This 100,000 people who attended this FA Centenary celebration match, witnessed a spectacle that was a fitting tribute to the occasion. The stars came from all over the world to show the English fans all that is best in this wonderful game, a game that England taught the world all those years ago. The Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of Gloucester were the Royal guests and everything was set up for a perfect day.

Right from the kick-off all the players settled down to enjoy the game. Subtle skills and magical touches were soon in abundance and the crowd were revelling in the atmosphere. England rose to the occasion with a fine performance and no player impressed more than the enigmatic Jimmy Greaves. Three times in the first half he tested the man who was arguably the greatest goalkeeper in the world, Yashin, to the full. Each time the big Russian's reflexes were equal to the shot.

Ray Wilson and Jimmy Armfield showed their class, resource and superb timing against the high talent of Kopa and Gento, whilst Gordon Milne covered acres of Wembley's lush turf linking with George Eastham.

The first half was goalless but certainly not without thrills. One superb moment came when Greaves, Bobby Charlton and Bobby Smith combined beautifully for Greaves to take Smith's wall-pass perfectly, thread his way through the FIFA defence before firing a shot into the roof of the net from the narrowest of angles. It would have been one of the finest goals ever seen at Wembley but for one snag. The referee had whistled just before for an infringement and all that England got was a free-kick on the edge of the area.

The nearest that the visitors came to scoring was when the great Di Stefano somehow contrived to miss a sitter from right in front of Gordon Banks. It was a miss that proved that even the greatest players are human.

Di Stefano held his head disbelievingly. If there was a flaw in the FIFA side it was in their finishing, but Greaves almost put England into the lead right on half-time, only for his left-foot shot to be nonchalantly punched away by Yashin.

After the break the FIFA side made five substitutions but with quality replacing quality there was no let-up in the entertainment, although the crowd had to wait until the 70th minute before they at last saw a goal. It came after a Smith centre from the right found Greaves darting in to fire in a shot which was blocked. From the rebound Terry Paine reacted quickly and shot past Šoškić to a tumultuous roar of approval from the crowd.

There were more narrow squeaks at either end before, with just seven minutes to go, Law, combining brilliantly with Di Stefano and Puskás, turned sharply to shoot past Banks to make it 1-1. England then pushed forward, a Charlton special hit the post and Greaves chipped the ball over Šoškić, only to see his shot scrape the angle of post and crossbar. It was thrilling stuff and with three minutes left England made one final push to score a goal that gave them a famous and richly-deserved victory.

Again Charlton hit a dipping, swerving shot, and although Šoškić parried the ball, he failed to hold it. That was fatal as it gave Greaves just the chance he needed to nip in and put the loose ball into the net. It was typical Greaves and rounded off a magnificent display which proved, in such company, that he was truly world-class. Mind you, in this match everything was world-class!
  

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. Whatever happened to the advantage rule, ref?
  

Ten years after a FIFA side had visited Wembley for the FA's 90th anniversary, England faced a rest-of-the-world select containing six former and future European Footballers of the Year.
England broke the deadlock when Greaves' shot from a cross by Smith was blocked and Terry Paine scored from close range. With eight minutes left, Di Stefano and Puskás worked an opening for Manchester United's Denis Law to fire the equaliser past Banks. But in the last minute Šoškić could not hold Charlton's drive and Jimmy Greaves nipped in to secure the victory.
The win gave England high hopes of winning the World Cup in 1966 in their own country.
Making their first appearances at Wembley were Raymond Kopa (European Footballer of the Year in 1958), Josef Masopust (European Footballer of the Year in 1962) and Lev Yashin, who was about to be named European Footballer of the Year for 1963. Yashin was to return in the 1966 World Cup.
     

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