European Championship 1968
**Under Construction**

ITV games are in white, BBC or non-televised matches are in grey.
All matches were broadcast in black & white unless stated.

Qualifiers & Friendlies

Sat 22/Oct/1966    Northern Ireland 0 England 2 (Hunt, Peters)
Qualifier / Home International in Belfast
ITV Highlights
*ITV showed highlights on Sunday afternoon, ATV London and Tyne Tees at 3:10-4:10pm as "International Football", ABC, Southern, Ulster and Grampian at 2:45-3:40pm as "World Of Soccer". This was England's first match following the World Cup final victory in July, Alf Ramsey selected the same 11 players. Hunt scored on 40, Peters on 60. Billy Ferguson was sent off for N.Ireland near the end of the game.

Sat 22/Oct/1966    Wales 1 (R.Davies) Scotland 1 (Law)
Qualifier / Home International in Cardiff
TWW & SCOTTISH Highlights
*TWW (and Teledu Cymru) showed Sunday highlights at 3:00-3:30pm. Scottish most likely showed highlights on "Scotsport" on Saturday night at 9:00-10:05pm. Ron Davies for Wales on 76, Denis Law equalised on 86.

Wed 02/Nov/1966    England 0 Czechoslovakia 0
Friendly at Wembley
ITV Highlights
Hugh Johns
*10:35-11:16pm except Granada who showed it at the later time of 11:05pm and Grampian who opted out (Scottish had "Scotsport"). The World Cup winning 11 made their first Wembley appearance since lifting the Jules Rimet trophy in this goalless friendly.

Wed 16/Nov/1966    England 5 (Hurst 2, R.Charlton, J.Charlton, Hennessey(og)) Wales 1 (W.Davies)
Qualifier / Home International at Wembley
BBC Highlights
Ken Wolstenholme
*BBC1 10:55-11:30pm. England were unchanged for the 6th match running, a national record. Brothers Jack and Bobby Charlton both scored, to date - the last pair of siblings to score for England in the same fixture. Hurst put England 2-0 ahead with goals on 30 and 34, W.Davies pulled one back for Wales on 36, Bobby Charlton made it 3-1 on 43, a Hennessey own goal for 4-1 on 65 and Jack Charlton made it 5-1 on 84.

Wed 16/Nov/1966    Scotland 2 (Murdoch, Lennox) Northern Ireland 1 (Nicholson)
Qualifier / Home International at Hampden
?BBC SCOTLAND?
*Most likely highlights on "Sportsreel" on BBC1 Scotland 11-11:30pm. Possibly BBC1 NI too. Nicholson for NI on 9, Murdoch 14, Lennox 35,

Wed 12/Apr/1967    Northern Ireland 0 Wales 0
Qualifier / Home International in Belfast
*ITV had "Professional Football" at various times late night, but was probably FA Cup QF and/or Celtic European Cup highlights only.

Sat 15/Apr/1967    England 2 (J.Charlton, Hurst) Scotland 3 (Law, Lennox, McCalliog)
Qualifier / Home International at Wembley
ITV Highlights
Hugh Johns & Billy Wright
*Scottish and Grampian showed highlights on Saturday night as "Scotsport Wembley Special" 10:05-10:30pm, the other regions showd either ATV London's "International Star Soccer" or ABC's "World Of Soccer" at various times on Sunday afternoon. Jimmy Greaves came back into the side in place of Roger Hunt, Scotland keeper Ronnie Simpson made his debut, as did Jim McCallioh. The world champions were beaten for the first time in 20 games by the auld enemy who's fans chanted "Easy, Easy" at 3-1. Scotland - Law 27, Lennox 78, McCalliog 87, England - Jack Charlton 84, Hurst 88.

Wed 10/May/1967    Scotland 0 Soviet Union 2 (Gemmell(og), Medvid)
Friendly at Hampden
SCOTTISH Highlights
*"Scotsport" introduced by Arthur Montford, Scottish region only 10:40-11:22pm. BBC1 Scotland had "Sportsreel" at 11:02-11:32pm. Tommy Gemmell(og) 17, Fjedor Medvid 41.

Wed 24/May/1967    England 2 (Greaves, Hunt) Spain 0
Friendly at Wembley
ITV Highlights
Hugh Johns
*ITV highlights at 10:25-11:13pm (Granada and Ulster at the later time of 11:10pm). Scottish & Grampian included footage along with Kilmarnock v Leeds on "Scotsport Special". The current World Cup holders v the European Nations champions. Jimmy Greaves scored his 44th International goal on 72, Roger Hunt made it 2-0 on 78. John Hollins won his one and only cap in this game. Archived

Sat 27/May/1967    Austria 0 England 1 (Ball)
Friendly in Vienna
BBC Highlights
Ken Wolstenholme
*BBC1 "Match of the Day", 11:15-midnight. Jimmy Greaves' 57th and final appearance for England, Alan Ball scored the only goal of the game on 20 minutes.

Sat 21/Oct/1967    Northern Ireland 1 (Clements) Scotland 0
Qualifier / Home International in Belfast
BBC Highlights
*BBC1 "Match of the Day", 10:15-11:00pm. Dave Clements 67.

Sat 21/Oct/1967    Wales 0 England 3 (Peters, R.Charlton, Ball)
Qualifier / Home International in Cardiff
ITV Highlights
Hugh Johns
*All ITV regions except in Scotland showed highlights on Sunday afternoon at various times, either taking ATV's "Star Soccer" presentation or ABC's "World Of Soccer" (who may have had Barry Davies commentating for them). Peters 34, Bobby Charlton 85, Ball 89(pen).

Wed 22/Nov/1967    England 2 (Hurst, R.Charlton) Northern Ireland 0
Qualifier / Home International at Wembley
ITV Highlights
Hugh Johns
*11:15-midnight. An England debut for David Sadler. Hurst 44, Bobby Charlton 62.

Wed 22/Nov/1967    Scotland 3 (Gilzean 2, McKinnon) Wales 2 (R.Davies, Durban)
Qualifier / Home International at Hampden
BBC SCOTLAND/WALES
*BBC1 in Scotland and Wales showed brief highlights at 11:23-11:38pm, the Scottish ITV region may have had their own highlights as part of "Scotland Late" at 10:30-11:32pm. Aberdeen's goalkeeper Bobby Clark made his international debut in this one, whilst Jim Baxter made his 34th and final appearance in a Scotland jersey. Sco - Gilzean 15, 65, McKinnon 78, Wales - R.Davies 18, Durban 55.

Wed 06/Dec/1967    England 2 (Ball, Peters) Soviet Union 2 (Chislenko 2)
Friendly at Wembley
BBC Highlights
*BBC1 10:35-11:25pm (including Rugby). England debut for Cyril Knowles. Ball 22, Chislenko 43 &44, Peters 73

Sat 24/Feb/1968    Scotland 1 (Hughes) England 1 (Peters)
Qualifier / Home International at Hampden
BBC Highlights
*BBC1 "Match of the Day", 10:20-11:10pm. Scotland needed a win to snatch 1st place and qualification to the Euro QF's. Mike Summerbee made his England debut. The attendance of 134,461 is a record for the European Championships. Peters 20, Hughes 38.

Wed 28/Feb/1968    Wales 2 (Rees, W.Davies) Northern Ireland 0
Qualifier / Home International in Wrexham
*No TV coverage. Rees 75,  Ron Davies 84 (Scorer conflict with Rothmans - check match report)

Group 8 Final Table
1. England        9
2. Scotland       8
3. Wales          4
4. N.Ireland      3

Quarter-Finals

Wed 03/Apr/1968    England 1 (R.Charlton) Spain 0
Wembley
BBC Highlights
*BBC1 10:00-10:35pm. Bobby Charlton gave the World Champions a slender 1st leg lead against the European Nations Cup holders with a late goal on 84 mins, it was 44th (equaling the England record set by Jimmy Greaves a year earlier)

Wed 08//May/1968   Spain 1 (Amancio) England 2 (Peters, Hurst)
Madrid
BBC Highlights
Ken Wolstenholme
*BBC1 10:55-11:29pm (except Wales). Amancio levelled the tie just after half-time on 48, but Martin Peters soon had England ahead on agg with an equaliser on 55, Geoff Hurst secured England a place in the final stages with a winner on 81.
 

Pre-tournament friendlies

Wed 08/May/1968    Wales 1 (W.Davies) West Germany 1 (Overath)
Friendly in Cardiff
*BBC1 Wales were scheduled to opt out from coverage of England QF with an edition of the topical magazine show "Heddiw", but may have showed highlights of this game instead. Overath put the Germans ahead on 11, Wyn Davies equalised on 26.

Wed 22/May/1968    England 3 (Peters, Charlton, Hurst) Sweden 1 (Andersson)
Friendly at Wembley
BBC Highlights
*BBC1 10:00-10:35pm. Alex Stepney played in goal (his only cap), Colin Bell also made his debut. Peters 36, Bobby Charlton 38, Hunt 73. Andersson for Swden on 89.

Thu 30/May/1968    Netherlands 0 Scotland 0
Friendly in Amsterdam
*No scheduled British TV coverage. Scotland gave debuts to a number of players, but with the exception of Bobby Moncur, none of them were able to carve out a notable international career.

Sat 01/Jun/1968    West Germany 1 (Beckenbauer) England 0
Friendly in Hanover
BBC LIVE Colour
Ken Wolstenholme
*BBC2 3:55-5:45pm (excluding Scotland), the very first England match to be televised in colour and (wearing red) they lost to German opposition for the first time ever. The only goal was a deflected shot by Beckenbauer on 82 (some credit it as an own goal to Brian Labone). BBC1 (except in Scotland) simulcast the game in black & white (many people still did not have BBC2 at the time).
 

Semi-Finals

Wed 05/Jun/1968    Italy 0 Soviet Union 0 [AET]
(5pm bst)
Naples
*120 minutes of football failed to produce a goal and the tie was settled on the toss of a coin with the hosts going through to the final. Some footage may have been shown on BBC1 prior to England's kick-off later that night.

Wed 05/Jun/1968    Yugoslavia 1 (Džajic) England 0
(8:15pm bst)
Florence
BBC LIVE
Ken Wolstenholme
*LIVE coverage began on BBC1 at 8pm, there was a break for the news at 9pm before returning to the football at 9:15-10:05pm. Played on the same day that Robert Kennedy was shot dead (in the early hours of Wednesday morning UK time). Dragan Džajic latched onto a floated ball across the box on 87 and beat Gordon Banks with a shot into the roof of the net. Alan Mullery became the first ever England player to be sent off on 88 for retaliating after a foul by Paviovic. Alf Ramsey said afterwards; "It would appear that you can kick a player in front of the referee and get away with it. But if you kick in retaliation and the referee does not see it, you get sent off. Within two minutes of the start, Trivic had kicked both Alan Ball and Bobby Charlton. We have the reputation of being a team that plays over-hard, but there are many other teams using far more physical force than ourselves and I include Yugoslavia among them."

3rd/4th place play off

Sat 08/Jun/1968    England 2 (R.Charlton, Hurst) Soviet Union 0
(5:45pm bst)
Rome
BBC LIVE 2nd Half
Ken Wolstenholme
*The 2nd half was scheduled for "Grandstand Part 2" on BBC1 at 6:20-7:35pm. Ken Wolstenholme most likely commentated on both the play off and the final which were played in the same stadium on the same day, the stands began to fill with spectators whilst England's game was in progress. Tommy Wright made his debut. Bobby Charlton 39, Geoff Hurst 63.

The Final

Sat 08/Jun/1968    Italy 1 (Domenghini) Yugoslavia 1 (Džajic) [AET]
(8:15pm bst)
Rome
BBC Highlights
Ken Wolstenholme
*Only brief highlights on BBC1 from 11:05-11:25pm, possibly as a result of coverage of Robert Kennedy's funeral at 9:55-11pm. Dragan Džajic put Yugoslavia ahead on 39, Angelo Domenghini netted a late underserved equaliser on 80. The game could not be settled in extra-time for which a replay was pre-arranged for Monday night.

Replay
Mon 10/Jun/1968    Italy 2 (Riva, Anastasi) Yugoslavia 0
(8:15pm bst)
Rome
?BBC Highlights?
*No TV coverage scheduled, but there may have been a late programme change on BBC1, possibly highlights at 11:26pm when the channel was due to closedown, if not then maybe Tuesday highlights during "Sportsview" at 9:30-9:55pm. Ken Wolstenholme would have been the commentator. If the BBC did cover it, they did not apparently retain a copy. Both goals were scored in a similar fashion, with the scorer receiving the ball on the edge-of-centre area of the box before turning between two defenders to shoot home, Luigi Riva netted the opener on 12, Pietro Anastasi grabbed the 2nd on 31.

Page last updated November 2009