After their disastrous qualification campaign for the 1962 world cup finals, the Republic of Ireland were looking for any sort of improvement to establish themselves as a respectable side. They started their 1966 world cup qualification programme with a fine 1-0 win against Spain in Dublin, a match played in May 1965. They faced Spain again in Seville in October, however suffered a heavy 4-1 defeat. Their final qualification match against Spain ended in a 1-0 defeat in an encounter played in Paris. They started off the 1968 European championship qualification campaign with a decent 0-0 draw against Spain, which was followed by a 2-1 win in Dublin against Turkey at the end of 1966. Defeat against the Turks in Ankara in February 1967 ended any hopes of qualifying, however after a 2-0 defeat to Czechoslovakia in Dublin; the Irish shocked the entire Europe by defeating the Czech’s 2-1 in their final qualification match in Prague. The qualification campaign for the 1970 world cup finals proved to be a debacle for the Irish as they failed to win a single match. They suffered very heavy defeats against Hungary and Czechoslovakia to condemn them to the bottom of the qualification group.