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  Page Last Updated 13 October 2025

Československo

 

 
368 vs. Brazil
369
370 vs. GDR

Wednesday, 29 May 1963
End of Season European tour match

Czechoslovakia 2 England 4 [0-1]
 

 

Match Summary
Czechoslovakia Squad
England Squad

Tehelné pole, Nové Mesto, Bratislava
Attendance:
60,000;
Kick-off: 5.00pm BST
Final twenty minutes only live on BBC (UK) -
Commentator: Kenneth Wolstenholme

England - Jimmy Greaves (18, 81), Bobby Smith (46), Bobby Charlton (71)
Czechoslovakia - Adolf Scherer (52), Josef Kadraba (72).
Results 1960-1965

? kicked-off. ? minutes (? & ?).

 

Match Summary

Officials

Czechoslovakia

Type

England

Referee (-) - Bertil Lööw
x (-).

Linesmen - tbc

  Goal Attempts  
  Attempts on Target  
  Hit Bar/Post  
  Corner Kicks Won  
  Offside Calls Against  
  Fouls Conceded  
  Possession  

Czechoslovakia Team

 

Rank:

No official ranking system established;
ELO rating 5th to 8th
Colours: White jerseys, white shorts, white socks.
Capt: Ladislav Novák Manager: Rudolf Vytlacil
Czechoslovakia Lineup
Schrojf, Viliam G GA
2 Lála, Jan     RB      
3 Novák, Ladislav     LB      
4 Pluskal, Svatopluk     RHB      
5 Popluhár, Ján     CHB      
6 Kvašňák, Andrej     LHB      
7 Masopust, Josef, off 43rd min.     OR      
8 Štibrányi, Jozef     IR      
9 Scherer, Adolf     CF      
10 Kadraba, Josef     IL      
11 Mašek, Václav     OL      
Czechoslovakia Substitutes
  Buberník, Titus, on 43rd min. for Masopust            

unused substitutes:

-
 
- -

Averages:

Age - Appearances/Goals - -

 

England Team

 

Rank:

No official ranking system established;
ELO rating 12th to 10th
Colours: The 1962 Bukta away uniform - Red v-necked short-sleeved continental jerseys, red shorts, red socks.
Capt: Bobby Moore, first captaincy Manager: Alfred Ernest Ramsey, 43 (22 January 1920), appointed 25 October 1962, effective part-time 31 December, full from May 1963.
fourth match, W 1 - D 1 - L 2 - F 8 - A 10.
England Lineup
  Banks, Gordon 25 30 December 1937 G Leicester City FC 3 5ᵍᵃ
821 2 Shellito, Kenneth J. 23 18 April 1940 RB Chelsea FC 1 0
only app 1963
3 Wilson, Ramon 28 17 December 1934 LB Huddersfield Town AFC 19 0
4 Milne, Gordon 26 29 March 1937 RHB Liverpool FC 2 0
5 Norman, Maurice 29 8 May 1934 CHB Tottenham Hotspur FC 9 0
6 Moore, Robert F.C. 22 12 April 1941 LHB West Ham United FC 12 0
822 7 Paine, Terence L. 24 23 March 1939 OR Southampton FC 1 0
8 Greaves, James 23 20 February 1940 IR Tottenham Hotspur FC 29 24
9 Smith, Robert A. 30 22 February 1933 CF Tottenham Hotspur FC 11 10
10 Eastham, George 26 23 September 1936 IL Arsenal FC 2 0
11 Charlton, Robert 25 11 October 1937 OL Manchester United FC 43 26

unused substitutes:

-

team notes:

Bobby Moore becomes England's youngest captain
 
- -

Averages:

Age - Appearances/Goals - -

 

              Match Report by Mike Payne

From World Cup winners to World Cup runners-up, that was how England's fixture list worked out. On the first leg of a three-match summer tour of Europe, England took on Czechoslovakia, who lost 3-1 in that famous Final the previous year. As it turned out, England produced one of their best performances for a long time and, indeed, one of their best ever on foreign soil.

With Jimmy Arnfield injured the captaincy fell on the young shoulders of Bobby Moore, who became England's youngest-ever captain. How the young man rose to the challenge. He was magnificent and inspired his team.

England withstood tremendous pressure in the first quarter of an hour, mainly thanks to a tactical plan built around a cleverly retreating defence. For years, England's forwards have been frustrated by such defensive methods. Now, thanks to Alf Ramsey, it was Czechoslovakia's turn to be frustrated. By soaking up the pressure and breaking quickly with lightning attacks, usually started by George Eastham, England took a great stride towards winning the match.

After that early burst by the Czechs, England made a stunning reply on 18 minutes. Moore intercepted a pass in midfield and found Bobby Smith. A lovely wall pass and Jimmy Greaves was through. The Tottenham star shimmied and wriggled past three defenders, drew the goalkeeper skilfully and placed the ball into the net before turning with one arm raised to receive the congratulations of his delighted teammates.

It was typical Greaves and the home crowd and team were suitably stunned into disbelief. Worse was to follow for them two minutes from half-time when their idol and the star of the side, Masopust was taken off to be replaced by Bubernik.

Within a minute of the second half starting, England, unbelievably, went 2-0 up. A scintillating move down the left involving Gordon Milne, Bobby Charlton and Greaves ended with Smith having the easiest of chances from close range.

England were now in a commanding position but for the next 20 minutes after the interval it was backs-to-the-wall as Czechoslovakia fought back. An unfortunate misunderstanding between Moore and Gordon Banks enabled the home side to pull a goal back. Moore lobbed the ball towards his own goal as Banks came out. Banks managed to get a hand to it but as it ran loose, Scherer was on hand to nod it into the empty net.

There then followed some intense pressure. Bubernik crashed a header against a post, Kvašňák then slashed the rebound onto the crossbar before England desperately managed to scramble the ball clear. Throughout this period, Moore, Maurice Norman and the rest of the defence held firm showing great determination and they were rewarded when England came up with the perfect response to the pressure. Greaves set Eastham free on the left and the Arsenal player sent over a deep centre. Terry Paine pulled the ball back from the opposite by-line, it was blocked, ran loose and there was Bobby Charlton roaring in to crash home England's third goal.

Before the relief of that goal had the chance to settle on the England players Czechoslovakia came straight back again to reduce the arrears once more. Kadraba seemed to impede Banks before he was able to head the loose ball home to put the visitors under fierce pressure yet again. With the Czechs pressing hard, it seemed that all England's valiant efforts were to be denied at the death, but with 20 minutes to go, a fourth goal finally sealed victory - and what a beauty it was.

Smith found Paine who, not for the first time, beat his marker before crossing the ball from the by-line. Greaves was there as ever to produce his own special brand of magic as he pulled the ball down with his left foot and shot home devastatingly with his right.

In the remaining minutes, England stroked the ball around arrogantly, keeping possession and drawing applause from even the patriotic home fans. It was a memorable display, well planned tactically and carried out to the letter by a fine team performance. Moore and Norman were the heroes in defence with Milne, Eastham, Greaves, Charlton and Paine all making telling contributions.

It was England's first victory on foreign soil since they beat Italy in Rome in 1961.
  

              Match Report by Norman Giller

The first victory under the Ramsey baton, and what an impressive scalp.  Czechoslovakia had been runners-up in the 1962 World Cup final and included European Footballer of the Year Josef Masopust in their midfield. Greaves (2), Smith and Charlton scored the goals, and Ken Shellito and Terry Paine made impressive debuts. A knee injury would virtually end Shellito's career within the year. He was a beautifully balanced player who could match the speed of sprinting wingers. His early retirement would be a blow for Chelsea and England, but George Cohen was - so to speak - waiting in the wings to make the No. 2 jersey his personal property. Bobby Moore captained England for the first time in place of the injured Armfield. He would go on to skipper England 90 times, equalling the record set by one of his boyhood heroes Billy Wright (who had been his manager at England Under-23 level).
  

Other Football Results  
Under-23 International
Yugoslavia 2 England 4
 
Stadion Jugoslovenska narodna armija, Beograd (22,000)
Zambata
6, 35
~
Hinton 12, 40, 54, Cross 44 (pen)

The.undoubted star of the evening was England's debut hat-trick hero, twenty-year-old Alan Hinton, who also twice hit the crossbar.
Club Tour Matches
Bnei Yehuda 1 Stoke City 1ᴭᵀ
4-3 on penalty kicks
 
Hatikva Neighborhood Stadium, Tel Aviv (tbc)
n/k 120 ~
Clamp
101 (pen)
Empor Rostock 0 Ipswich Town 2
 
Ostseestadion, Rostock (15,000)
Crawford 15, 85
 
Juventus 0 Manchester United 1
 
Stadio Comunale, Torino (tbc)
McMillan 50
United were without Bobby Charlton
 
 
In Other News....
It was on 29 May 1963 that Cassius Clay (yet to change his name to Muhammad Ali) walked off the set of the BBC's Sportsview programme when his interviewer, David Coleman pointed out that the British public did not like people who talked too much, and that he himself was a supporter of Henry Cooper, the British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion. Three weeks later, Clay defeated Cooper at Wembley Stadium in the fifth round (as he had predicted) and he became world champion, nine months later, before becoming one of the most charismatic and inspirational personalities of the twentieth century.

Source Notes

TheFA.com
Original newspaper reports
Rothman's Yearbooks
Mike Payne's England: The Complete Post-War Record (Breedon Books Publishing Company, Derby, U.K., 1993)
Norman Giller
, Football Author

____________________

CG