Wales began the competition by beating England and followed it with a similar 2–1 victory against Scotland.

With the two favourites beaten Wales only required a draw with Ireland to complete a rare tournament success.

The Scotland–England tie recorded a massive attendance of 149,547, despite the fact that Wales had already won the Championship.

Attendance was boosted by the fact that the game was not on the radio due to a disagreement between the Scottish FA and the BBC.

[2] The crowd was the fifth-largest for any competitive international football match, being beaten by four games at the Maracanã.