Three years earlier, England, hosting the World Cup, were over the moon, beating Mexico 2-0 on July 16th 1966 at Wembley in their second group match. Two goals came via Bobby Charlton and Roger Hunt.
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-pty-pty_extension&hsimp=yhs-pty_extension&hspart=pty&p=england+v+mexico+1966+on+youtube#id=1&vid=a1a566a22729e60944d364aa191851d6&action=click
Earlier on July 11th, England had drawn 0-0 with Uruguay, the South Americans fielding an 8 man defence. The Uruguay goalkeeper, Mazurkiewicz, became the first foreign goalkeeper to prevent England from scoring at Wembley! Things were looking a little shakey.
Hunt then got a double against France in a 2-0 victory to top the group. Greaves gave way to Hunt, who didn't score another goal and sadly Greaves sustained an injury against France and waved bye bye to his World Cup.
On July 16th, other ties included, Argentina who drew violently with West Germany 0-0, at Villa Park in a rough tie. Their half back Jorge Albrecht was sent off following firstly a high tackle on the German, Weber and then a rugby style tackle on Haller.
The Argentinians had set a trend for violence, that they took with them to play England in the quarter-final; remember Rattin and all. Ramsey cleverly brought in Geoff Hurst and he scored the only goal and winner at 78 minutes.
On the same day, Portugal showed their class with a 3-0 win over Bulgaria at Old Trafford, when Vutzov headed a spectacular own goal and Eusebio, who was soon to be heralded as a new star, added one, as did Torres.
The Soviet Union beat Italy 1-0 at Roker Park, thanks to a Chislenko goal.
England then met Argentina in a violent quarter-final winning 1-0, West Germany beat Uruguay 4-0, Portugal thumped North Korea 5-3 (Eusebio and co were 0-3 down) and the Soviet Union beat Hungary 2-1.
The rest is history for England: Portugal then West Germany. The Americans still had their finale to experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment