England, at last, began their defence of the World Cup exactly four weeks after having arrived in Mexico for acclimatization. The pre-tournament friendlies had gone very well and now the important games began. Bobby Moore led his men out and the 3,000 or so England fans who had made the long journey roared their approval. The red, white and blue Union Flags were much in evidence.

The opening exchanges were lively to say the least and when Bobby Charlton and Francis Lee played a wall-pass on the edge of the area, Charlton was hooked-up in the penalty-area as he went for the return. Unfortunately the referee waved play on.

With only five minutes gone, Romania almost scored when Nunweiller began a good move which sent the dangerous Dumitrache away. He beautifully 'dummied' Brian Labone and Keith Newton before sending an inch-perfect cross to the far post. In came Tătaru from behind Terry Cooper but he miscued his volley wide of the target.

The game settled down after that incident and was constantly interrupted by the referee's whistle. The Romanians resorted to less-than fair means to stop the England players but to their everlasting credit there was no retaliation from the holders and they could be proud of their faultless temperament.

Dumitrache was a real handful and another superb run in the 23rd minute had Moore and Cooper in trouble before Alan Mullery came across to quell the danger with a fierce challenge. 

England grew in confidence as they warmed to the task. Newton and Cooper made some good runs and Moore, Charlton, Alan Ball and Mullery began to drive them forward. Charlton fired in two of his 'specials' and both went close. With ten minutes of the half left, Cooper put in yet another cross after beating Sătmăreanu, and Lee darted in only to be desperately unlucky enough to see his snapshot strike the bar. Moments later, Martin Peters headed just over from Newton's cross. 

The second half saw England tighten up at the back but continue to push forward. On 65 minutes they finally found a way through. Ball put in a deep cross to the far post. Geoff Hurst trapped the ball, skipped around a defender brilliantly in a tight situation and then slammed in a fine shot from an acute angle. 

The goal was well-received by England and from then on their controlled, thoughtful play took all the sting out of Romania. The Romanians were too defensive in their approach and their cynical play also left a lot to be desired. 

When the referee signalled the end of the game, the match-winner had been the same in this game as he had been four years earlier against the West Germans; a good omen, perhaps? It was certainly a satisfactory opening for England and they now moved on to the big one, a match against mighty Brazil.
  

England started their World Cup defence as they had finished it in 1966, with Geoff Hurst emerging as the goal-scoring hero. His goal in the seventieth minute - the ball going through the legs of the Romanian goalkeeper - was enough to give England a winning send-off. Captain Bobby Moore, back with the squad after his harrowing experience in Colombia, was the outstanding defender on the pitch. It was a satisfactory rather than spectacular start by England against opponents who concentrated solely on defence in a bid to squeeze a draw out of a hard-fought match.  The one worry for England was an injury to right-back Keith Newton, but his Everton clubmate Tommy Wright proved a sound substitute.
  

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)
Cris Freddi's Complete Book of the World Cup (Harper Sport, 2006)
Norman Giller, Football Author
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CG