Their first European game was a 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford in the Champions Cup, in November 1957. Tragically, less than three months later, many of the Busby Babes would perish in Munich, returning home after a successful Second Round tie against Red Star in Belgrade. Dukla did enjoy a 1-0 victory in the return leg in the old Strahov Stadion, as United progressed to their saddest of dates with destiny.
The following season saw Dukla back in the European Cup, this time opening with a 4-3 aggregate win over Yugoslav champions, Dinamo Zagreb. In the Second Round, they were paired with the Austrian champions, Wiener Sport-club, this time the Czechs losing out by the odd goal in five.
Their next appearance in the premier competition was in 1961/62, CSKA Sofia defeated in Prague after a thrilling 4-4 draw in Bulgaria. And the goals kept flowing at both ends, a 3-1 lead becoming a 4-3 loss to Servette in Geneva, Dukla’s home form again seeing them through, winning the return 2-0. The Quarter-final paired them with English double-winners, Tottenham Hotspur, a 1-0 Dukla win setting the second leg up nicely at White Hart Lane. However, Spurs would prove far too powerful in London, both Bobby Smith and Dave Mackay netting twice as they qualified comfortably, 4-2 on aggregate.
It was Germany calling next for the Prague side, in the following season’s European Cup, a second-half hat-trick from Jozef Adamec in Berlin seeing off Vorwarts. Adamec had a long, successful international career with Czechoslovakia, with Brazil, Ireland and Scotland all featuring prominently. He was part of the Czech squad who beat Scotland in a Brussels Play-off in 1961, to progress to the following year’s World Cup Finals in Chile, albeit only playing in the 7-1 Strahov win against Ireland, in the qualifying section. He featured in all three Group matches in South America, as they beat the Spain of Gento, Di Stefano, Puskas and Suarez, drew with the Brazil of Garrincha, Vava and Pele, then lost to Mexico.
The Mexico game would be his last appearance in the competition. Czechoslovakia, featuring several Dukla colleagues, would go all the way to the Final, before losing to group rivals, Brazil, in Santiago. Adamec would have to wait for his moment, although his patience would be rewarded with a hat-trick against the Samba superstars in Bratislava in 1968, the first person to do so since Ernst Wilimowski of Poland, thirty years earlier. The following year, he scored the winner in Dublin, as the Czechs qualified for the Mexican World Cup Finals of 1970, having also been part of the side who won a Euro68 qualifier at the same Dalymount Park, four days before the Lisbon European Cup Final of 1967, the second and final appearance for Celtic’s Charlie Gallacher, the first Scottish-born player to be selected by Ireland.
Adamec played in all three Group defeats in Mexico, to Brazil, Romania and England, before facing the World Champions and Scotland in the Independence Cup in Rio in 1972, both games finishing goalless. His penultimate cap came in the famous clash at Hampden in September of the following year, as the Scots gained revenge for 1961 by qualifying for the West Germany finals at Czechoslovakia’s expense.
