The format of the tournament was a knock-out style with 17 participating nations. West Germany, Italy and England were the absentees. Teams had to play home and away matches until the semi-finals. The venue for semis was decided after the teams became known.
Spain, under Francisco Franco's dictatorship, did not travel to the Soviet Union and later withdrew from the championships to hand USSR victories due to forfeiture. As a result three of the semi-finalists were communist nations - USSR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The hosts, France, were the last team in the semis.
The Soviet Union was led by the goalkeeping legend Lev Yashin in the tournament. It is difficult to imagine a USSR victory without him being there at the 1960 championships. In the first round, USSR defeated Hungary 4-1 while Yugoslavia beat Bulgaria 3-1 on aggregate.
Th quarter-finals saw Yugoslavia smashing Portugal 6-3 over two legs. USSR did not have to do much to get to the semis as Spain had decided not to play in the USSR.
The semi-finals were mixed bags as Yugoslavia rallied to beat hosts France after being 4-2 down with less than half an hour to go. Yugoslavia must have gained tremendous confidence going into the finals as they came back from the dumps to beat the hosts 5-4. On the other hand, the Soviet Union side had it easy in their semis defeating Czechoslovakia 3-0.
Yugoslavia, buoyed by their semi-final performance, netted a scrambling goal in the 43rd minute of the tournament decider. Soviet went into the break with lots to ponder upon. They needed to come up with something special to go one up on their confident opponents and they did so in style. Lev Yashin was brilliant behind the goal and kept the Soviet side in the hunt until the equaliser came in the 49th minute. The game then drifted into extra-time and Viktor Ponedelnik, who was drafted from a second-division club, netted with just 7 minutes remaining. He became the hero of the nation and deservedly so.
1960, USSR
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