However, in the final against Belgium on 2 September, the Czechoslovaks left the field 2–0 down after 40 minutes in protest with the English referee John Lewis, and were ejected from the tournament.

[16] Czechoslovakia qualified for the 1938 FIFA World Cup in France with a 7–1 aggregate victory over Bulgaria, and reached the quarter-finals with a 3–0 win over the Netherlands in Le Havre.

[17] In 1939, under the German occupation name of "Bohemia", the team played three matches, defeating Yugoslavia 7–3 and drawing with both Ostmark (occupied Austria) and Germany itself.

They opened their finals campaign on 8 June with a 1–0 defeat to Northern Ireland in Halmstad, followed by a 2–2 draw with reigning champions West Germany and a 6–1 win over Argentina.

[8] On 5 April 1959, Czechoslovakia played the first ever qualifying match in a UEFA European Championship, losing 2–0 away to the Republic of Ireland but eventually advancing 4–2 on aggregate.

In the last group game on 7 June, Václav Mašek put Czechoslovakia ahead against Mexico in 12 seconds; the team lost 3–1 but advanced nonetheless.

In the final at the Estadio Nacional de Chile in Santiago, Josef Masopust put Czechoslovakia ahead after 15 minutes by finishing Scherer's pass, but Brazil soon equalised and exploited Schrojf's errors to win 3–1.

On 3 December 1969, they defeated Hungary 4–1 in Marseille in a play-off to reach the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, having finished joint top of their qualifying group.

[24] The country did qualify for Euro 1980, and by coming second in its group behind West Germany faced the hosts Italy in a third-place play-off, which it won on sudden-death penalties at the Stadio San Paolo in Naples.

The country's last major tournament was the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, where in the group it opened with a 5–1 victory against the United States before defeating Austria with a penalty from Michal Bilek, enough to advance despite losing 2–0 to the hosts at the Stadio Olimpico.

Czechoslovakia was eliminated on 1 July in a quarter-final at the San Siro, losing 1–0 from a Lothar Matthäus penalty against eventual winners West Germany.