After two lacklustre displays England completed their summer tour with a magnificient victory against the current World Champions West Germany in Berlin. The visitors produced a superb team performance, just when it mattered and now they can start to look forward to the 1958 World Cup with some optimism.

As early as the first 20 seconds it became apparent that England could do well. At that moment Dennis Wilshaw burst through on to a Johnny Haynes pass to shoot inches wide. It was an early warning for the Germans and one that they did not heed. Playing the ball around confidently, England swept forward in search of goals. They won most of the tackles and supported each other superbly.

In the 25th minute the goal their early play deserved duly arrived, and what a cracker it was! Colin Grainger's corner was cleared to be met by Ron Clayton and Morlock together. As the ball ran loose from their challenge Duncan Edwards pounced, and with that characteristic power, he swept past three tackles with consummate ease before crashing an unstoppable shot past Herkenrath's right hand. The youngster, in that one moment, demonstrated to the world what an awesome sight he is when he is full flight.

The England half-backs dominated the German forwards and only a glancing header by Ottmar Walter forced Reg Matthews into the action. The goalkeeper was more than equal to the task, though, and produced a marvellous save to keep England's lead intact.

The visitors could well have added to their lead and some of their football was quite outstanding. Unfortunately they could not finish off their fine approach play, although on the half-hour they came very close. A brilliant six-man attack down the left finally ended when Tommy Taylor's shot was superbly blocked by Herkenrath and Grainger's follow up effort struck the 'keeper again with the England fans already celebrating what they thought would be a certain goal.

But the Germans held on and just before half-time Morlock stretched to send a shot just over. In so doing the inside-right injured himself and had to leave the field to be replaced by Pfaff.

At the half-time whistle, the many British serviceman in the crowd cheered their team off. They knew that if England continued to play as well, they would surely be celebrating a famous victory.

Not unexpectedly West Germany came hard at England after the restart but Billy Wright and his fellow defenders were in immaculate form. Jeff Hall and Roger Byrne stifled the danger from the wingers and when England countered they always looked likely to score.

In the 63rd and 69th minutes, England at last made the game safe with two deadly strikes. Haynes, who started quietly but gradually took control of the play, threaded a superb pass through for Gordon Astall to collect. The winger slipped the ball inside to where Grainger showed pace and skill before shooting home an excellent goal.

Six minutes later came goal number-three. Taylor, who oozed class in all that he did, worked the ball in from the right to find Wilshaw. The hard-working Wolves player glanced it into space and Haynes latched on to it to coolly beat Herkenrath with a well-placed shot. The England fans were delirious and they made their presence felt with some tremendous and much appreciated support.

The West Germans, characteristically, never gave up and although three goals down they pressed forward to put more pressure on England. Reg Matthews made another fine stop to deny the dangerous Pfaff but was powerless, five minutes from time, to prevent Fritz Walter from finishing off a delightful move featuring himself, Mai and Schaeffer. It was to be the Germans' only consolation and at the final whistle there were jubilant scenes amongst the visiting fans celebrating a memorable triumph.
    

This match is remembered as the finest ever played on the international stage by Duncan Edwards, who was fresh from helping Manchester United win the League championship. He strode the pitch like a colossus, scoring a scorcher of a goal from twenty yards in the twentieth minute and dominating the entire game both in defence and midfield. Nearly half the 100,000 crowd in the stadium designed by Adolf Hitler were soldiers from the British-occupied zone of Berlin. They staged a delighted pitch invasion when second-half goals from Johnny Haynes and Colin Grainger clinched victory. Fritz Walter, the outstanding German skipper, scored a fine individual goal for the team he had led to the World Cup two years earlier. The name of Duncan Edwards was on the lips of everybody who saw this match. He was phenomenal. There have been few individual performances to match what he produced in Germany that day. He tackled like a lion, attacked at every opportunity and topped it all off with a cracker of a goal. He was still only twenty, and was already a world-class player. Many of the thousands of British soldiers in the crowd surrounded him at the final whistle and carried him off. England had beaten the world champions in their own back yard.
   

On Friday, 15 November 1952, The New Musical Express published the first ever singles chart in the UK, comprising the twelve highest selling singles of the week, it increased to twenty on Friday, 1 October 1954, and thirty on Friday, 13 April 1956. When England beat West Germany, Ronnie Hilton's No Other Love was still the best selling single. This chart was published on Friday, 25 May 1956:-

Source Notes

TheFA.com
DFB.de
Original newspaper reports
Rothman's Yearbooks
Mike Payne's England: The Complete Post-War Record (Breedon Books Publishing Company, Derby, U.K., 1993)
Norman Giller, Football Author
official charts.com singles chart
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CG