The ECHO’s Chris Beesley continues his daily series of articles on Everton and the World Cup running throughout the tournament in Qatar.

Needing to beat Portugal 3-0 to progress to the knockout stages of the competition, holders Brazil’s eight-year grip on the World Cup was already dangling by a thread as they went into their final group game at Goodison Park but in the end, their opponents added injury to insult through a series of vicious challenges that resulted in Pele hobbling off the field. In a desperate attempt to try and secure the emphatic result needed at Everton's home to progress, Brazil made nine changes to their starting line-up, including bringing back in Pele who had missed the 3-1 defeat to Hungary last time out but it was to no avail as they were not just beaten but beaten up.

The ECHO's Michael Charters was unimpressed by the cynical tactics of the victors who had gone into this fixture with a brace of wins at Old Trafford against Hungary (3-1) and Bulgaria (3-0). He said: “When Pele was carried off after half an hour with a crippling knee injury, any chance Brazil had of staying in the World Cup went with him.

“Pele was chopped mercilessly out of the game. Within ten minutes he had been scythed down twice with double tackles and was marked so closely by his shadows that Brazil stuttered and came to a full stop.”

Photographs from Brazil's World Cup exit against Portugal at Goodison Park including Pele leaving the field and Eusebio scoring his first goal with a header
Photographs from Brazil's World Cup exit against Portugal at Goodison Park including Pele leaving the field and Eusebio scoring his first goal with a header

The irony was that Portugal didn’t have to play dirty as they were dominating proceedings through their football anyway, going 2-0 up in less than half an hour to extinguish any fading Brazilian hopes. Charters wrote: “With Pele they might have had a chance of pulling back but when he went off for attention shortly after the second goal and thereafter was only a passenger, Brazil slipped rather ingloriously off their perch as world champions.

“Brazil showed against Hungary that without Pele they were only half the team they can be. Portugal learnt that lesson and went out of their way to make sure.

“But give credit in every other way to a superb Portuguese display. They were the better team from the start and far from settling on defence, their attacking ideas always carried more directness and fire than Brazil, who looked a team in need of considerable rebuilding.”

The deadlock was broken 15 minutes into the contest with a move that Charters suggested represented a changing of the guard among the global game’s dominant powers. He said: “Eusebio, who on this performance must take over Pele’s crown as the number one player in the world, made Portugal’s first goal as he slipped cleverly down the left before crossing the ball to the goalmouth where Manga tamely punched it out to the head of Antonio Simoes who nodded it straight back past him.”

When Portugal added a second a dozen minutes later, Charters felt the match was over as a contest, especially due to Pele’s lack of mobility after being hacked out of proceedings. He wrote: “Coluna floated over a free-kick which the tall Torres headed back past the indecisive Manga and there was Eusebio to head it in.

“The game lost a good deal of its entertainment value with Portugal cruising comfortably along and although Brazil had the crowd cheering them on at times, they could not raise their game with Pele, who could not use his right leg at all, limping, almost hopping on one leg, down the left wing.”

The Everton and the World Cup series sees Chris Beesley writing about the Blues' links with the tournament throughout Qatar 2022
The Everton and the World Cup series sees Chris Beesley writing about the Blues' links with the tournament throughout Qatar 2022

Brazil finally reduced arrears on 73 minutes as “Rildo came up from deep in defence to hit a good shot from 20 yards past Jose Pereira in the Portugal goal.”

Charters observed: “There was a fleeting sight of a comeback but Portugal were too strong, too confident, too good to permit Brazil to offer more than a token rally” and they sealed victory with a third goal some five minutes before the end when following a corner, the ball came out to Eusebio “who smashed it back into the net like lightning – the perfect example of a master player taking advantage of half a chance.”

There was more of that to come from the Mozambique-born Benfica star in Goodison’s next World Cup game but Pele – who would ultimately bow out from the tournament in glory at Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium four years later – departed Merseyside threatening to quit international football, with the angry proclamation of: “I don’t want to finish my life as an invalid.”

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