Tonight my pics of the day are from 68 years ago.
Uruguay have just qualified for the quarters.
Always had a soft spot for them since the 1950 World Cup final between Brazil and Uruguay which is considered by many to be the greatest game ever.
Brazil were hosts and were playing the final in the new but unfinished Estadio do Maracana in Rio de Janerio – the biggest stadium in the world.
Brazil were white hot favourites having scored 13 goals in their first 2 matches. They considered not winning by at least 5 goals against any team in the world to be a total disaster.
The official attendance was 199,954 but unofficially to be much closer to 210,000 and
10 % of the population of Rio squeezed into the unfinished stadium.
Apparently only 100 tickets were officially sold to Uruguayans.
The bookies refused to take bets and a Samba band stood by to play ' Brazil the winners '. Local papers didn't bother to wait for the result and pre printed ' Brazil Champions of the World '.
The winners gold medals had already been stamped Brazil World Champions to save time.
It was all one way traffic from the start with Brazil having 17 attempts at goal in the first half.
2 minutes into the second half they scored and the crowd went nuts.
But, Uruguay then equalised against the run of play and then Ghiggia scored a second for Uruguay.
Final result Brazil 1 Uruguay 2 - Whoops!
Ghiggia later quipped “ Only 3 people have ever silenced the Maracana - Frank Sinatra, The Pope and Me. “
Everyone in the stadium was crying. The Uruguayans with tears of joy. The Brazilians with tears of despair, disbelief and horror.
Plenty of suicides were reported and the Uruguayan captain was advised not to lift the Jules Remes World cup in triumph and to kindly remove the smirk from his face.
A game I would truly loved to have witnessed.