The World Cup had come home at last!  England, the pioneers of organised football were the new World Champions after an afternoon of high excitement, emotion, tension and drama that Wembley Stadium had never seen the like of before.

From early in the morning, the atmosphere was electric.  The crowd flocked to Wembley from all corners of the world and at kick-off time on a day of squally showers and bright sunshine, the stadium was a sea of waving flags.  As the teams marched into the arena, the emotion of the occasion made even the most hardened spectator clear the lump from his throat.  It was a magical moment in the history of English football.

The noise was deafening and from high in the stand there came a beating of a drum, a deep pulsating throb that lasted throughout the game. Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were introduced to the teams and after all the preliminaries were over, Gottfried Dienst, the referee from Switzerland, blew the opening whistle.

Both sides tentatively felt each other out in the early stages and they found the pitch treacherous after two heavy showers had fallen just before the start.  It was ripe for error.  That statement proved fatally correct in the 13th minute when Ray Wilson misjudged a headed clearance from Seeler's deep cross.  The ball dropped straight at Haller's feet and the German forward wasted no time in hitting a shot into the far corner of Gordon Bank's goal.  One could feel the wave of disappointment that swept from the terraces, at least from the English contingent.  But thankfully, the home supporters did not have to wait long for a reply.

Only six minutes after the goal, England equalised.  Overath unfairly tackled Bobby Moore and the captain quickly spotted a gap in the German rearguard.  His instant free-kick floated beautifully 35 yards to the middle and there was Geoff Hurst leaping unchallenged to direct a downwards header to the right of the flat-footed Tilkowski.  It was a vital goal.

So, all-square and plenty to play for.  Near-misses came at both ends.  Banks made two saves in as many seconds from Overath and Emmerich, whilst at the other end Tilkowski parried a left-foot rocket from Roger Hunt after a good pass by Martin Peters.  The goalkeeper then needed treatment after a 20-yard fizzer by Bobby Charlton beat his dive but struck the post and bounced back into Tilkowski's face before being cleared.

The half ended at one goal each and both sets of players walked off to get fresh inspiration from their respective managers.  When the teams reappeared, more slanting rain fell, glinting through the watery sunshine.  The half opened with some cagey play from both sides.  Each sought a chink in the armour of the other's defence and the game went into a relatively quiet spell.  The referee annoyed the crowd with some irritating decisions and goal chances were few and far between.

A deep cross by Peters out on the left was met by Bobby Charlton and another fierce shot went only just wide.  As the game wore on, both teams tensed up not daring to make the mistake that might settle the issue.  But with 13 minutes to go, the stadium erupted.

Alan Ball, who showed boundless energy throughout and covered every blade of the Wembley turf, now forced a corner on the right.  He took the kick himself and the ball eventually reached Hurst.  Hurst aimed a rather speculative shot goalwards but Höttges deflected it into the path of Peters and Jack Charlton.  Peters was there first and his bundled shot billowed the West German net to roars of delight from the crowd.

We thought that was it, but these Germans were not beaten until the very last whistle sounded.  Reinforced by Schnellinger and with the tireless efforts of Haller, Overath, Held and Beckenbauer, they kept pushing forward.  Moore and Nobby Stiles were masterly in defence, but with the last minute unwinding, and with Moore's hands all but on the trophy, the Germans found a sensational equaliser.

A somewhat harsh decision gave the Germans a free-kick against Jack Charlton.  With everyone back behind the ball, Emmerich blasted the kick against the English wall. The ball rebounded to Held, who blazed wildly sending it across goal.  There was a suspicion of handball against Schnellinger but eventually it ran wide and in came Weber to stun the whole of England by crashing the ball past Banks' despairing dive.

England just had time to kick-off again before the referee blew his whistle for the end of 90 minutes.  Alf Ramsey came on, as did most of the England World Cup party, and his first task was to get the players on their feet ready for the extra-time period.  Many sides would have folded after having had victory snatched from their grasp in such dramatic fashion, but not England.  They rolled up their sleeves and rolled down their socks and prepared for battle all over again.

The energy-sapping pitch was having dire consequences and many players were suffering from cramp.  England stuck to the pattern which had served them so well.  Stiles and Moore mopped up the Germans' central thrusts, Bobby Charlton and Peters provided from midfield, Ball scurried here, there and everywhere and up front Hurst and Hunt battered away at the German defences.

Extra-time approached its half-way stage as Stiles sent Ball on another lung-bursting run to a through-ball.  The fiery red-haired number-seven collected and put in an instant centre.  Hurst trapped the ball with his back to goal, swivelled, and crashed a tremendous shot which thudded against the bar, bounced down and was then headed clear by Weber.

"Goal," shouted Hunt, who turned immediately to salute Hurst's shot.  The Germans disagreed, convinced the ball had not crossed the line.  The England fans bayed as the referee trotted over to the Russian linesman, Tofik Bakhramov.  There was an agonising wait as the two engaged in a tense conversation.  But at the end of it all, Mr Dienst pointed to the middle and the English celebrations began in earnest.  The Germans argued but the record book had been written and at half-time in extra-time, the score was 3-2 to England.

How the two sides managed to see out the last stage of this two-hour epic was beyond praise and marvellous testament to the wonderful level of fitness, the two squads had reached.  The minutes ticked away, England feared another German comeback, but then, finally, with seconds left, the greatest day in the history of English football was sealed by a fourth goal.

Moore, in majestic form even at this late stage, put another superb defence-splitting pass through the wide open spaces of the German defence, exposed by their desperate attacking commitment.  On to it ran Hurst and the West Ham combination reached a remarkable climax at a rasping shot from Hurst's left foot flew into the top corner of Tilkowski's net.  A hat-trick for Hurst and the first time that a player had achieved that feat in a World Cup Final.

Seconds later, the whistle blew to end a passionate afternoon.  Ball leapt on Hurst, Jack Charlton sank to the floor in sheer fatigue and unashamed joy, whilst brother Bobby's face just crumpled into a flood of tears.  The scenes were marvellously unforgettable.

The walk up the steps for the team to receive the trophy was a proud moment and when Moore lifted the World Cup to the heavens, the roar could be heard for miles around. And who will ever forget Nobby Stiles, doing his victory jig on the lap of honour, his toothless smile an image that would be on the front pages of every newspaper the following day.

England were World Champions and worthy winners.

Alf Ramsey decided to stick with an unchanged team. No place for fit-again Jimmy Greaves. West Germany took the negative approach of putting Franz Beckenbauer on man-to-man marking duty against Bobby Charlton, so the two most creative players on the pitch cancelled each other out.  This was manager Helmut Schoen's reaction to Charlton's spectacular show against Portugal. A rare Ray Wilson mistake on a wet surface let Helmut Haller in for a thirteenth minute goal which was equalised six minutes later when Hurst headed in a perfectly flighted free-kick from his West Ham team-mate Bobby Moore. Just after the hour a Hurst shot was blocked and it was another West Hammer, Peters, who smacked the rebound smartly into the net to make it 2-1. England were one minute from the World Cup when Jack Charlton was adjudged to have fouled Germany's skipper Uwe Seeler. During a goalmouth scramble that followed the free-kick defender Hans Weber forced the ball into the net, with skipper Bobby Moore insisting there had been a handball. Ten minutes into extra-time, the inexhaustible Alan Ball made one of his many scampering runs past left-back Schnellinger and centered the ball. Hurst turned and fired a first-time shot against the under-side of the ball, and England claimed the ball had crossed the goal-line. Swiss referee Georg Dienst awarded a controversial goal after consulting the Russian linesman Bakhramov. To this day, the Germans dispute the decision. Hurst ended all arguments in the final seconds when he ran on to a clearance from Bobby Moore and hammered a left foot shot past goalkeeper Hans Tilkowski to complete the first ever World Cup hat-trick. England, just as Alf Ramsey had prophesied, were champions of the world.

Source Notes

TheFA.com
Deutscher Fußball-Bund
FIFA.com
Original newspaper reports
Official matchday programme - courtesy of Geoff Mills.
Rothman's Yearbooks
Mike Payne's England: The Complete Post-War Record (Breedon Books Publishing Company, Derby, U.K., 1993)
Norman Giller, Football Author
Cris Freddi's Complete Book of the World Cup
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CG