Euro 2012

History: The Eighties

1980 ITALY

Number of teams
8
Number of venues
4
Matches played
14
Goals scored
27 (1.93 per match)
Top goalscorer
Klaus Allofs (Ger) (3 goals)
Fastest goal
Antonin Panenka (6 mins, Czechoslovakia vs Greece)

Could a decade of dominance by West Germany culminate in them reaching a third consecutive European Championship final?
Jupp Derwall’s team had a fresh young nucleus to showcase in Italy 1980 – driven by 20-year-old–Bernd Schuster and just-crowned European Footballer of the Year, Karl-Heinz Rummenige – and though not expected to conquer with such a young side, once again Die Mannschaft would stoutly refused to be denied.
The format had changed: Two groups of four teams were created who would play each other in a round robin format. The winners of the groups would go straight to the final (there were no semi-finals), while the runners-up disputed the third place match.
West Germany faced a difficult test against the holders in their first game in front of a disappointing 15,000 crowd in Rome’s huge Olympic stadium. A drab game only really got going after Rummenige opened the scoring and Germany weren’t about to let Panenka and co. back into it after that.
Their second match against the Dutch proved more entertaining with the firebrand Bernd Schuster having a hand in all Klaus Allofs hat-trick of goals, a 3-2 victory practically ensuring safe passage to the final, a second-string selection happy to settle for a 0-0 against Greece.
The other side of the draw saw a tough group containing Belgium, Italy, Spain and England with 1978 and 1979 European Footballer of the Year Kevin Keegan leading the line. Trouble with the lunatic fringe of English support and Italian fans chanting insults at their own team and manager following a domestic bribery scandal clearly affected performances and an unlikely Belgium emerged from a supremely tight group to qualify for the final, beating the Spainsh 2-1 and securing a decisive point against an increasingly frustrated host in their third game.
Jean-Marie Pfaff continued his splendid form against the Italians in the first part of the final but could not stop a fierce drive from Hrubesch in the 10th minute. He did, however, thwart numerous attempts from Klaus Allofs, Hrubesch once again and Schuster before the game turned once more. In the 75th minute, with Rummenige and co. seemingly running out of ideas and puff, François Van der Elst found himself clean though and, although tripped outside the box, earned Belgium a controversial penalty kick and a way back into the match. Dispatched with vigour by René Vandereycken, 1-1.
Ultimately, Belgium’s resolve would be broken though.  Bernd Shucter once again broke through the Belgian rear guard and forced Pfaff into conceding a corner. Rummenige found Hrubesch who powerfully nodded the winner. West Germany were European Champions once more.

UEFA Team of the Tournament
1.   Dino Zoff
2.   Claudio Gentile
3.   Karlheinz Forster
4.   Gaetano Scirea
5.   Hans-Peter Briegel
6.   Jan Ceulemans
7.   Marco Tardelli
8.   Bernd Schuster
9.   Hansi Müller
10.   Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
11.   Horst Hrubesch

Stand-out star
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
Fresh from a 26-goal table-topping year at Bayern Munich, Rummenige proved decisive in Italy scoring the winner against the Czechs and proving Horts ‘The Heading Monster’ Hrubesch the corner from hich the final was won. Retained the Ballo d’Or in 1981.

Final
Belgium 1 (Vandereycken 75) West Germany 2 (Hrubesch 10, 88)
Stadium
Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Attendance
47,864
Referee
Nicolae Rainea (Romania)

Did you know?
- The Germany national football team is one of the three most successful national teams at international competitions, having won a total of three World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990) and three European Championships (1972, 1980, 1996) They have also come runners-up three times in the Euros, four times in the World Cup, and finished third four times. Imperious.
- The third-place match between Czechoslovakia and Italy was deemed so pointless and dull UEFA decided to cancel third-place play-offs indefinitely.
- Lothar Matthaus made his international debut against Holand in Germany’s second match: the first in his record number of international caps.

ALSO IN 1980
European Footballer of the Year: Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (FC Bayern München)
Nobel Peace Prize winner: Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (human rights advocate, Argentina)
Oscar for Best Picture: Ordinary People

"Bernd was the outstanding player in the team. He connected the whole thing" Horst Hrubesch on Bernd Schuster

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1984 FRANCE

Number of teams
8
Number of venues
7
Matches played
15
Goals scored
41 (2.73 per match)
Top goalscorer
Michel Platini (Fra) (9 goals)
Fastest goal
Michel Platini (3 mins, France vs Belgium)

Despite a Frenchman, Henri Delaunay, concocting the European Championships way back in 1927, his countrymen had not appeared in the final tournament since they hosted the inaugural gathering in 1960. 24 long years later, the flamboyant French would be very much back under the European spotlight on home turf lead by their mercurial captain, Michel Platini, Alain Giresse, Jean Tigana and Luis Fernandez – collectively known as Le Carre Magique, or ‘The Magic Square’.
The competition itself remained a two-group round-robin affair but semi-finals were introduced where group winners would play the opposite group’s runner-up, and vice versa.
Euro 1984 began in Paris, Michel Platini earning the hosts a 1-0 victory over Denmark. He continued his excellence against Belgium securing a hat-trick in the final minute with a deft header and another hat-trick 3 days later in Saint-Etienne against Yugoslavia. 18 minutes of utter brilliance from the untouchable French maestro destroyed the Slavs and sent France into a semi-final clash with Portugal, Platini scoring the vital winner in the dying minutes of extra time to secure a 3-2 win and send France into the final.
On the other side of the draw the whole continent shook as Germany failed to progress, losing their final group game against Spain in the last-minute of the game. An under-achieving side then showed great bottle to overturn the Danes on penalties, setting France in Le Furia Roja’s sights.
So, to Paris, and under extreme pressure form the home crowd and media France failed to perform to such stratospheric levels as their qualification games. That said, they still had too much for the Spaniards, a Platini free-kick squirming under Luis Araconda for his ninth of the tournament and a Bruno Bellone completing a 2-0 victory late-on.
Scintillating football from beginning to end marked the 1984 European Championship out as the best yet, and one French star in particular had shone the brightest.

UEFA Team of the Tournament
1.   Harald Schumacher
2.   João Pinto
3.   Karlheinz Forster
4.   Morten Olsen
5.   Andreas Brehme
6.   Fernando Chalana
7.   Jean Tigana
8.   Michel Platini
9.   Frank Arnesen
10.   Rudi Völler
11.   Alain Giresse

Stand-out star
Michel Platini
With 9 of France’s 15 goals in five games, a goal in every match played, two hat-tricks, goals with his head and feet, from the spot and from free-kicks, how can you possibly look anywhere else than Michel PLatini. The greatest performance by any footballer in any international tournament ever.

Final
France 2 (Platini 57, Bellone 90) Spain 0
Stadium
Parc des Princes, Paris
Attendance
47,368
Referee
Vojtěch Christov (Czechoslovakia)

Did you know?
- In 1984, Michel Platini became the first player to score in every match of the European Championship
- In the opening game of the tournament between France and Denmark the referee let play go on for a full minute after Allan Simonsen went down , despite the players frenzied protestation. Simonsen had broken his leg. (Incidentally, Allan Simonsen is the only footballer to have scored in the European Cup, UEFA Cup, and Cup Winners' Cup finals, and he was named 1977 European Footballer of the Year.

ALSO IN 1984
European Footballer of the Year: Michel Platini (Juventus)
Nobel Peace Prize winner: Desmond Tutu (anti-apartheid campaigner, South Africa)
Oscar for best picture: Amadeus

“Some games you win, some you lose and some you draw” Michel Platini

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1988 WEST GERMANY

Number of teams
8
Number of venues
8
Matches played
15
Goals scored
34 (2.27 per match)
Top goalscorer
Marco van Basten (5 goals)
Fastest goal
Sergei Aleinikov (3 mins, USSR vs England)

Much to the ire of the fervent home support, West Germany 1988 belonged to the dazzling Dutch. With their sublime movement, passing and sheer style echoing the incomparable Cruyff-led teams of the 1970s, all lasting memories of the tournament seem to glow Orange, its brightest moments involving the jumping, pumping dreadlocks of Ruud Gullit and the sumptuous bullet boots of Marco van Basten.
Lothar Matthaus, if a little keen to con the referee with his theatrics and machinations, dictated much of the German play and gave the home crowd something spirited to cheer downing the Danes and the Spanish both 2-0 after a stuttering 1-1 draw with a Gianluca Vialli-inspired Italy.
The erratic Soviet Union stubbornly bested the eventual champions in their opening match, and blustering their way through the Rep of Ireland, England and Italy to the final where Rijkaard and co. exacted sweet revenge.

UEFA Team of the Tournament
1.   Hans van Breukelen
2.   Giuseppe Bergomi
3.   Frank Rijkaard
4.   Ronald Koeman
5.   Paolo Maldini
6.   Ruud Gullit
7.   Jan Wouters
8.   Giuseppe Giannini
9.   Lothar Matthaus
10.   Gianluca Vialli
11.   Marco van Basten

Stand-out star
Marco van Basten
A toss-up between van Basten and Ruud Gullit was decided in the final itself when vasn Basten scored that stupendous volley. The moment it punctured the the net his status as One of the Greatest Forwards Who Ever Lived was sealed forever.

Final
Soviet Union 0  Holland 2 (Gullit 32, Van Basten 54)
Stadium
Olympiastadion, Munich
Attendance
72,308
Referee
Michel Vautrot (France)

Did you know?
- Before the semi-final in 1988 Holland had not beaten Germany in a full international for 32 years
- Before the semi-final between West Germany and Holland it is alleged that German journalists were phoning Ruud Gullit’s room during the night to try and stop him from sleeping!
- Russia’s Oleg Kuznetsov had to avoid getting a yellow card against Italy in the semi or he would miss the final. He was booked in the 2nd minute.
- After 1988 Ruud Gullit was made a “Knight of the Queen (of Holland)”

Also in this year
EUROPEAN  PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Marco van Basten (AC Milan)
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE: United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces (for their participation in various conflicts since 1956)
OSCAR FOR BEST FILM: The Apartment

“To play Holland, you have to play the Dutch!" Ruud Gullit

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