The first European championship was held in 1960.
Football fans wait for: Friday, June 10, started 15-th championship of Europe on football games which will be held on the sidelines of the stadiums in 10 cities of France, and the final will take place on 10 July at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. The main football championship in this part of the world is held every four years. Last time, in 2012, the championship was held simultaneously in two countries — Ukraine and Poland. In the not-too-difficult final game won a victory when the reigning Champions — the Spanish team under the leadership of “Barbel” Vicente del Bosque. The “squadra Azzurra”, as it is sometimes called the Italian national team was defeated with the score 4:0. Now the Spaniards have the second time in a row to defend the title, and fans are waiting for some interesting confrontations at the group stage of the championship.
We have collected for you 16 interesting facts from the history of the European football Championships.
The first championship of Europe on football, which was then called the European Nations Cup, was held in Marseille and Paris in 1960. In the decisive part of the tournament, at that time consisting of two semi-finals, final and match for third place, was attended by teams of four countries: the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and France. Won a victory when the players of the USSR in the final with the score 2:1 they won against Yugoslavia. It was the first and only time when our countrymen took gold in the main European football championship among national teams.
Three times masters championship, was just two countries: in 2000 in their fields took the championship in the Netherlands and Belgium, in 2008 — Austria and Switzerland, and in 2012 — Poland and Ukraine.
The current championship is the first in the final tournament involving 24 teams. Until 1976 the Henri Delaunay trophy, the main prize of the championship, played between 4 teams from 1980 to 1992 — 8 teams, and from 1996 to 2012 — the 16 best national teams of those countries whose football associations are members of UEFA.
France becomes the owner of the tournament for the third time: in addition to the first championship held in 1960 in Paris and Marseilles, as well as the current championship, the country hosted Euro in 1984, which, incidentally, won. The best scorer in the history of the European football Championships to this day is the Frenchman Michel Platini: in the games of the European championship of 1984, he scored 9 goals and was voted best player of the tournament.
The record for number of victories on the Euro are two teams — the teams of Spain and Germany. The Germans won in 1972, 1980 and 1996, and the Spaniards, in 1964, 2008 and 2012. the USSR Team four times managed to reach the final, but unfortunately, the success of 1960 was not destined to repeat.
An interesting story connected with Euro 1992. Then the future European champion, Denmark, only at the last moment managed to jump on the leaving train of the championship. The fact that Yugoslavia, which is qualified in the final of the tournament, was eliminated from participation due to imposed against this country sanctions, and its place was taken by Denmark. In the final, the Danes defeated the Germans with the score 2:0 for the first time in its history, became Champions of Europe.
Since 1984 UEFA European championship on football is not possible the match for third place and semi-finalists will automatically become bronze winners of the championship, as happened, for example, with the national teams of Russia and Turkey in Euro 2008.
For Euro 2020, for the first time in the history of the tournament selected 13 cities in 12 countries. The idea of this interesting format of the championship is that in 2020, the championship will celebrate the anniversary — 60 years. The group stage matches and one quarter-finals will be held in Russia: venue to hold the selected Saint Petersburg. The final will be held in London at Wembley stadium.
The author of the fastest goal scored in final tournaments of European Championships in football was our compatriot, Russian Dmitry Kirichenko. In the game of the group stage of Euro 2004 against the Greeks, Dmitry scored a goal in the second minute of the match, and then Russia became the only team in the League that managed to beat the future Champions of Europe: the game ended with the score 2:1 in favor of the team of Georgy Yartsev, and in the final the national team of Greece beat Portugal with the score 1:0.
The team of Spain is the only team that managed to protect a title of the champion of Europe. After the Vienna final in 2008, when he was defeated by the Germans, the players, “red fury” (the unofficial nickname of the Spanish team), having, among other things, also the title of world Champions, managed to defeat the Italians with the score 4:0 in the final of Euro 2012. This game, incidentally, was the highest-scoring final in the history of the European Championships.
Curiously, on each of the Championships played at least one new team, and seven of them were also masters championship. This year five teams have become the newcomers of the Euro is Iceland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Albania and Slovakia.
The most successful was the European championship 2000. Then, a total of 85 goals were scored.
The oldest player in the history of the Championships (including qualifying games) was the Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff. At the time of the qualifying match for Euro 1984, where the Italians played with the Swedes, Dino was at the age of 41 years and 3 months.
The oldest player from the teams taking part in the current Euro Hungarian goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly in the Euros he was 40 years old and 2 months. In the case of the field in the match against Austria Gabor will break the record of German Lothar Matthaus, currently being the oldest player participating in the final matches of the championship of Europe on football. He participated in Euro 2000, being at the age of 39 years.
The youngest player of the European championship, struck the gate rivals, is the Swiss Johan Vonlanthen: at the time of the match of Euro 2004 against France he was just 18 years and 5 months.
The youngest player from the teams participating in the final part of the current championship, the Englishman Marcus Rashford: he is just 18 and 7 months.
