The Queen was once asked if she was going to be watching England in a World Cup game

The Queen was once asked if she'd be watching England play in a World Cup quarter final, and she had the most brilliantly polite response.

Queen Elizabeth II was known to enjoy sports, especially horse racing, she even owned several race horses and being a semi regular spectator, even when she was advised against it later in life.

However, being a reigning Monarch meant she wasn't always able to watch sport, unsurprisingly, which included one very important England game.

Back in 1998, the Three Lions advanced into the last 16 of the World Cup, thanks in part to David Beckham's wonderful free kick against Colombia.

They were due to face Argentina in the first knockout round, a game that Beckham would become even more famous for, and the Queen was asked if she would be watching.

"Well, I don’t know, what time is it?" her Majesty answered.

The member of the public who asked her then let her know it was an 8pm kick off, with the Queen answering, "Oh, I’ve got a dinner party!"

She was then asked if she'd still be cheering on the team, answering, "Well, I think one should, we’re going to have a very difficult job I think."

Doubt the Queen's dinner party looked like this. Image: Alamy

She was right in fairness, it certainly was a difficult job for Glenn Hoddle's team against the South Americans, in what was a very dramatic game.

Gabriel Batistuta opened the scoring in just the fifth minute from the penalty spot after David Seaman brought down Diego Simeone in the box.

However, England were level just four minutes later, as the referee once again pointing at the spot, with teenager Michael Owen marauding through the Argentina defence before being brought down.

That was nothing though, with the Liverpool striker running from the half way line through half the opposition's team, before cooly chipping in to make it 2-1.

Diego Simeone was the villain of the game. Image: Alamy

A very clever free kick on the edge of the area, with just a minute of the first half, led to the sides going into the break at 2-2, after Javier Zanetti scored.

Two minutes after the restart came Beckham's moment of madness, as he kicked out at Simeone, who hit the floor in a dramatic way, and got the Manchester United midfielder a sending off.

England had a goal disallowed in extra time and the game eventually went to penalties, where they lost 4-3 after David Batty and Paul Ince both missed their attempts.

Topics: Football World Cup, England, Argentina

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a journalist for SPORTbible with over eight years of experience. Passionate about all sports, he mainly covers football and F1 - Daniel Ricciardo once spent an entire interview referring to him as 'Ryan Gosling,' still his proudest moment.

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