ATLANTA, July 16 (BSS/AFP) - 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.

Argentina 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".