Jinking Jimmy Greaves was the star turn on the Wembley stage in this prestige match to celebrate the Centenary of the Football Association. He might have had a first-half hat-trick but for the magnificent goalkeeping of Russia's 'Man in Black' Lev Yashin. Terry Paine gave England a first-half lead, which was cancelled out by Denis Law, and it was Greavsie who conjured the winner with just three minutes left of a memorable match. There was a wonderful moment in the first-half that captured the spirit in which the game was played. Yashin had been giving an amazing exhibition of shot stopping, and on the half hour artful dodger Greaves tried for a sixth time to beat him. He fired in a power drive that most goalkeepers would have tried to either tuck away around a post or over the bar. But the unpredictable Russian met it with a boxer's punch that sent the ball screaming back to the halfway line. Greaves and Yashin then fell into each other's arms laughing as they congratulated each other. Greavsie then at last got the better of Yashin with what he has since described as the 'greatest goal I never scored!' He threaded his way past four of the world's finest defenders before slipping the ball wide of the oncoming Yashin, but it was disallowed because the referee had - unheard by most people in the stadium - whistled for a foul against Greaves at the start of his scintillating run. What ever happened to the advantage rule, ref?

Source Notes

TheFA.com
Original newspaper reports
Rothman's Yearbooks
Mike Payne's England: The Complete Post-War Record (Breedon Books Publishing Company, Derby, U.K., 1993)
Norman Giller, Football Author
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CG