England vs. Wales: Head-to-head record and past meetings

Head-to-head record

Previous meetings: 105

England wins: 70

Draws: 21

Wales wins: 14

England and Wales have faced each other a total of 105 times in competitive and non-competitive fixtures, with the Three Lions comfortably leading the overall head-to-head record having posted 70 wins to the Dragons' 14, while 21 draws have been played out between the two nations.

The very first meeting between England and Wales took place back in January 1879 in what was only the former's eighth game in their history. The Three Lions secured a 2-1 home victory in the friendly, courtesy of goals from Herbert Whitfield and Thomas Heathcote Sorby, while Wales’ solitary strike came from William Henry Davies.

England claimed a 3-2 win on Welsh soil 14 months later before the Dragons celebrated their first two triumphs over the Three Lions, winning 1-0 away from home in 1881 and 5-3 on their own turf in 1882 - John Vaughan and William Pierce Owen scored two goals each across these two victories.

Across the next 32 meetings between the two nations in the British Home Championship between 1884 and 1914, Wales failed to win a single match against England, who enjoyed a dominant unbeaten run consisting of 27 wins and five draws - England's emphatic 9-1 away victory in 1896 still represents the biggest win for either nation in this fixture to date.

Between 1920 and 1927, Wales improved against England and suffered defeat just twice across nine British Home Championship games (W4 D3). The Dragons also lost only two matches out of seven (W4 D1) between 1932 and 1938, but England has been firmly in command of the rivalry since then, losing only four of their last 48 meetings in all competitions (W34 D10).

England's first encounter with Wales in World Cup qualifying took place in October 1949 when Jackie Milburn scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 away victory for Walter Winterbottom's Three Lions, who also won the first European Championship qualifier between the two nations just a few months after lifting the 1966 World Cup, with Geoff Hirst and Bobby Charlton among the goalscorers in a convincing 5-1 home win.

The first-ever meeting between England and Wales at a major tournament took place in the group stage of Euro 2016. Welsh icon Gareth Bale gave the Dragons a surprise lead with a superb free kick, but Jamie Vardy's equaliser and Daniel Sturridge's 90th-minute winner sealed all three points for Roy Hodgson's Three Lions.

England only other encounter with Wales at a major tournament came at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, with two goals from Marcus Rashford and a strike from Phil Foden helping Gareth Southgate's side secure a 3-0 group-stage win en route to reaching the quarter-finals of the tournament.

The last meeting between the two nations took place in October 2025, with Thomas Tuchel's England recording a 3-0 victory at Wembley in an international friendly.