After failing to qualify for the 1970 World cup, the Welsh knew that improvement was essential, they found themselves in the same group as Finland, Romania and Czechoslovakia in qualifying for the 1972 European Championships. Wales’s first match of the qualifying process was at home against the Romanians and the result ended up a stalemate. In April 1971, they met Czechoslovakia at Cardiff and the match proved to be a debacle for the Welsh as they suffered a depressing 3-1 home defeat against the Czech’s in turn making qualification seemed highly unlikely. Dai Davies and John Toshack were the key Welsh players during this time period. Wales earned a ray of hope after defeating Finland away in Helsinki and they followed that up by a glorious 3-0 home win at Swansea against Finland and they now had a chance of qualification. Their final two matches proved to be a big disappointment, suffering defeats away to Romania and Czechoslovakia. The Welsh only played three matches for preparation of the 1974 world cup qualification matches, suffering a 3-0 defeat against England and 2-0 defeat at home against Scotland. Wales were in a small qualification group that featured Poland and England and they were the real outsiders coming in to the group. The Welsh got off to a nightmare start, suffering defeat against England in the first match at Cardiff. The followed that match up by a brave draw away against England in a match at Wembley. Wales looked like they had a real chance of qualifying in their home match at Cardiff against Poland in March 1973 as they won the encounter 2-0; however, any hopes of qualification were dashed after suffering a 3-0 defeat against the eventual group winners, Poland.