Eusebio's tears and Charlton's genius - 1966 and England's 'other' World Cup semi-final

It reflects the deep-seated pessimism that long ago enveloped the England national team that reaching a major tournament's semi-final conjures bittersweet recollections of 1990 and 1996’s defeats ahead of actual success enjoyed in 1966.

The sensation of England progressing to a World Cup final has also been lost to 52 long years having passed and the crowning achievement that immediately followed. With full-back Ray Wilson becoming in May the third member of the World Cup-winning team to pass away, following captain Bobby Moore’s tragically premature death in 1993 and that of Alan Ball in 2007, memories of 1966’s semi can only grow ever more hazy. Manager Alf Ramsey died in 1999, and seven of his 22-man squad have now departed.

After a slow start to the competition, and a close-run, angst-ridden 1-0 defeat of Argentina in the quarter-final, England 2-1 Portugal at Wembley on July 26 1966 was the day Englishmen had faith repaid with their team’s greatest performance. For those currently afflicted with a “Three Lions” earworm, the verse line “Bobby belting the ball” is a nod to the two goals with which Bobby Charlton guided Ramsey’s team to the final, even if the record’s promo video might show another, more spectacular strike against Mexico.

The semi-final was truly Charlton’s match, heavily contributing to the Ballon D’Or award he collected later that year. His first goal, on the half hour, came after Portuguese keeper Jose Perreira failed to clear the ball when challenging Roger Hunt. Charlton drilled in the rebound on the full. The second came with ten minutes to play as he surged on to Geoff Hurst’s adept hold-up play and let fly. Leading the applause was Portugal winger Jose Augusto, taking the unusual step, even in more sportsmanlike times, of offering a hand in congratulation to the bemused goalscorer.

Charlton was a player of peculiar grace for an Englishman. He glided across the heavy surfaces of the day. The balding pate and trademark combover might have made him look far older, but at 28 he was at his physical peak, a one-time flying winger converted into a roving attacking midfielder. Either foot was capable of unleashing the power that did for the Portuguese.

To play, having suffered from a stiff neck that had not properly responded to heavy physiotherapy, Charlton had needed to convince a doubtful Ramsey of his fitness, but he would later reflect that:

And to flourish within a three-man midfield, he required his Manchester United minder and England enforcer Norbert “Nobby” Stiles to do a number on Eusebio, Portugal’s star and the leading scorer in the competition. In the previous round, at Everton’s Goodison Park, Eusebio had averted one of the greatest shocks of all by scoring four goals to rescue his team from being 3-0 down to North Korea after 25 minutes yet until England had the semi all but out of sight, Stiles did not allow his prisoner a kick, while landing plenty of his own.

Benfica’s Eusebio, his nickname of “the Black Pearl” reflecting far less woke times, had captured the imagination of the host nation’s public, particularly in the North West where Portugal had played their matches so far at Goodison and Old Trafford.

From Mozambique, then a Portuguese colony, he was the first African superstar at a World Cup and certainly the only one at 1966’s tournament after the entire African confederation had boycotted. Eusebio had stepped comfortably into the role of being best in show, scoring two goals against Brazil as Pele et al were bounced out in a 3-1 group stage win.

 “He wanted to be better than Pele in this game.” said team-mate Antonio Simoes in 2014. “People already knew Eusebio’s name in European football, but the World Cup was the consecration, it would be forever.”

Not that Eusebio was performing a one-man show. Mario Coluna, a fellow Mozambican, was the creative fulcrum of a Benfica team that had won two European Cups, Jose Torres was a tall, canny centre-forward and Simoes was himself a dangerous winger.

That Portugal did not progress to the final was down to a combination of Charlton brilliance, Ramsey pragmatism, and from a Portuguese point of view, what amounted to corruption in the decision by FIFA, headed by Englishman Sir Stanley Rous, to switch the semi-final’s venue from Goodison, as was scheduled, to Wembley for purported “commercial reasons”.

It meant the Portuguese squad had to vacate their adopted home and travel down by train on the night before the match. Right up until his 2014 death, Eusebio remained convinced that Portugal would have beaten England at “Goodness Park”, as he called it on a final visit with Benfica in 2010.

After being shackled by Stiles for so long, Eusebio was able to salvage some form of consolation in rattling home an 82nd minute penalty, the first goal England had conceded in the tournament, awarded after Jack Charlton had deliberately handled the ball after a Torres header had goalkeeper Gordon Banks beaten.

“He had to do it,” said BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme of the elder Charlton’s cynicism, a moment, like Stiles’ limpet-like hassling of Eusebio, to suggest England’s heroes were never quite the Corinthian bunch that nostalgia has since rendered them. Back then, such an offence did not result in a red card.

Late on, Eusebio forced Banks into a save that prevented an equaliser. “It was around then that I saw the shoulders of the great Eusebio sag a little and tears come to his eyes,” Bobby Charlton would recollect.

“Well done, gentleman,” Ramsey told his players afterwards. “You have just earned your chance.”

And as yet, no Englishmen have emulated them.