A window to the past: Portugal was the first Czechoslovak curse in the qualification. The black pearl of Eusébio shone

The Czech team is through to Group A of the Nations League, where strong opponents await: 2010 World Champion Spain, 2016 European Champion Portugal and the always dangerous Switzerland. Historically, the most unpleasant blot on the annals of the still Czechoslovakian team was made by Portugal. For the first time, it blocked the Czechoslovak national team’s path to the world championship.

Czechoslovakia did not enter the distant South American championships in 1930 in Uruguay (the first in history) and 1950 in Brazil (the first after the devastating World War II), but when it had the intention to participate in other cases, it fought its way through.

It advanced to the 1934 Silver Cup in Italy over then-not-so-friendly Poland, but after a 2-1 win in Warsaw, its opponent did not come to Prague for the rematch, claiming that it was boycotting the match because of territorial disputes over Teshinia.

The match ended in a forfeit. In the subsequent 1938 championship in France, the vice-champions went through to Bulgaria (1:1 in Sofia and 6:0 in Prague) with the Czech coach Stanislav Toms on the bench.

Even the deep crisis, not only social and political but also sporting, after the communist coup in 1948 did not prevent the Czechoslovak team from advancing to the 1954 World Championship in Switzerland, while Romania and Bulgaria, which suffered the same fate, were even worse off.

The already well-formed group around the mature football personalities Josef Masopust and Ladislav Novak managed to qualify with Wales and GDR for the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.

It was not easy to qualify for the iconic 1962 championship in Chile, where the charges of coach Rudolf Vytlacil with Golden Ball Josef Masopust took silver.

They were expertly faced in the preliminary group by island teams from Ireland and Scotland, and the journey across the Atlantic Ocean took them through an additional winning duel with Scotland in Brussels. The Czechoslovakians were not missing again and fought their way to the final, where they fell to the defending champions Brazil 1:3.

But then came the hitch called Portugal. In terms of fame, it should not have posed much of a threat to the silver team, they had not made a single appearance at the World Cup until then. However, Benfica Lisbon and Sporting Lisbon were gaining in quality, making a name for themselves in the European Cups and had big names in their line-ups.

The biggest star was undoubtedly Eusébio, a Mozambican native, the black pearl of Benfica Lisbon and a great friend of Josef Masopust. He was the only one who scored in the confrontation (0: 1 and 0: 0), and since the Czechoslovak team also lost in Romania (they beat Turkey twice), the Portuguese came to England for the bronze.

For the first time, a representative of a Central European country failed to qualify for the World Cup, its path being blocked by the underrated Portuguese. Back then it was unprecedented, today only in the Czech version, unfortunately quite common.

Source: UEFA, FIFA