In November 1945, Soviet football club Dynamo Moscow embarked on an exhibition tour of the United Kingdom following the end of World War II. The tour, which marked the first time a Soviet team had ever played in the United Kingdom, saw them face four clubs from across England, Wales, and Scotland, being Chelsea, Cardiff City, Arsenal, and Rangers.
Despite early issues with arrangements, the official fixture list for the tour was released on 6 November with three confirmed matches, alongside the possibility of a fourth. The first match saw Dynamo Moscow draw 3–3 at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea in a match labelled as the "match of the century", and broke the attendance record for a British club football match at the time. Four days later, they travelled to Cardiff shortly after a royal visit, where they won 10–1 against Cardiff City, marking one of the heaviest defeats a British side had suffered against foreign opposition.
The third match of the tour saw them return to London to face Arsenal at White Hart Lane. Due to many players still serving overseas following World War II, Arsenal brought in several guest players, notably Stoke City winger Stanley Matthews and Blackpool striker Stan Mortensen, causing Dynamo players to claim that the team was closer to a representative England team. The visibility of the match was impacted heavily by a pea soup fog that had rolled in, and although Dynamo won 4–3, the match was called "one of the most exciting games 54,000 people never saw" by the Daily Mail.
The fourth match of the tour against Rangers almost didn't go ahead, after a disagreement over the transfer of Jimmy Caskie from Everton saw Dynamo threaten to return to London if he was included in Rangers' squad. After settling the issue, the match went ahead, resulting in a 2–2 draw, including a controversial penalty awarded to Rangers near the end of the match. A fifth match for the tour had been arranged against an England Select XI at Villa Park, although it was not played as the team had been summoned back to Moscow, where they were hailed as national heroes.
Background Three months after the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II, the British government invited a football club from the Soviet Union to do an exhibition tour in the country, following the Allies's victory in the war. The Soviets ended up sending 1945 Soviet Top League winners Dynamo Moscow for the tour. Immediately after their Soviet Cup defeat to CDKA Moscow, Dynamo manager Mikhail Yakushin was summoned to the Kremlin, where he learned about the proposal for the first time, and was given a few weeks to prepare for it. This tour marked the first time either a Russian or Soviet team had ever played a match in the United Kingdom.
However, as post-war relations between both countries began to deteriorate, the Foreign Office believed that "it would take much more than a football match to break down the real barriers which the Soviet government firmly believe in", and tried to cancel the tour, but following pressure from the British embassy in Moscow, they allowed the tour to take place, choosing instead to distance themselves from it and presenting Dynamo Moscow as guests of the Football Association.
The tour The tour's announcement was first reported by both the Daily Mirror and Daily Express on 26 October 1945, with the team intending to arrive in the United Kingdom the following week. The first team to offer a match with Dynamo was Chelsea, who had been suggested to face Dynamo after the assistant to the All-Union Council on Physical Culture and Sports attended one of Chelsea's league matches.
Initially, Dynamo Moscow's departure from Moscow was announced on 31 October, with a match against Chelsea scheduled for the following week, but the team's arrival was delayed due to difficulties with releasing some of the players from their factory jobs. Their arrival was delayed again a few days later due to weather conditions, forcing the Chelsea match to be pushed back a week. After additional issues with visas, they eventually arrived in two Douglas C-47 Skytrain "Dakotas" at Croydon Airport on 4 November, following an 11-hour flight, where they were met by Football Association secretary Stanley Rous and members of the Soviet Embassy in London. Their squad for the tour included three guest players, being Vsevolod Bobrov from CDKA Moscow and both and from Dynamo Leningrad.
The team's delayed arrival caused issues with their hotel accommodations, which had been set up by the Football Association, with the federation booking most of the squad into the Wellington Barracks in London upon their arrival. Although Dynamo Moscow manager Mikhail Yakushin initially understood why the team were accommodated there, the players considered the barracks not good enough for them, as the federation neglected to ensure that it had pillows, sheets, or running water, resulting in the squad splitting into small groups to find hotel accommodations instead. After hearing about the conditions, Rous and the federation helped resolved the issue quickly, booking them into the Imperial Hotel.
Provisional fixture lists for the tour included matches against Chelsea on 7 November, either Port Vale or Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic on 10 November, Birmingham City on 14 November, a match on 17 November, and Arsenal on 19 November, before travelling up to Scotland for a match on 21 or 22 November to end the tour. Before the schedule was finalized after their accommodation issues were solved, Dynamo Moscow made a 14-point charter of demands for how it would play out, including that all scheduled matches be against professional clubs, with one match specifically against Arsenal, as well as not having to wear shirt numbers, being allowed at least one substitution, all team meals must occur in the Soviet Embassy, and that revenue from the tour would be split 50/50. Following negotiations, which included agreeing to use shirt numbers, a three-match schedule was agreed, alongside the option of discussions for a fourth match afterwards. The final fixture list for the tour was released on 6 November, with matches scheduled against Chelsea on 13 November, Cardiff City on 17 November, and Arsenal at White Hart Lane on 21 November.
Prior to the Dynamo Moscow's arrival, most people in the country knew nothing about the team, the only exceptions being some print journalists who were permitted to attend the club's training sessions. However, the British press were unconcerned about their ability, with some reporting to not expect much of the team, and The Evening Standard claiming that they were "only beginners, blue-collars, amateurs." However, despite the reports of the squad not being professionals, the club later clarified after the tour that they were considered neither amateur nor professional under the Football Association's interpretation of professionalism.
Chelsea
The match between Dynamo Moscow and Chelsea was the first one proposed for the tour, and originally scheduled for 7 November at Stamford Bridge, but was later pushed back to 13 November. Prior to the match being switched, Radio Moscow spent £92 on a 23-minute phone call with Chelsea manager Billy Birrell to seek information about the club history and its players. On 8 November, Chelsea announced the signing of England international Tommy Lawton from Everton for a reported fee of £14,000, a club-record signing at the time, and that he would be included in their squad for the match against Dynamo. To strengthen their squad further, they also brought in two guest players from Fulham, being Joe Bacuzzi and Jim Taylor.
While in London, Dynamo Moscow trained at White City Stadium. Their first session was attended by Chelsea manager Birrell, who was surprised by their quality and later praised the squad's ability. Near the end of training on 9 November, Dynamo captain Mikhail Semichastny was injured after being kicked in the leg during a tackle against him, although the injury didn't rule him out of the match. Later that night, the squad attended their first performance in the country, being a production of A Night In Venice at Cambridge Theatre. The following day, the Dynamo Moscow squad attended Chelsea's match against Birmingham City, where they were impressed by Lawton's jumping and heading ability.
The official attendance for the match was 74,496, but it was reported that between 85,000 to 100,000 spectators actually watched the match, making it the largest crowd ever for a club match in the United Kingdom at the time. Many spectators queued as long as five and a half hours for tickets, while some who didn't get them climbed onto the roof of the stadium to get a better view, with at least two people falling through the roof's glass onto other spectators, and one person later filing a lawsuit against the club the following year after a shard of falling glass cut his nose. Additionally, there were reports of people breaking the doors of nearby houses to try and get to the roofs in order to try and watch the match.
The referee chosen for the match was lieutenant-commander George Clark, who had served on the HMS Malaya during World War II, and officiated matches between army teams and Spanish and West African clubs, as well as a Football League War Cup final replay. Around fifteen minutes before the match started, the Dynamo players began practicing repetitive drills on the pitch, bemusing the Chelsea fans in the crowd who thought they were wasting their energy. Right before the match started, the Soviet players presented each of their opponents with red and white bouquets of flowers, as was considered normal in the Soviet Top League. However, the Chelsea players were seemingly embarrassed by the tradition, handing the flowers to a club official before the national anthems were played, while Chelsea fans saw it as bizarre, with one shouting "What's this then, Chelsea's funeral?"
Match summary Early on, Chelsea struggled to cope with Dynamo's pass-and-move style, with Chelsea goalkeeper Vic Woodley having to make three close range saves in the first two minutes. By the first 20 minutes, the Soviet side had made six shots, with four being saved and two hitting the post. However, Chelsea were able to take the lead in the 22nd minute, after Len Goulden scored the rebound of Lawton's shot from a Jimmy Bain corner. They doubled their lead six minutes later, when Reg Williams capitalized on a defensive mix-up to score. In the 41st minute, Dynamo were awarded a penalty after a sliding tackle by Bobby Russell, which Leonid Solovyov missed by hitting the post.
Dynamo Moscow began to play better in the second half, and scored their first goal in the 67th minute, thanks to a 25-yard shot from Vasili Kartsev. Six minutes later, Kartsev went down the right wing, before cutting it inside to Yevgeniy Archangelski, who scored to make it 2–2. However, Chelsea were able to regain their lead in the 81st minute, following a header from Lawton, but Dynamo drew level again within two minutes, after won the ball and passed it to Archangelski who crossed it, deflecting off a Chelsea player and landing to Vsevolod Bobrov, who scored from five yards out.
Following the match, thousands of fans swarmed the pitch, with several trying to carry the Dynamo players into the tunnel and dressing room. Later, Lawton called Dynamo one of the fastest teams he had seen in his life, while Chelsea captain John Harris praised the performance of goalkeeper Alexei Khomich. The day after the match, Dynamo Moscow invited Chelsea to tour the Soviet Union after the 1945–46 season when they met at the reception of the Hotel Café Royal. Afterwards, journalist John Graydon labeled this match as the match of the century, and in March 2025, The Athletic called it Chelsea's most important match of the 1940s.
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