2000, France
The Finals of the Euro 2000 were co-hosted by Belgium and Netherlands. The other bidders were Spain and Austria. As the hosts the two teams were the default entrants into the final stage. Nine teams qualified by the virtue of being the top seed in their individual groups in the qualifying phase.
- NDTVSports
- Updated: May 21, 2012 06:11 PM IST
The Finals of the Euro 2000 were co-hosted by Belgium and Netherlands. The other bidders were Spain and Austria. As the hosts the two teams were the default entrants into the final stage. Nine teams qualified by the virtue of being the top seed in their individual groups in the qualifying phase. The best runner-up of the entire group phase qualified automatically for the final tournament. Once the best runner-up was decided, the remaining eight teams entered play-offs to decide the remaining four teams that would qualify for the final stages.
Italy, Norway, Germany, Sweden, France, Spain, Romania, Yugoslavia and Czech Republic qualified as group winners. Portugal qualified as the best runner-up while England, Denmark, Slovenia and Turkey qualified through the play-offs.
Portugal and Romania had an uphill task as they were pitted against England and Germany in Group A. But both of them managed to come up trumps. Portugal were particularly impressive as they won all their fixtures while Romania had to wait till a late penalty in their last game against England. Belgium suffered an exit as Italy and Turkey went through from Group B. Group C qualifiers were as expected - Spain and Yugoslavia. Netherlands and France were the teams to advance from Group D.
Italy and Portugal maintained their perfect records in the quarter-finals, beating Romania and Turkey respectively, and the Netherlands fired a goal-avalanche against Yugoslavia, winning 6-1. Spain fell 2-1 to France as Raul missed a late penalty that ended the Spanish hopes.
In the first semi-final of the Euro 2000, Portugal took on France. Portugal had looked impressive throughout the tournament while France too seemed steady. Portugal took the initial honours as Nuno Gomes beat Fabian Barthez. But the French did not give up and scored through Thierry Henry after the break. France upped the ante, with Zinedine Zidane, Henry and Laurent Blanc all knocking at the door. Portugal battened down the hatches, and even managed to show their own attacking menace when Joao Pinto fired narrowly wide. But it was Zidane's penalty in extra time that handed France a golden goal victory after Abel Xavier was deemed to have handled a Sylvain Wiltord shot.
The Netherlands took on Italy in the second semi-final. Luigi Di Biagio and Francesco Totti came into the Italian side at the expense of the injured Antonio Conte and Alessandro Del Piero. Frank Rijkaard made one switch bringing in Giovanni van Bronckhorst in place of Artur Numan at the back. The Netherlands served the initial notice as Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Kluivert looked threatening. Frank de Boer and Patrick Kluivert missed golden opportunities as they bungled up on the penalties. The Azzurris were then reduced to ten men in the 34th minute with the exit of Gianluca Zambrotta. But the Azzurri defence stood up and got counted at the right time. The match then went into penalties after a goalless extra time. Italy scored the first three penalties in the shoot-out through Di Biagio, Gianluca Pessotto and Totti, while De Boer and Jaap Stam both missed for the Netherlands. But Kluivert scored and Paolo Maldini missed to restore Oranje hopes, but man of the match Francesco Toldo saved Paul Bosvelt's kick to confirm Italy as 3-1 winners.
The final was played at the Feijenoord Stadion, Rotterdam in Netherlands. A frenetic start added to the cracking contest. Henry and Youri Djorkaeff came close for the French while Demetrio Albertini brought Italy to life with a freekick. It was 55 minutes when the deadlock was broken. Totti's backheel released Gianluca Pessotto who crossed to Marco Delvecchio for an easy volley. The goal prompted France to bring in David Trezeguet as the third striker to partner Henry and Wiltord. Even though Zidane started weaving his magic, the precious goal seemed to elude the French. They, however, grabbed their chance in injury time when Wiltord slipped into the penalty area to tap in. France, buoyed by their last ditch effort, went all out in extra time. Zidane then set up Trezeguet, who cracked it first time into the roof for a golden goal. A tough tournament for the French ended in the most immaculate fashion.