Wales v Hungary 20th March 1963 – European Nations Cup
Wales v Hungary 20th March 1963 – European Nations Cup
The latest in a series about football programmes from my collection that relate to a game being played in the next few days.
Wales v Hungary 2019 / 2020 – European Championship Qualifying
Next Tuesday, Wales has a crucial home match against Hungary. Each country is trying to qualify for next summer’s European Championships. Wales and Hungary are in Group E with Croatia; Slovakia and Azerbaijan.
To date, Croatia lead the Group with 14 points. They are already assured of a play off spot, should they fail to make the top two and qualify automatically. Hungary sit second on 12 points; Slovakia third on 10 and Wales fourth on 8. However, Wales have a game in hand.
If they win in Azerbaijan on Saturday and then beat Hungary in Cardiff on Tuesday, they will pip the Magyars for second spot. Well, they will if Croatia finish their group matches with a home win over Slovakia!
Complicated or what! And to a certain extent of Wales own making, as this has been a distinctly average campaign for the team.
Wales v Hungary 20th March 1963 – European Nations Cup
So, what was happening in 1963, when the teams also met in European Qualification?
Firstly, the format was completely different. 29 countries entered, but Greece promptly withdrew after refusing to play Albania, who were awarded a walk over!
In the Preliminary Round (knockout) draw, Austria; Luxembourg and the Soviet Union received byes.
Wales were drawn to play away in Hungary first, in November 1962. In front of 40,000 in Budapest, Jimmy Murphy’s Wales went down 3-1.
Goals from Hungarian stars Karoly Sandor; Florian Albert and Lajos Tichy sealed the home victory. Terry Medwin, of Tottenham Hotspur scored for Wales, who needed a big victory in the second leg to progress.
Wales v Hungary 20th March 1963 – European Nations Cup – Match Programme
A 16-page match programme was produced. The cover comprised three blocks of colour red; white and green. The Welsh FA Emblem sits in the top red block’ the match details are in the white block and the bottom green block is plain.
At the time the Welsh FA used to produce programmes with this bottom coloured block as a nod to significant colour for the opposition. In this case it had the effect of reproducing the Hungarian flag! The cover tells us that kick off was 7.15pm and the programme cost one shilling.
An interesting contrast to today’s Welsh international programmes, which are free.
Page two has a black and white photo of Ninian Park and a potted history of the stadium. Page three provides a welcome message from Cardiff City chairman Ronald Beecher and a brief ‘Welcome to the Magyars’.
Pen pictures and photos
We then get a page of pen pictures and a page of photographs of the Welsh squad. The centre pages detail the two teams amidst a plethora of adverts for local businesses. Interestingly, by the time of the second leg, only four Welsh players were retained, while Hungary played nine of the first leg team. Page ten of the programme is given over to an account of Hungary’s famous 6-3 victory over England in 1953. Elsewhere in the programme this is recorded as the first home defeat for England’s football team by foreign opposition.
Incorrect as the Republic of Ireland’s 2-0 victory at Goodison Park in 1949 has that honour!
On page twelve we get brief pen pictures of the Hungarian players. Pages fourteen and fifteen carry six photos from the October 1962, 2-3 home defeat to Scotland in the British Championship.
The back cover gives us details of the European Nations Cup reminding us that the USSR are the current holders.
Wales v Hungary 20th March 1963 – European Nations Cup – The Main Men
This is a difficult choice! No John Charles or Mel Charles in the starting eleven gives the chance to focus on other Welsh legends. But who to pick! In the side were Terry Hennessey from just up the road in Llay; the Williams’ as full backs; Mike England and the imperious inside forward pairing of Phil Woosnam and Ivor Allchurch!
But I’m going to focus on one of my all time favourites, Cliff Jones. He first came to my attention as a member of that fabulous Tottenham side that swept all before them in the early 1960’s.
He played inside left for Spurs in the first game I ever saw in April 1960. Spurs beat Wolves 1-3 at Molineux and effectively prevented Wolves from becoming the first modern era winners of the cup and league double. Jones and his teammates then took that honour themselves the following season.
Its sometimes forgotten that Cliff spent six years at Swansea Town before he moved to London. He played over 160 games for the Swans and was first selected by Wales after only 25 club appearances.
His hattrick against Israel effectively secured Wales participation in the 1958 World Cup and he was still playing for Wales in 1968.
Hungary – Florian Albert
Florian Albert is a legend of Hungarian football.
Born in Budapest, he played all his club football with Ferencvaros, making over 350 appearances and scoring over 250 goals! In 1967 he was named European Footballer of the Year.
I had the pleasure of seeing him play in the UEFA Cup semi final in 1972 when Wolves beat Ferencvaros 2-1 in the second leg at Molineux to progress through to the final.
Albert was nicknamed the Emperor and was surely a true successor to the likes of Puskas and Hidegkuti from the 1953 team. He was joint top goal scorer in the 1962 World Cup finals; scoring four times in the group stages. Hungary beat England 3-1; topped the group and progressed to the knockout stages.
They lost 0-1 to Czechoslovakia, the eventual beaten finalists.
Wales v Hungary 20th March 1963 – European Nations Cup – The outcome
The game ended 1-1 and Wales were eliminated. Cliff Jones scored from the penalty spot after a handball and Lajos Tichy equalised in the 2nd half for Hungary, also from the penalty spot.
The finals comprised only semi finals and a final. The four qualifying teams were Hungary, Spain (the hosts), Denmark and the Soviet Union.
Hungary lost to Spain after extra time in the semis; but beat Denmark 3-1 also after extra time, in the 3rd place play off.
Spain beat USSR 2-1 in the final to become European Champions.
Let’s hope Wales can do the business over these two games this weekend and further European adventures commence!