England Team

Romania Team

This was the first time that Romania had visited Wembley and of the 77,000 crowd, almost all hoped that the visitors would be the 'sacrificial lambs to the slaughter'. Unfortunately for England, though, things did not work out like that and the fans were in for a frustrating night as, once again, the old forward-failing let England down.

On a heavy pitch saturated by incessant rain, England always dominated the game territorially, but against a side 'hell-bent' on defending they had neither the craft nor the guile to find a route to goal. So often against continental opposition, an early strike was necessary and it almost came when Alan Ball had a shot cleared off the line by Deleanu. That was a near-miss but, undeterred, England pressed forward. Bobby Charlton fired in a couple of 'scorchers' which Gornea did well to keep out, but Geoff Hurst and Roger Hunt were less effective as the main strikeforce.

Romania relied on the occasional, quick breakaway and Dumitrache, a quality player, was always dangerous. Anca, Dinu and Nunweiller played some clever stuff in midfield and Dembrovschi gave Dumitrache good support at the front.

On the half-hour, though, England deservedly took the lead. A corner by Bobby Charlton was headed in by big-brother Jack, who outjumped the defenders. From then on it seemed only a matter of time before they would score again. Bobby Charlton hit a post and had yet another fins shot saved, but his were the only worthwhile chances worth recording as all the others went 'begging'. The close-in chances were wasted and although new cap John Radford fired in a couple of good efforts, the goalkeeper was equal to them. Gornea did elect to punch more often than he should have but England failed to punish him when the punch went astray.

Alan Ball gave his usual all-action performance and Bob McNab made excellent use of the left wing in supporting runs. Bobby Charlton, captain for the first time, was always dangerous.

The second half was again dominated by England but the crowd became increasingly irritated bu their failure to make all the possession tell in front of goal. More chances were created and lost, and with monotonous regularity the attacks fell predictably short of Romania's goal. It was most frustrating as the gap in quality was obvious but this goalscoring famine was becoming a real crisis.

With 15 minutes to go, Romania were handed a gift. Jack Charlton, twice in quick succession lunged at Nunweiller, blocking his shots, but after the second one the Scottish referee amazed everyone by awarding a penalty for what, one can only presume, was 'hands'. It was hardly deserved but the confident Dumitrache stepped up to calmly score and send his team-mates wild with delight at their equalizer.

England were left regretting all the missed chances and, with some very important games coming up, they now looked for a striker who could convert the many goal-opportunities their approach-play created.
  

A memorable match for the Charlton brothers. Bobby captained the team in injured Bobby Moore's absence in what was his ninetieth international, and big Jack scored England's goal. It was John Radford's first game for England and Roger Hunt's last. Hunt was sick of the criticism being aimed at him during an unsuccessful press campaign to get Jimmy Greaves recalled, and he asked Ramsey not to consider him for any more matches. The media built it into a "Hunt hates Greaves" war, but the truth is that they liked and respected each other. It was just footballing fate that these two exceptional goalscorers reached their footballing peak at the same time.
  

Romania had met England in Bucharest just two months earlier contesting a goalless draw. Their only previous meeting had been a 2-0 England victory, also in Bucharest, in 1939, but they had appeared at Wembley in 1957 for an under-23 international.
Romania had not qualified for a World Cup since 1938 and had already lost 3-0 to Portugal in the latest competition. They had finished runners-up to the eventual winners Italy in their European Championship qualifying group for the previous year's tournament.
England took a deserved lead. Jack Charlton headed in a corner from his brother Bobby who was captaining his country for the first time.
But it was Jack who gave Romania a penalty 15 minutes from the end when Nunweiller's shot hit him on the hand. Florea Dumitrache sent Banks the wrong way from the spot and, once again, a continental defence had held England to a draw.
The teams met the following year in England's first defence of the World Cup in Guadalajara. Geoff Hurst scored the only goal of the game for England. Romania did not qualify for the quarter-finals but denied England at Wembley again in 1981.
     

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