(Redirected from Euro 84)
The '1984 UEFA European Football Championship' ('Euro 84') final tournament was held in
France. It was the seventh
European Football Championship, held every four years and endorsed by
UEFA. The final tournament took place from
June 12 -
27,
1984.
At the time, only eight countries took part in the final stage of the tournament, seven of which had to come through the qualifying stage.
France qualified automatically as hosts of the event; led by
Michel Platini, who scored nine goals in France's five matches, ''Les Bleus'' won the tournament - their first major international title.
Qualification
1984 UEFA European Football Championship finalists.
The following teams participated in the final tournament:
★
★
★ (automatically qualified as host)
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★
★
★
★
Organization
Tournament format
After trying out several formats,
UEFA finally developed for the 1984 tournament the format that would serve for all subsequent eight-team Euros. The eight qualified teams were split into two groups of four that played a round-robin schedule. The top two teams of each group advanced to semi-finals (reintroduced after being absent from the 1980 tournament) and the winners advanced to the final. The third-place game, widely perceived as an unnecessary chore, was dropped. As usual at the time, a win was credited with two points only, teams on equal points were ranked by goal difference instead of head-to-head results, and the sudden-death rule in extra time did not apply.
Venues and fixtures
France's winning bid to host the Euro was based on seven stadia.
Paris' 48,000-seat
Parc des Princes, built in 1972, was still state-of-the-art in 1984 and needed only minor improvements. Existing stadia at
Lens (
Stade Félix-Bollaert, capacity 49,000),
Lyon (
Stade de Gerland, 40,000),
Saint-Étienne (
Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, 53,000), and
Marseille (
Stade Vélodrome, 55,000) were extensively renovated, Marseille's becoming on the occasion France's largest.
Strasbourg's
Stade de la Meinau was rebuilt from the ground up on the site of the old stadium into a modern 40,000-seat arena. Lastly, the all-new
Stade de la Beaujoire (53,000) in
Nantes provided at last a worthy home for the local side, at the time one of France's best.
Fixtures were scheduled according to an innovative rotation schedule in which each team played its three first-round matches in three different stadia. Host France, for instance, played in Paris, Nantes, and Saint-Étienne. This formula had the advantage of exposing residents of a given city to more teams but implied multiple and sometimes costly trips from town to town for fans who wanted to follow their side. In subsequent Euros, the organizers reverted to conventional schedules in which teams played in one or two cities only.
Overall impressions
Very few hooligan-related incidents were recorded throughout the tournament, not least thanks to absence from the final round of teams such as
England or
Holland whose fans were notoriously prone to violence. Only one minor instance of fan trouble was recorded, in Strasbourg around the
West Germany vs.
Portugal match. The small group of German hooligans responsible for the incidents was arrested and deported back to West Germany on the same day using a new law specially passed by the French Parliament ahead of the Euro. Overall, the organization was flawless, a feat that established France's credentials as a host nation and eventually helped it win the right to stage the
1998 World Cup.
The entire competition was marked by exceptionally fine weather which, along with the high quality of play throughout the tournament (a welcome change from the previous tournament) and the absence of hooligans, contributed to a very positive and enjoyable experience for teams and fans alike.
Squads
:''For a list of all participating squads, see
1984 UEFA European Football Championship squads''
Group A
★ France
★ Belgium
★ Denmark
★ Yugoslavia
'
France' were the favorites of English
bookmakers to win the tournament with odds of 5/8. Expectations at home were sky-high following the side's brilliant display and fourth-place finish at the
1982 World Cup. ''Les Bleus'' of 1984 seemed even stronger, having remedied many of the weaknesses that had dogged them at the World Cup. In
Joël Bats, France had found at long last a first-class goalkeeper. The shaky dual-sweeper central defense of 1982 has made way for a rock-solid conventional setup around center-back
Yvon Le Roux and sweeper
Patrick Battiston. The midfield, where gritty defensive upstart
Luis Fernandez had joined 1982 veterans
Jean Tigana,
Alain Giresse, and
Michel Platini in the so-called ''carré magique'' ("magic square"), was arguably the best in the world. In offense, manager
Michel Hidalgo had worked around the lack of a world-class striker by designing a flexible 4-4-2 system that enabled Platini, then at the zenith of his footballing abilities, to switch from playmaker to center-forward at short notice. The only major unknown was how the team would fare under the pressure of competition, as it had been exempted from the qualifying round as the host nation.
'
Belgium' was a possible title contender with odds of 7/1. The surprise finalists of
Euro 1980 and second-round participants at the
1982 World Cup had matured into a very solid side well used to the pressure and rigors of final-round football and built around a backbone of world-class players such as goalkeeper
Jean-Marie Pfaff, midfielder
Enzo Scifo, or strikers
Erwin Vandenbergh and
Jan Ceulemans. The team had proven its mettle in past Euro and World Cup qualifying campaigns and was a very tough opponent for anyone on any given day. One crucial caveat was the absence from the squad of defender
Eric Gerets, one of Belgium's all-time greats, who was sidelined due to injury.
'
Denmark' celebrated its first appearance at a major tournament in decades yet were heavily tipped as a dark horse to win the Euro (with odds of 8/1) due to an impressive qualifying campaign in which they had edged out
England, winning 1-0 at
Wembley in the process. Manager
Sepp Piontek's compact, athletic side relied on experienced professionals from some of the best European leagues of the time (Belgium, West Germany, Holland, Spain, Italy), had no obvious weakness, and could rely on the world-class individual talent of a
Frank Arnesen, a
Michael Laudrup, or a
Soren Lerby to make the difference.
'
Yugoslavia' came in as perennial underachievers with odds of 16/1. As usual, the Balkan side boasted a wealth of individual talent (
Katanec,
Susic,
Bazdarevic,
Zl. Vujovic,
Hadzibegic,
"Piksi" Stojkovic) that could make many a rival drool with envy. As usual, the major unknown was whether manager
Todor Veselinovic could meld his stars into a cohesive team, a problem that had caused the undoing of nearly every Yugoslavia team in past final rounds. Also, and most unusually for a Yugoslav side, goalkeeping appeared to be a weak spot.
Group B
★ West Germany
★ Spain
★ Portugal
★ Romania
'
West Germany' were second favourites to win the tournament, with odds of 5/2, after reaching the final of the
1982 World Cup two years before. The squad boasted the usual array of world-class talent such as goalkeeper
Harald Schumacher, arguably the world's best at the time, defenders
Hans-Peter Briegel and
Karl-Heinz Förster, defensive midfielder
Lothar Matthäus, or strikers
Pierre Littbarski,
Rudi Völler, and
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. However, offensive midfield had emerged as a significant weakness during a hard-fought qualifying campaign in the absence of playmakers such as
Hansi Müller,
Bernd Schuster (both mired in long-standing feuds with the German football federation), or
Felix Magath (in poor form). Still, West Germany's strength remained impressive and the side's legendary ability to rise to the challenge of a major competition was a factor to be reckoned with.
'
Spain', at 8/1, were only rated an outsider for the title in spite of a squad awash with talent. Goalkeeper
Luis Arconada, defenders
José Antonio Camacho and
Antonio Maceda, midfielder
Rafael Gordillo, or strikers
Carlos Santillana and
Francisco Carrasco could hold their own against any direct counterpart bar none. Most players were veterans of the
1978 World Cup,
Euro 1980, or
1982 World Cup campaigns and were used to final-round pressure. As usual, though, the main challenge of manager
Miguel Munoz was to build a team spirit among players hailing from a footballing culture that often placed regional rivalries such as
Real Madrid vs.
FC Barcelona above national unity.
'
Portugal', at 14/1, were widely seen as a rising force that might be a little too green to go all the way in its first participation to the final round of a major tournament in two decades. Having eliminated
1982 World Cup third-place finisher
Poland and a strong
USSR side was a label of quality for a talented young "golden generation" around midfielder
Fernando Chalana or strikers
Diamantino and
Rui Jordão. The side bore the traditional hallmarks of Portuguese football with first-class offensive power, an inspired midfield, and a gritty defense. Inexperience in a final round, occasional lapses in tactical discipline, and inconsistent goalkeeping were the main concerns of manager
Fernando Cabrita as the tournament opened.
'
Romania', at 16/1, were a near-complete unknown whose triumph in qualifying over
World Cup holders
Italy and
Euro 1980 third-place finishers
Czechoslovakia inspired awe. Opportunities to observe the side and its star players, who all came from domestic teams, were few at a time when the country was still firmly behind the
Iron Curtain. Only midfielder
Ladislau Bölöni had made a name for himself with an inspired performance in the qualifier at home against
Italy, while a young striker named
Gheorghe Hagi was still on the eve of an illustrious career.
Tournament details
Group Stages
Group A
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '6' | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 2 | +7 |
| '4' | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 3 | +5 |
| '2' | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 8 | −4 |
| '0' | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 10 | −8 |
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Group B
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '4' | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | +1 |
| '4' | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 |
| '3' | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| '1' | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | −2 |
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Knockout stages
Semi-finals
----
Final
| Euro 1984 Champions |
|---|
 France
'France'
'First title' |
Match Officials
; Austria
★
Heinz Fahnler
; Belgium
★
Alexis Ponnet
; Czechoslovakia
★
Vojtěch Christov
; East Germany
★
Adolf Prokop
; England
★
George Courtney
; France
★
Michel Vautrot
; Italy
★
Paolo Bergamo
; Netherlands
★
Jan Keizer
; Scotland
★
Bob Valentine
; Spain
★
Augusto Lamo Castillo
; Soviet Union
★
Romualdas Yushka
; Switzerland
★
André Daina
; West Germany
★
Volker Roth
Statistics
Goal scorers
Fastest goal
'3 Minutes' : Michel Platini (France vs Belgium)
Average goals
2.73 Per Game
Final match squads
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