Wales met West Germany in their opening qualification match for the 1962 world cup finals and were on the losing end of a thrilling 4-3 contest. They followed that match up with an encounter at Athens against Greece, suffering a 2-1 defeat in May 1961. Few days later they met the West Germans in Berlin, suffering a 2-1 slender defeat against the nation, in turn meaning they now had no chance of qualifying for the competition. The Irish improved as the qualification matches continued, a 2-0 win in Belfast against Greece put some respectability in their group finish. Prior their European Championship qualifier for the 1964 finals against Poland, Northern Ireland came on the back of two 4-0 defeats against Wales and Holland and seemed short of confidence. They traveled to Poland for the first qualification match and enjoyed a fine 2-0 victory. To the surprise of much of the football world, they repeated their heroics in Poland with a 2-0 win over the Polish in Belfast, earning an encounter against Spain in the next qualification phase. They suffered a slender 2-1 aggregate defeat against the Spaniards over the two legs and were out of the running. Northern Ireland started off their world cup 1966 world cup qualification campaign enjoying a fine 1-0 victory against Switzerland in Belfast in October 1964 which was followed up with a 2-1 defeat against the Swiss in Lausanne. Billy Bingham and Harry Gregg were in fine form for the Irish at that point. They met Holland in their next qualification match, enjoying a memorable 2-1 win at Belfast, following that up with a heroic 0-0 draw in Rotterdam. They now needed two victories at home and away to Albania to guarantee qualification, however, despite an incredible 4-1 victory at home to the Albanians, they could not overcome the nation in Albanian territory, being held to a 1-1 draw in November 1965.