Fully two hours before the start of this eagerly awaited clash, 70,000 people were packed into the National Stadium, Santiago to see their favourites take on the mighty England.

As anticipated, Chile began well as their crowd got behind them but there was little punch in their attack. England, on the other hand, were dangerous on the break, although the blank scoresheet at half-time reflected a poorish game.

Chile had Rojas injured before the interval and he did not reappear immediately when the game restarted. He had still not appeared when, in the 48th minute, Tommy Taylor opened his England scoring account to give his team the lead.

Rojas then came back on the field but after 68 minutes, England increased their lead with a goal by Nat Lofthouse. Chile came back and, with 12 minutes to go, Rojas completed an eventful match for him by pulling a goal back. His shot took a deflection of Alf Ramsey leaving Gil Merrick helpless.

There were no more real scares for England before the end and they were able to celebrate a good victory.
   

Tommy Taylor's first goal for England in the forty-eighth minute was a freak. His intended cross was turned into the net by Chilean goalkeeper Livingstone-Eves, who was the son of a Scot. Nat Lofthouse scored the second decisive goal after one of a dozen thrusting runs by Finney, and three minutes later he headed another Finney cross against the bar. The Chileans scored their only goal seven minutes from the end when a Rojas shot was deflected wide of the diving Gil Merrick.

On Friday, 15 November 1952, The New Musical Express published the first ever singles chart in the UK. However, when England played Chile, Frankie Laine's I Believe was the best selling single. When the chart of Friday, 22 May 1953 was published, there were ten surviving songs from the last chart when England played:-

Source Notes

TheFA.com
partidosdelaroja.blogspot.co.uk
Original newspaper reports
Rothman's Yearbooks
Mike Payne's England: The Complete Post-War Record (Breedon Books Publishing Company, Derby, U.K., 1993)
Edgardo Marin's La Roja De Todos (1985)
Norman Giller, Football Author
Neil Warwick, John Kutner & Tony Brown's The Complete Book of the British Charts (Omnibus Press, 2004)
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CG