The visit of the current World Champions Brazil to Wembley filled a 93,500 crowd with excitement and expectation. But there was some disappointment for them as before the match it was announced that Pelé, Garrincha and Zito would all be missing from Brazil's line-up. However, there was still an awful lot to admire in the Brazilian team and England had to work very hard to keep them in check.

England, though, made a bright start and Gilmar had to make three great saves in the first 15 minutes. Bobby Smith, Bryan Douglas and Bobby Charlton were all foiled by the goalkeeper, frustrating the home fans.

That frustration became all the more evident when, with virtually their first attack, Brazil opened the scoring after 20 minutes. With the 'banana kick' expert Garrincha missing from the side, nobody, least of all Gordon Banks it seemed, expected the sort of goal scored by Pepe. He produced an incredible bending shot from a free-kick that had Banks groping, first one way, then the other.

After the goal, England continued to work hard, especially new cap Gordon Milne, who did a lot of effective work in his midfield role. Defensively, too, England looked solid, but up front, despite some good running by Charlton and Jimmy Greaves, the final ball always seemed to be the high cross from the wings.

For Brazil, Zequinha and Mengalvio were the stars with the latter a typical Brazilian ball artist. Before half-time, the South Americans made a substitution, taking off Amarildo their World Cup star and bringing on Ney. At the break they still held their lead.

Straight after the restart, England were desperately unlucky. Within five minutes, Charlton had headed Douglas' right-wing cross against a post with Gilmar beaten and seconds later Charlton was again so unlucky when he saw another effort headed off the goal-line by Rildo.

For a while after those misses, it seemed England would never work out a route to goal. George Eastham spread some nice passes around the pitch but the attack lacked the imagination needed and Gilmar was rarely threatened. Bobby Moore and Maurice Norman performed very well at the back and the defence could not be faulted.

The crowd were occasionally stirred by near misses. Ray Wilson kicked off the line an effort by Pepe and Dorval shot just past Banks' post. Then, with just five minutes left and England looking less and less likely to score, Jimmy Armfield joined the attack with a strong break down the right. A cross came over, it was flicked on by Charlton and there was little Douglas in the right place to stab the ball home. The crowd roared their delight and on the whole it was no more than England deserved.
  

There was no Pele, but Pepe popped up with a first-half 'banana' free-kick from 25 yards that deceived Gordon Banks and swung into the roof of the England net. Douglas scrambled a late equalizer against the world champions. Gordon Milne was the first defensive 'ball winning' midfield player selected by Ramsey, a role that would ultimately go to Nobby Stiles. George Eastham followed his father, George senior, as an England international, and they were the first father and son to win England caps. Gordon Banks said later, 'Alf gave me a rollocking at half-time for falling for what he called Pepe's three-card trick. But from Alf's position on the touchline he could not have known how much bend Pepe put on the ball. I swear that if it had not gone into the net it would have done a circular tour of the stadium!'
  

Brazil had retained the World Cup the previous year in Chile, beating England 3-1 in the quarter-finals, but their side contained only the goalkeeper Gilmar and Amarildo (who scored in the final) from their winning team.
A car crash in Hamburg two nights earlier had robbed Wembley of the talents of Zito (who also scored in the final) and Pelé. This was to be Brazil's only appearance at the stadium in Pelé's career. So it was that the man who scored three goals in two World Cup Finals 12 years apart never set foot on the famous turf.
He could have played in the FA Centenary match five months later but his club Santos would not release him.
England's only victory against Brazil had been in their first meeting in 1956. Brazil had been runners-up in the South American Championship three times in the 1950s but had not won it since 1949.
Pepe curled a brilliant free kick past the defensive wall, sending Banks the wrong way, to give Brazil the lead but with four minutes left Armfield's shot was touched on by Charlton and Bryan Douglas rescued England with the equaliser.
A Pelé-inspired Brazil thrashed England 5-1 in Rio de Janeiro the following year and they were back at Wembley in 1978.
     

Source Notes

TheFA.com
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
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CG