On This Day (14 November 1963): Eusebio and company lose at Roker Park!
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Wearside welcomed one of Europe's elite teams on this day sixty one years ago, but Alan Brown's Lads were more than a match for their illustrious opponents!
It's extremely rare that November friendlies like this happen today, but in 1963, Alan Brown's Sunderland welcomed one of the European big hitters to an expectant Roker Park.
With the iconic Eusebio expected to line up in the Benfica team, over twenty thousand fans showed up to watch the Portuguese legend in action.
However, Sunderland had a very decent team in their own right, with young players like John O'Hare making a name for himself in this game.
There was a lot of hype around the match, with many fans wanting to get a look at one of the world's best footballers.
In the build up to the game, Brown's team were involved in some drama themselves when Tommy Mitchinson had to replace Brian Usher on the bench during the warm up, due to Usher being knocked down by a car at Park Lane!
Despite only suffering a bruised hand, Usher was said to be in a state of shock, which forced his omission from this game.
According to reports, Sunderland put on their 'brightest display in years' for this game which resulted in a flurry of goals coming in the second half, despite a first half with many chances but no goals.
Eusebio is said to have dominated proceedings in the first half but found himself incapable of getting on the scoresheet.
This led to two goals in the first five minutes at the start of the second half; George Herd opened the scoring after being played through by George Mulhall, before Benfica equalised after a mistake by Len Ashurst.
Seconds later, left back Ashurst made a bad square pass just outside his own six yard line, which left Simoes to shoot into an empty goal.
Nick Sharkey - who scored a hat-trick in this game - got his first two just after the hour mark to put the Lads 3-1 up, before Serafim played in Eusebio to make it 3-2.
The goals appeared to arrive in bursts and it was less than ten minutes before the final bout of goals arrived when Sharkey scored his third and O'Hare (who was only seventeen at the time) grabbed a goal off the bench before Eusebio scored a second to cap off a fine individual performance.
The game ended 5-3 to Sunderland and although very little was riding on the result, the opportunity for young fans to see players like Eusebio play in their city would've created immense excitement.
Message boards and articles show fans suggesting the most memorable moments being the presence of the aforementioned Portuguese legend, along with O'Hare lobbing Costa Pereira, who would've been one of the best goalkeepers around at this time.
14 November 1963
Friendly
Roker Park
Attendance: 21,692
Sunderland 5 (Sharkey (3), Herd, O'Hare)
Benfica 3 (Simoes, Eusebio (2))
Sunderland: Montgomery, Irwin, Ashurst; Harvey, Hurley, McNab; Mitchinson (O'Hare), Herd, Sharkey; Crossan, Mulhall
Benfica: Perera, Cavem, Cruz; Raul, Luciano, Coluna; Augusto (Youca), Eusebio, Santana; Scrafin, Simoes
