Wales_national_football_team_results_(1946–1959)

Wales national football team results (1946–1959)

Wales national football team results (1946–1959)

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The Wales national football team represents Wales in international association football and is governed by the Football Association of Wales (FAW).

Matches played

Between 1946 and 1959 the side played 64 matches. Although the majority of these came against the other national teams of the Home Nations in the British Home Championship, Wales also began playing teams from further afield on a regular basis for the first time. Their first competitive fixture following the end of the conflict was a 3–1 victory over Scotland in October 1946.[1]

In 1949, Wales undertook their first European tour in which they played matches against Portugal, Belgium and Switzerland.[2] Although Wales lost all three games, they won the reverse fixtures when all three nations travelled to Wales within the next two years.[1] During the 1951–52 British Home Championship, Wales recorded their highest finish in the British Home Championship during the period by sharing the title with England.[3]

The side also entered the FIFA World Cup for the first time in the 1950 tournament,[4] but failed to qualify for either this or the following competition in which the Home Championship was used to determine the Home Nations qualifiers.[1] The 1958 FIFA World Cup used a randomly drawn qualifying group and, although Wales finished second behind Czechoslovakia, they qualified winning a play-off match against Israel.[5] In the tournament itself, Wales drew all three of their group matches and finished tied on points with Hungary. The two sides took part in a play-off match to determine who would advance to the quarter-final,[6] which Wales won 2–1.[7] Wales were defeated 1–0 by Brazil in the quarter-final. The 1958 tournament remains the only time Wales have qualified for a World Cup as of 2020.[1]

Of the 64 matches Wales played during this period, they won 18. They recorded the most wins over Northern Ireland and their precursors Ireland,[lower-alpha 1] winning 5 of the 13 fixtures between the two.[9] They also defeated Scotland three times, Israel and Portugal twice and had single victories over six other teams. They drew 14 ties and lost the remaining 32.[1] Wales suffered the most defeats against England, losing 10 of the 14 fixtures between the two sides.[10]

Results

Wales' score is shown first in each case. The colours listed below are also used to signify results combined with the scoreline.

More information Colour (with score), Meaning ...
John Charles in 1954 prior to a Wales vs Scotland game at Ninian Park
More information Match no., Date ...

Head to head records

More information Opponent, P ...

Notes

  1. The team referred to as Ireland which competed in the Home Championship represented the Belfast-based Irish Football Association (IFA). Following the partition of Ireland, both that body and the Dublin-based Football Association of Ireland (FAI) contended that their respective national teams represented the entirety of Ireland. FIFA ruled in 1953 that neither team could be referred to simply as "Ireland".[8]
  2. Table information sourced from the references listed in the statistics section below.
  3. Due to the unavailability of exact figures, some attendance numbers are given as recorded estimates.
  4. The 1949–50 British Home Championship was also used to determine which of the Home Nations would qualify for the 1950 FIFA World Cup.[4]
  5. The 1953–54 British Home Championship was also used to determine which of the Home Nations would qualify for the 1954 FIFA World Cup.[11]

References

Statistics
  • Nygård, Jostein. "Wales – International Results". RSSSF. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  • "Welsh International Matches". Welsh Football Data Archive. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  • Tossani, Gabriele. "Scotland – International Results". RSSSF. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  • Oliver, Guy (1992). The Guinness Record of World Soccer. London: Guinness World Records Ltd. pp. 561–562. ISBN 978-0-85112-954-9.
Bibliography
  • Stead, Phil (2013). Red Dragons – The Story of Welsh Football. Ceredigion: Y Lolfa. ISBN 978-1-84771-468-8.
Footnotes
  1. [1]
    Nygård, Jostein. "International matches of Wales". The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  2. [2]
    Stead 2013, pp. 143–144
  3. [3]
    Reyes, Macario; Morrison, Neil. "British Home Championship 1947–1966". The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 28 December 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  4. [4]
    Stead 2013, p. 146
  5. [5]
    Stead 2013, pp. 165–166
  6. [6]
    "Three U.K. Teams in World Cup Play-offs". The Times. 16 June 1958. p. 3. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 2 November 2020 – via The Times Digital Archive.
  7. [7]
    Stead 2013, pp. 169–171
  8. [8]
    "FAI History chapter 6 – FIFA rules on Irish issue". Football Association of Ireland. Archived from the original on 24 October 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  9. [9]
    "Wales national football team: record v Ireland". 11v11.com. AFS Enterprises. Archived from the original on 10 October 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  10. [10]
    "Wales national football team: record v England". 11v11.com. AFS Enterprises. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  11. [11]
    Reyes, Macario; Morrison, Neil. "British Home Championship 1947–1966". The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 5 December 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
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