The 1958 FIFA World Cup was staged at 12 venues throughout Sweden between June 8 and June 29, 1958. As in 1954, the tournament format consisted of four groups, each of four teams, but each team played every other team in their group in a round-robin arrangement. Controversially, there was no seeding, per se, but teams from the same geographical area were kept apart at the group stage. The top two teams from each group progressed to the knockout stage.
Eventual champions Brazil were drawn in Group 4 alongside Austria, England and the Soviet Union and advanced to the quarter-finals without conceding a goal. They beat Austria 3-0 at the newly-rebuilt Rimnersvallen in Uddevalla in their opening group match, with José Altafini, a.k.a. ‘Mazzola’ twice finding the net in the second half. A goalless draw with England at Ullevi in Gotheburg did their prospects no harm and a 2-0 victory over the Soviet Union at the same venue, both goals coming from Edvaldo Izidio Neto, commonly known as Vavá, was sufficient to top the group with five points.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, still only 17, scored the only goal of the game in a 1-0 quarter-final win over Wales, again at Ullevi. The youngster fared better still in the semi-final against France at the Råsunda Stadium in Solna, Stockholm, scoring a second-half hat-trick in a 5-2 victory. So, the Verde-Amarela moved on to the World Cup Final, at the same venue five days later, where they met Sweden, 3-1 conquerors of defending champions West Germany in their semi-final.
In that World Cup final, Swedish captain Nils Liedholm opened the scoring after just four minutes, but two goals from Vavá put Brazil 2-1 ahead at half-time. Pelé extended that lead to 3-1 with a sublime effort 10 minutes into the second half and outside-left Mário Zagallo made it 4-1 after 68 minutes. Sweden did manage a consolation goal from centre-forward Agne Simonsson after 80 minutes but, in the last minute of normal time, Pelé scored a header to make the final score 5-2 and Brazil world champions for the first time.