Wales started their Euro 96 campaign with an easy 2-0 victory over Albania, however they went on to enrol a nightmare sequence of results. The Welsh suffered a heavy embarrassing 5-0 defeat against Georgia which was followed by a 3-0 thrashing at home against Bulgaria. In the return match played in Sofia, Wales suffered a 3-1 defeat against Bulgaria which in turn left them with no chance of making it through the group. They did enjoy a glorious night in Germany drawing to the future European Champions 1-1 with an equalizing goal scored by Dean Saunders. They could not take any heart in to that result in their next match against Georgia, suffering an embarrassing home defeat at Cardiff against the nation. Their final match, played against the weakest side in the group, Albania, finished off in a dire 1-1 draw. 
The Welsh knew improvement was necessary in the qualifying matches for the 1998 world cup finals. They came into the competition with little confidence suffering two friendly defeats against Italy and Switzerland prior the qualifying process.
They topped the group early on, winning their opening two matches; they comfortably disposed a very weak San Marino team winning 5-0 and 6-0 respectively towards the end of 1996. However much tougher tasks were to lie ahead of them and they suffered a crushing 3-1 home defeat against the Dutch which was followed by a 7-1 humiliation in the return match played in Eindhoven. Everything went from bad to worse for the Welsh as they were on the losing end of a 6-4 result against Turkey and suffered a 3-2 defeat against Belgium, finishing the group occupying the second bottom position. The final match they played in 1997 was a game against Brazil, a match they lost 3-0 which was certainly not a surprise.