​Argentina’s players held up a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (The Falklands are Argentine) after they beat England 2-1 in their World Cup semi-final on Wednesday.The match at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium was played against the backdrop of a lingering dispute over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, known in Spanish as the Malvinas, in the South Atlantic Ocean.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementArgentina invaded the islands in 1982 but Britain regained them in a brief war after then prime minister Margaret Thatcher dispatched a naval taskforce.The conflict ended with the deaths of 649 Argentines and 255 Britons.The South American country’s vice president, Victoria Villarruel, upped the stakes ahead of Wednesday’s kick-off by calling the English “usurping pirates”.gj/jw