Legendary striker Eusebio scored four goals as Portugal came back from three goals down to eliminate North Korea from the World Cup exactly 55 years ago.
Eusebio was the original Portuguese Legend before Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Figo were around. During his professional career, the striker scored 733 goals in 745 matches. He is Portugal's third top international goalscorer behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Pauleta. Eusebio's biggest performance came in the 1996 World Cup where he won the golden boot after scoring 9 goals.
Eusebio had won the Ballon D'or in 1965 while playing for Benfica. He was without any question the talisman of Portugal in the World Cup. Portugal had a great start to the tournament when defeated Hungary in their opening group game by three goals to one. Their second game was a crunching three-nil win against Bulgaria. Portugal won against two time and defending champions Brazil in their last game and ended up topping their group.
In the Quarterfinals Portugal drew first-time participants North Korea who had a fairytale run in the group stage. North Korea came into the tournament with no expectations of making it past the group stage. Their three-nil opening game defeat to the Soviet Union was just another sign. They showed incredible grit to draw their second game against Chile and then shocked the world by winning their final group game against two-time champions Italy. North Korea finished second in their group.
In the Quarterfinal North Korea scored a goal in the very first minute of the game via Pak Seung-zin. Li Dong-Woon and Yang Seung-kook scored in the 22nd and 25th minute to make it three-nil in favour of North Korea against all the odds. North Korea looked set to cause a major upset by making it to the World Cup Semifinals but Eusebio had other plans. The Portuguese scored four goals to completely turn the tide around. Portugal were 4-3 up by the 59th minute. An 80th-minute goal by José Augusto sealed the game as Portugal made it to the Semifinals.
Portugal were beaten by eventual champions England in the Semifinals. Eusebio scored in the semi-final as well before scoring another one in the third-place match in which Portugal defeated the Soviet Union. Eusebio was awarded the bronze ball for being the third-best player in the tournament. Their third-place finish is still Portugal's best-ever performance at the World Cup stage. Eusebio won his second European golden shoe in 1996 and then went on to win his third two years later.
