WITH the host country, Sweden, opening the 1958 World Cup earlier in the day by beating Mexico, the competition was well and truly under way by the time England and the Soviet Union took to the field early in the evening. By the end of this match, the crowd were jumping up and down with excitement as the two sides fought out a thriller.

Having met only three weeks before in a friendly, both sides were familiar with each other's style. It was the Soviets who were quickly into their stride as England struggled to get going. Indeed, England's first half display was very disappointing and the Soviets had much more of the play. It was a hard, physical game with Russia having the edge up front. Valentin Ivanov, Simonyan and Salnikov were particularly impressive and it came as no real surprise when the Soviets took the lead after a quarter of an hour.

Alexander Ivanov fired in a low cross which Colin McDonald could only parry. The ball ran loose and Simonyan nipped in to flick it home. England were now up against it and for a while Billy Wright and his players could not respond. McDonald made one superb save and there were several other near misses before half-time arrived.

One hoped that the break would give England time to regroup but after ten minutes into the second half the Soviets made it 2-0 and the writing seemed to be on the wall. Kesarev began the move with a strong run from full-back. He then put Alexander Ivanov through in the inside-left channel and the winger evaded Bill Slater's attempted interception before shooting past the goalkeeper.

England at this stage looked out of it as Salnikov and Valentin Ivanov turned on the style. The England defence looked at sixes and sevens for much of the time although Don Howe was outstanding at right-back. Wright and Eddie Clamp worked hard but Tom Finney was too often left on his own in attack to battle against the tough-tackling Russian defenders. The free-kicks they conceded were testament to the ferocity of their tackles. Bobby Robson tried hard to create some sort of pattern in England's play but had little joy. Until, that is, only 30 minutes were left on the referee's watch.

Robson had just seen a goal disallowed after Derek Kevan was penalised for a foul on Yashin. Although England were obviously disappointed with that decision, the incident had a profound effect on the final outcome. Suddenly the Soviets became jittery and nervous. Players, who for the first hour had looked confident and composed, were now being forced into errors by a rejuvenated England team. England were in fact unrecognisable from the first half and now, with their tails up, they threw everything at the Soviets.

Within seconds of the disallowed goal, England at last pulled one back. A long free-kick by Wright sent alarm bells running through the Soviet defence. Bryan Douglas caused panic by nipping in and when the ball bounced up and free Kevan pounced to score.

From then on it was all England as wave after wave of attacks swept forward. The crowd roared their approval as the forward line found space that had previously been denied them earlier. Finney, especially, was the key and one of many near misses came when Robson shot just wide when it seemed he must score.

With 15 minutes left, Finney was again prominent as he combined well with Kevan and Haynes to set up a return pass which Kevan crashed against Yashin's body. When the rebound came out Robson reacted first to flick the ball home. The jubilation was quickly curtailed as once again the goal was ruled out by the Hungarian referee for a foul on Yashin.

England were not to be denied, though, and as the excitement reached a crescendo with five minutes to go, they found their equaliser. A lovely pass by Finney sent Haynes through, only for the number ten to be unceremoniously upended. Penalty!

What a situation for Finney. In an atmosphere of edge of the seat tension and almost total silence the ice-cool Preston man slotted the ball past even Yashin's vast reach to score. The relief of the crowd was felt to the full in a tremendous cheer. So, England, in the deserved their draw but one could not forget that for two-thirds of the match they had not played well at all. But with the other game in their group ending Brazil 3 Austria 0, they still had everything to play for.
 

Tom Finney coolly placed a penalty wide of Russian goalkeeper Lev Yashin six minutes from the final whistle to give England a draw in their opening World Cup match against a Russian team much changed from the side they had played in Moscow the previous month. The Russians had led 2-0 with twenty minutes to go, and it looked all over for England until Bryan Douglas created a goal for Derek Kevan. After Finney had scored the equaliser from the penalty spot, a furious  Lev Yashin got hold of the referee and spun him around like a top. Incredibly, he was allowed to stay on the field. He was protesting over the award of the penalty because he considered the tackle had been made outside the box. In the closing moments a crushing tackle on Finney damaged his knee and put him out of the rest of the tournament.