International football in 1960s Europe represented something of a golden era for a number of the continent’s nations. England’s World Cup win in 1966 was an obvious pinnacle for the country that invented the game, but other nations like Portugal, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and even Sweden boasted some of the strongest teams in their own respective histories too. The West Germans were hardly slouches either, although they rarely ever are.

So which, statistically, was Europe’s strongest nation during this decade? Perhaps surprisingly it was the Italians who narrowly edge out England in percentage of points won. While the Milan clubs dominated the club game and Italy were slightly fortunate Nations Cup winners in 1968, the most abiding memory many have of their national team was the barrage of rotten vegetables that greeted their return from an abject 1966 World Cup campaign, one that included defeat to North Korea.

Italy went undefeated throughout 1964, 1967 and 1969 though. It’s hard to make a case that playing fewer games than their major rivals was beneficial when England were almost as strong, despite playing more games than any other nation in Europe. Sweden poll in a creditable seventh place, although they did play a high number of matches against generally weak Scandinavian neighbours. In a decade when defensive football started to dominate tactical thinking and goals began to dry up as a result, Denmark were a breath of fresh air – only England outscored them and only Finland conceded more goals over the period.

Scotland produced world-class players in the 60s by the score, but true to its nature, the national team was its usual underachieving self – capable of humiliating the world champions at Wembley, then crashing feebly to an unrated opponent. Scotland’s overall mediocrity saw them pitched well down the list alongside Belgium and Rumania. Spain, of course, were a long way from the all-conquering force we know them as today. They did win the Nations Cup in 1964, but were broadly awful for most of the decade and failed to make any impact on the World Cup. Their national side even managed to win just a single game during 1968 and 1969. The Dutch had more excuse for their poor ratio of 42% as professionalism only took hold for the first time during the decade. Their figures were improving rapidly towards the end of the 60s, unlike the French, a nation that suffered a rotten decade in the wilderness.

So if Italy was the best European nation of the 1960s, which was the best in the world? Little surprise there – Brazil top the table with a 73.9% percentage of points won.

The table below is based around all full FIFA internationals played during the 1960s, encompassing both competitive and friendly matches. Olympic football is not included. All 17 European nations with a 50% win ratio or better are listed. The WC Finals field relates to the number of times each nation qualified for the World Cup during the decade, this includes the ones that had successfully qualified for the forthcoming 1970 tournament too.