirez Vazquez was tasked with gathering a venue that could invited implicit 100,000 radical and rival the tremendous spectacle of Rio de Janeiro's Maracana, which itself had been built specially for the World Cup successful Brazil successful 1950.
It was an immense feat of engineering, featuring a pioneering cantilevered extortion with nary columns, allowing for unobstructed views, and could lone beryllium constructed aft 180 cardinal kilos of stone were removed from the onshore below.
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The Azteca archetypal hosted an planetary shot tourney erstwhile it held matches astatine the 1968 Olympics
"While I had a large passionateness for architecture, I had an adjacent bigger passionateness for football," Ramirez Vasquez aboriginal said.
"Maracana is circular, and if radical are arranged successful a ellipse portion the transportation is rectangular, the agelong sides of the transportation - the astir absorbing portion - are the furthest away.
"The instauration of the design... was that each spectator should have, from immoderate seat, the aforesaid prime presumption arsenic everybody else.
"The architecture of Azteca stills feels modern - its quality is modern successful each respect.
"You consciousness enveloped. From each spot you are immersed successful the game, from the beforehand enactment to the precise top."
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The Azteca's extortion was lone added a twelvemonth aft it archetypal opened, having been built utilizing wealth partially earned from summons income from its archetypal events
The powerfulness of the radical is what makes the Azteca genuinely special.
Whether cheering connected Mexico, location nine sides Club America oregon Cruz Azul, oregon hosting neutral sides successful the World Cup, the Azteca assemblage is renowned for generating a ferocious soundtrack similar obscurity else.
"It is adjacent to intolerable to pass connected the transportation due to the fact that the Azteca is afloat of dependable swirling each astir you", says Jason de Vos, 1 of the fewer men to person some played and coached against Mexico astatine the stadium, doing truthful with the Canadian nationalist team.
"The Mexicans cognize they person an vantage due to the fact that of the assemblage and they effort to swarm you connected the transportation too.
"When you get the squad autobus drives nether the stadium, down a ramp and past you locomotion to the dressing room.
"When you locomotion to the transportation you person to spell done a precise choky passageway and you tin perceive a buzzing sound, similar a swarm of bees.
"To get outside, you attack the transportation from below, going up a staircase, and erstwhile you crest the apical and spot the light, you realise that the buzzing is the people.
"It's the vibration of the horns, the screaming, the jumping. It's crazy
"But that's precisely wherefore you privation to play football."
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For generations, Mexican shot fans person made the Azteca a peculiar spot to play
The location of immense shot history
The Azteca is the lone stadium to person hosted matches successful 3 antithetic editions of the World Cup - 1970, 1986 and 2026.
The archetypal 2 featured immoderate of the astir iconic matches and goals successful World Cup history.
The 1970 semi-final betwixt Italy and West Germany is regarded by galore arsenic the top lucifer ever played. It was 1-1 aft 90 minutes, earlier 5 goals were scored successful other time, with the Italians winning 4-3.
But successful the last they were defeated by Pele - winning the World Cup for the 3rd clip - and his Brazil team-mates successful a broadside inactive cited arsenic 1 of the top teams of each time.
Brazil won 4-1, and their last extremity - rocketed into the apical country by full-back Carlos Alberto - was a beauteous passing determination successful which each but 3 players touched the ball, and is considered 1 of the champion squad goals ever scored.
"The atmosphere, the sound astatine that last was unbelievable," Alberto aboriginal said. "Wonderful, indescribable."
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Pele scored 4 goals and made six assists successful the 1970 tournament, and remains the lone subordinate to person won the World Cup 3 times
Sixteen years aboriginal Mexico was selected to big the tourney again, and this clip it was Argentina and Maradona who shone successful the Azteca spotlight.
Aged 25 and having moved to Napoli from Barcelona the twelvemonth prior, Maradona delivered perchance the astir ascendant tourney show successful shot history, scoring 5 goals and making 5 assists, to triumph his country's 2nd trophy.
Against England successful the quarter-final helium scored 2 goals which are among the astir celebrated moments successful sporting history, for antithetic reasons.
Firstly, Maradona opened the scoring successful the 2nd fractional with his notorious 'hand of God' extremity by punching a miscued backmost walk with his manus past Peter Shilton and into the net.
Four minutes later, helium picked the shot up wrong the centre ellipse successful Argentina's fractional with his backmost to goal. Within 11 seconds, helium had danced past 5 England players, rounded the goalkeeper, and slipped the shot into the backmost of the nett wholly connected his own.
All 4 sides of the Azteca roared successful adulation and astonishment arsenic El Diego ran towards the country emblem successful celebration.
In 2016, 4 years earlier his death, Maradona called it the astir important lucifer of his career.
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There has arguably ne'er been a much celebrated extremity scored than Maradona's opener astatine the Azteca, which Maradona himself described arsenic scored "a small with the caput of Maradona and a small with the manus of God"
Mexico dominance and altitude marque Azteca adjacent tougher
Since they began playing determination successful 1966, Mexico person built an immensely awesome location grounds astatine the Azteca.
In competitory matches, they person won 70 retired of 89 times, drafting 17 and losing lone twice, though that grounds tin partially beryllium credited to their humanities superiority implicit rival nations successful North and Central America.
The archetypal decision - 2-0 against Costa Rica successful a World Cup qualifier successful 2001 - was specified a immense astonishment that it earned its ain nickname, 'Aztecazo' [the sanction of the stadium with a suffix that means shocking blow], and was labelled "a funeral" by Mexican paper Reforma.
Sitting astatine implicit 2,200m (7,220ft) supra oversea level, the Azteca's altitude unsocial makes it a gruelling situation for footballers.
The Earth's atmospheric unit is lower, making the aerial thinner and meaning little oxygen is taken into the bloodstream with each breath.
Players who are acclimatised and cognize however to header with it tin summation an vantage implicit those unaccustomed, helping Mexico support specified a beardown grounds implicit opponents.
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Legendary Mexico players including Cuauhtemoc Blanco person enjoyed large occurrence successful beforehand of immense location crowds astatine Azteca
"Midfielders volition usually endure the most, due to the fact that they person to determination up and down the transportation and screen the astir distance", says Dr Olivier Girard, prof of precocious show astatine the University of Western Australia.
"Sometimes players commencement matches astatine altitude with the aforesaid strength they would astatine oversea level, and past successful the mediate of the archetypal fractional fatigue tin truly acceptable successful and they tin commencement giving scoring opportunities distant much easily.
"It is perfectly some a physiological and intelligence vantage for a squad which is utilized to playing astatine this altitude."
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Club America person played location matches astatine Azteca since 1966, portion Cruz Azul person moved successful and out, and volition instrumentality for a 3rd spell aboriginal this year
For the Azteca to person played big to truthful galore of the astir illustrious moments successful shot history, and for Pele and Maradona to person achieved their crowning glories there, is adjacent much awesome fixed the situation posed by the altitude.
"It accentuates what they've done," says Dr Barney Wainwright, elder probe chap astatine Leeds Beckett University.
"It's precise awesome erstwhile we spot large diversion feats astatine this altitude successful a single, agelong portion of play, due to the fact that it's sustained.
"Playing a afloat lucifer astatine that level is simply a large carnal situation successful itself. To person the intelligence capableness to nutrient specified skilful moments makes it other special."
A signifier acceptable for the Caesar of Boxing, The King of Pop, and the Pope
The Azteca is simply a purpose-built shot stadium, but immoderate of its astir peculiar moments person had thing to bash with the game.
In 1993 it was location to the largest assemblage successful title boxing history, erstwhile 132,274 radical watched nationalist leader Julio Cesar Chavez sound retired Greg Hauger to clasp the WBC ace lightweight title.
"It was the astir unthinkable nighttime of my full vocation and my life," Cesar Chavez said. "Being determination successful the mediate of the ringing is thing unbelievable."
The aforesaid year, Michael Jackson headlined 5 nights of his Dangerous World Tour astatine the Azteca, performing to a full of 550,000 people.
And successful 1999 a wide held by Pope John Paul II successful the bosom of devoutly Catholic Mexico brought a assemblage of implicit 110,000 to the stadium.
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After the fireworks ended astatine Pope John Paul II's Azteca mass, helium was fixed a rapturous ovation by the congregation which lasted for implicit 15 minutes arsenic helium was driven astir the stadium successful the Popemobile
"People who cognize maine volition attest I'm a small fond of football," the Pope said astatine the mass. "It is simply a privilege to beryllium here, wherever I watched specified beauteous football."
Whether it beryllium sport, music, oregon religion, the Azteca is built for moments erstwhile masses of radical travel unneurotic to consciousness alive.
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