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7 - Other Matches Richard Thompson: Spain v. Switzerland at Hillsborough

I was 13 at the time of the World Cup in 66 and my Father had promised to take me to one game at least. I expect that Hillsborough was the easiest to get tickets as we lived in Mansfield at the time. This was the biggest attended game I had been to, having only been to matches at Field Mill before then. The noise was unbelievable, I think that Switzerland were based in Sheffield and everyone seemed to be supporting them. They were playing a Spanish team that included a few well known players but their names escape me now. Switzerland scored first and the roar was so loud I physically jumped from the noise. Slowly Spain crept back into the game and eventually equalized. I remember a young Swiss fan next to me getting more and more worried, he kept saying "Achtung Achtung!" every time the Spanish attacked and I couldn't understand why he was speaking German!

Spain eventually won the game 2-1 - but before the end I can remember everyone being distracted by another game - Brazil were losing to Hungary! I even seem to remember a scoreboard with the the final score 3-1 to Hungary - this was inconceivable to my young footballing brain - I was convinced it was a mistake. I seem to remember everyone cheering - which again i couldn't get my head around.

The most vivid memory is that scoreboard with that scoreline in a red-orange light.

That's the only game of 66 that I saw live - how 50 years have flown

Richard Thompson

Memory added on November 3, 2016

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