The tournament comprised hosts Japan, holders Yugoslavia and twelve other teams who emerged victorious from the qualification phase, The 14 teams competed in a group stage in the first round, from which eight teams qualified for the knockout stage.[2] En route to the final, Hungary finished first in Group B with two wins (6–0 against Morocco and 6–5 against Yugoslavia). They then beat Romania 2–0 in the quarter-finals and United Arab Republic 6–0 in the semi-finals. Czechoslovakia finished first in Group C with three wins, (6–1 against South Korea, 5–1 against United Arab Republic and 1–0 against Brazil), defeating hosts Japan 4–0 in the quarter-finals and United Team of Germany 2–1 in the semi-finals. The final took place in front of 65,610 spectators and was refereed by Menachem Ashkenazi.[citation needed]
After a goalless first helf, Hungary opened the scoring in first two minutes of the second half through an own goal by Vladimír Weiss before Ferenc Bene further increased their lead to 2–0 in the 59th minute. A penalty was awarded to Czechoslovakia and Raafat Attia converted the penalty to pull one back for Czechoslovakia. The match ended 2–1 to Czechoslovakia and became gold medalists for 1964.[3]