Belgium Team

England Team

This was a real confidence-booster for England on a night of high-entertainment in appalling conditions between two sides who went at each other relentlessly from first whistle to last.

After the introduction of several positional changes, England looked much-more balanced than of late and Peter Osgood as a roving centre-forward made an auspicious debut. With the sleet slanting down onto a mudheap of a pitch, good football looked distinctly unlikely. Yet that proved an incorrect assumption. The closed-in surroundings of Anderlecht's stadium and a fervent, partisan crowd added to England's problems and they made a shaky start as a result. Belgium, also eager to impress with the World Cup only a few months away, opened strongly, quickly winning the early midfield battle and forcing England into errors. Van Moer, Van Himst, Devrindt and Semmeling all went close with goal-attempts at Gordon Banks.

But suddenly, after 29 minutes, came the moment that completely changed the game. Osgood 'picked up' the ball from Tommy Wrightand cut inside a defender before passing to Martin Peters. The West Ham player slid a perfect pass into the path of Alan Ball and, without having to alter his pace, Ball fired a fierce shot past Trappeniers. It was a magnificent goal and one could visibly detect the confidence suddenly return to England's play.

Belgium still fought hard, though, and fine tackles from Wright and Bobby Moore prevented the dangerous Van Himst from breaking through. At half-time England were still hanging-on to their slender lead.

After the break, with the weather getting worse, the battle continued in a 'blaze' of excitement. By now, Ball and Peters had 'wrestled' the midfield away from Belgium and on 55 minutes England scored a second goal. Another fine move across the mud involving Ball, Emlyn Hughes and Peters ended with a cross by the latter. In came Geoff Hurst, like an express train, and his header gave the goalkeeper no chance.

Almost immediately, though, the Belgians pulled a goal back. Moore, magnificent throughout, was somewhat harshly penalised for handball on the edge of the area. From the free-kick, Dockx drilled his shot through the 'wall' to make it 2-1. Many sides might have faltered at this point, but not England. Within a minute they had restored their two-goal advantage. Terry Cooper moved down the left and crossed in the middle, Hurst flicked it on and, although Jeck headed the ball out, it dropped invitingly for the 'human dynamo' Ball, who promptly whacked it past Trappeniers.

That left the visitors with 30 minutes to negotiate, and led by Moore they calmly repelled all the Belgian efforts in this closing period of the match. Cooper, Hughes and Osgood all looked good and it was satisfying to see Peters back to his best in midfield. A fine victory.
  

Alan Ball was rewarded for one of his typically non-stop performances with two goals in appalling conditions in rain-lashed Brussels. Geoff Hurst scored the other goal against a punchless Belgium team which had Paul van Himst as their one world-class player. Chelsea's graceful but unpredictable Peter Osgood made a quietly, satisfactory debut in snowy conditions. The game was won by England in midfield, where Ball and Peters were outstanding on a quagmire of a pitch that made every step a challenge.
  

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