The 1962 FIFA World Cup™ quarter-final between Brazil and England, witnessed Garrincha at his brilliant best.
The tournament’s outstanding player scored twice, one a brilliant long-range curler, in a dazzling virtuoso performance. Even his victims were wowed, with one English newspaper lauding Brazil’s entertainer supreme as “Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney and a snake charmer all rolled into one”.
The Three Lions had been well aware of Garrincha and the threat he posed, with manager Walter Winterbottom having spoken at length to his players about the importance of stopping him. That would prove easier said than done. As Johnny Haynes, an England star of that era, w…