60 years today: England 3 Hungary 6 | In History In Mighty Magyars | By By GabyG

Nothing I could write hasn’t already been penned by journalists from all around the globe about the game which had an impact on the football that we grew up watching and watch today. As Hungarians, we are fully aware of our current failings but will always cling to this match as a comfort blanket forever more.

Instead of going over old ground I will leave you with the greatest quotes about the match and let you enjoy the game in its entirety below.

Sir Bobby Robson said of the game: “We saw a style of play, a system of play that we had never seen before. None of these players meant anything to us. We didn’t know about Puskás. All these fantastic players, they were men from Mars as far as we were concerned. They were coming to England, England had never been beaten at Wembley – this would be a 3-0, 4-0 maybe even 5-0 demolition of a small country who were just coming into European football. They called Puskás the ‘Galloping Major’ because he was in the army – how could this guy serving for the Hungarian army come to Wembley and rifle us to defeat? But the way they played, their technical brilliance and expertise – our WM formation was kyboshed in ninety minutes of football. The game had a profound effect, not just on myself but on all of us.” Robson went onto say: “That one game alone changed our thinking. We thought we would demolish this team – England at Wembley, we are the masters, they are the pupils. It was absolutely the other way.”

“We completely underestimated the advances that Hungary had made, and not only tactically,” Billy Wright said.”When we walked out at Wembley that afternoon, side by side with the visiting team, I looked down and noticed that the Hungarians had on these strange, lightweight boots, cut away like slippers under the ankle bone. I turned to big Stan Mortensen and said, ‘We should be alright here, Stan, they haven’t got the proper kit’.”

The Guardian newspaper said: “The English team was competent by British standards except at inside forward, but on the evidence of this afternoon this standard will not long be good enough for England to retain her position in the high places of the football world. The essential difference lay in attack, where none of the English forwards except Matthews approached the speed, ball control, and positional play of the Hungarians, which were as near perfect as one could hope to see.”