This was the 12th meeting - and the seventh full international - between these countries since their first in 1908 and the Germans had still to taste victory. But although that was satisfying from an England point of view, it did not hide the fact that this was a very disppointing international.

Alf Ramsey brought in a couple of new faces as the build-up to July continued, but the game was made up of too much midfield football and not enough goal attempts.

England had the better of the game and began well. In the first half they created several good chances. Early on, Alan Ball headed straight at Tilkowski from an excellent position and that was a bad miss from a player who went on to be man of the match with his all-action display.

The home side persevered with their new 4-3-3 formation but it resulted in the play being confined down the centre of the pitch rather than making full use of the width. Geoff Hurst, Ball and Roger Hunt never exploited the wide open spaces of the wings but then the passing of the men behind them did not encourage that.

Gradually the pressure increased on the German goal. Hurst also headed straight at the goalkeeper from Ball's perfect centre, and then a clever move involving Hurst and Nobby Stiles ended with Ball again missing the target.

The play continued to be crab-like in appearance but eventually England took the lead just before half-time. Bobby Moore and Norman Hunter combined well in midfield before bringing George Cohen into play down the right flank. The full-back made another splendid run as he did the previous month against Poland, and ended it with a perfect cross to the middle.

Hunt headed the ball goalwards, but not cleanly. Tilkowski partially saved but the ball stopped almost on the goal-line. The player who followed up first was Stiles who, appropriately enough, as he was wearing the number-nine shirt, rammed the ball home from almost on the goal-line.

There was still time before the interval for two substitutions to be made. Keith Newton was desperately unlucky to damage his shin on his first appearanceand leave the field on a stretcher. Ray Wilson came on for him and immediately the Germans withdrew Hornig with a head injury, replacing him with Heiβ.

In the second half there were other chances, notably a lobbed volley by the industrious and fiery Ball. This time Tilkowski leapt superbly to turn the effort away. England still looked laboured in their build-up, though, despite having a lot of the play and with a quarter of an hour to go the Germans upped their pace. Held, Beckenbauer and Kramer suddenly looked dangerous, and Netzer started to put through some clever passes.

Cohen and Hunter held England together at this stage with some excellent defending, but from one move Kramer crossed from the left, Held nodded the ball on and Heiβ's volley zipped past the helpless Gordon Banks. To England's relief the referee had spotted a linesman's flag. After consultation he awarded the Germans a corner, so England breathed again.

Before the end a glancing header by Hunt from Moore's cross hit the bar and a left-footed volley by a strangely-subdued Bobby Charlton was blocked. Ball then put Hunt clean through but the Liverpool player missed wildly when he should have done better.

Once again it was the right result for England but a less-than-convincing performance.
  

This was to prove a dress-rehearsal for the World Cup Final just five months later. Nobby Stiles, wearing the number-nine jersey but playing in midfield, scored the only goal of the match and of his international career. Some of the less-educated football reporters wrote that Stiles had played at centre-forward and that 'Ramsey's gamble of playing him as a spearhead' paid off with a goal. They were yet to understand that jersey numbers were becoming meaningless. Little had been learned since back in the 1950s when Nandor Hidgekuti completely baffled England's defence by playing a withdrawn role in the number nine jersey. Geoff Hurst made an impressive England debut, and Keith Newton's first England game ended just before half-time when he limped off to be replaced by substitute Ray Wilson. The Germans claimed an equaliser when Heiss turned in a cross from Held, but the referee disallowed it after consulting a flag-waving linesman. The shape of things to come! The appearance together of Stiles and Hunter meant the game became a bruise on the memory of several of the Germans.
  

England had won 1-0 in Nuremberg the previous year, their third successive victory against West Germany. The first had been at Wembley in 1954. West Germany had reached the World Cup quarter-finals in 1962 before losing to Yugoslavia. They had decided not to enter the first two European Championships and had comfortably won their World Cup qualifying group.
Just before half-time Cohen crossed and Hunt's header was saved by Tilkowski, only for Nobby Stiles to drive home the only goal of the game as it landed on the line.
Franz Beckenbauer, twice European Footballer of the Year, and who won the World Cup as both captain and coach of his country, made his Wembley debut.
     

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