Jack Charlton: Encyclopedia II - Jack Charlton - A world champion

Jack Charlton - A world champion

The Germans took an early lead through Helmut Haller, though Charlton later said he could have blocked the shot but thought goalkeeper Gordon Banks had it covered which he didn't. England equalised shortly afterwards through Geoff Hurst and then as the second half wore on, Charlton came close to scoring the goal which would have put England ahead.

Alan Ball's corner reached Hurst, whose shot from the edge of the area was partly blocked, taking the ball into a high loop in the air. As it dropped, Charlton - up with the attack as ever - looked the most likely to get to it first, but then Martin Peters stepped in and hit a crisp half volley into the net. There were fewer than 15 minutes left.

The Germans pressed for an equaliser and got their reward, partly thanks to Charlton in an incident which would have proved massively more controversial had the result of the match been different.

Charlton was adjudged to have climbed over a player to reach a header, and the referee gave a free kick in a dangerously central position deep in the England half. To this day, Charlton claimed his opponent backed into him, forcing him to stoop out of the way. The free kick slammed into the England defence, ricocheted across the penalty area and into the path of Wolfgang Weber who steered it home. Seconds later, the whistle blew for full time and extra-time was now needed.

England dominated the added half-hour and Hurst scored twice to complete his immortal hat-trick and a historic 4-2 win. One of many everlasting images from the aftermath was the sight of Charlton, at 31 the second oldest member of the team, sinking to his knees with his face in his hands, weeping.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "A world champion", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki