After failing to qualify for the 1976 European Championships, Wales embarked on a string of friendly matches in preparation for the 1978 world cup qualification matches. Their friendly program did not go as well as expected. They suffered three consecutive defeats against England, Yugoslavia and Scotland. They started off their qualification campaign suffering a 1-0 away defeat in Glasgow against Scotland. They followed that up by a fine 3-0 victory over Czechoslovakia in Wrexham. In May 1977 they played a friendly match against England at Wembley and shocked the whole of England with a memorable 1-0 victory over the English. Their final two qualifying matches were against Scotland and Czechoslovakia and they endured on tow defeats. They lost 2-0 against Scotland and 1-0 against the Czechs in a match played at Prague. After failing to qualify for the world cup they played a friendly match against West Germany in October 1977 and a John Toshak inspired Welsh side held the Germans to a great 1-1 draw. The Welsh started their Euro 80 qualifying campaign off in fine form, enjoying a fine 7-0 victory at Wrexham against Malta, that was as good as it became for the Welsh as they went on to lose 5-1 against the Germans and they endured on an embarrassing 1-0 away defeat against Turkey in Izmir. The Welsh did meet England at the end of the 1979 – 1980 campaign at Wrexham and enjoyed a heroic 4-1 win against their British counterparts, which provided the Welsh with renewed confidence for the 1982 world cup qualification campaign ahead of them.