England: Banks, Cohen, Wilson, Stiles, Charlton J, Moore, Callaghan, Greaves, Charlton R, Hunt, Peters
France: Aubour, Djorkaeff, Artelesa, Budzinski, Bosquier, Bonnell, Herbin, Simon, Herbert, Gondet, Hausser
Referee: A. Yamasaki (Peru)
Attendance: 98,270
The only change from the Mexico match was Ian Callaghan replacing Terry Paine as Alf Ramsey persisted with the use of a recognised winger.
This was my first live experience of a large band of foreign supporters, and I couldn’t quite believe the effrontery of the French supporters singing ‘Allez la France,’ throughout the first half, as this was England’s home and somehow, I hadn’t expected to hear so much ‘away’ support.
The England supporters responded with the now familiar ‘When the white go marching in’ anthem and on another evening, giddy with excitement and expectation, we urged our heroes on to victory.
The England fans cheered and jeered un-sportingly at the French supporters when the French midfielder, Robert Herbin, was injured early in the game, but the roles were reversed, moments later, when Jimmy Greaves was victim of a bad tackle that severely reduced his effectiveness during the game.
Roger Hunt scored from close in to give England a one-goal lead at half-time, and although clearly the better team, England had failed to dominate in the way the nation had hoped.
Grudge match
The match was affected by these injuries, and more niggling fouls started to creep into the match. The Peruvian referee, Arturo Yamasaki, had his work cut out maintaining discipline.
When Nobby Stiles launched a brutal challenge on France’s best player, forward Jacques Simon, that left the player writhing in agony the whole crowd expected him to blow for a foul and either caution or even send Stiles off, but instead he waved play on and from Greaves possession the ball was fed to Callaghan from who’s cross Roger Hunt bundled in the second, and killer, goal.
The French were incensed, but the English fans were delirious, and the ref wisely let the goal stand and waved away the French protests. England duly played out the remainder of the game at a stroll, accompanied by a cheerful crowd singing in full voice as qualification was now assured and we were eager for the quarter-finals.
At the final whistle, some French players were still remonstrating with the ref, but the crowd ignored them as they sang enthusiastically about England progress to the next round whilst the French supporters evaporated from the proceedings. Dad and me left with beaming smiles and brimming confidence.
Much to my surprise, the press, whilst heralding another convincing England win, were scathing about the contribution of Nobby Stiles, who had certainly committed more than his fair share of fouls in the match, but was a long way from being as dirty and cynical as many other players in the tournament.
ENGLAND’S SHAME, proclaimed one headline, and, in the ensuing days, this was followed by calls for Ramsey to drop him from the next match as an example of England’s commitment to sporting behaviour. Fortunately, Ramsey stood by his man and shrugged off any suggestion of leaving him out, saying he had made an immense contribution to the England play and preferred, instead, to focus on the positive aspects of his game – his running and passing, rather than his sometimes overzealous tackling.
When the FA joined in the witch hunt, with a spokesman suggesting they were concerned that Stiles’ behaviour was not conducive to showing a positive image of English football to the world, Ramsey finally snapped that, if Stiles had to go, he would go too, at which point the subject was promptly dropped. No one doubted he was serious and England’s chances of further progress would be reduced to zero without Ramsey at the helm.
What was more worrying to us supporters was the news that Jimmy Greaves had suffered a badly gashed shin that required six stitches and made him unlikely to play in our quarter-final match against Argentina next Saturday
In other matches, West Germany beat Spain 2 – 1 (Group two) in an exciting match watched by 45,187 at Villa Park. The West Germans emerged as winners of their Group amassing five points from their three games with an impressive goal aggregate of seven goals scored and only one conceded whilst Argentina’s win the previous day was enough to see them qualify in second place as Spain crashed out and, as England had finished top of group one, these were to be their next opponents in the quarter final on the coming Saturday afternoon