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1960 European Football Championship

1960 UEFA European Nations' Cup
UEFA Championnat Européen du Football
France 1960
UEFA Euro 1960 logo.svg
UEFA Euro 1960 official logo
Tournament details
Host country France France
Dates 6 – 10 July
Teams 4
Venue(s) 2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions  Soviet Union (1st title)
Runners-up  Yugoslavia
Third place  Czechoslovakia
Fourth place  France
Tournament statistics
Matches played 4
Goals scored 17 (4.25 per match)
Attendance 78,958 (19,740 per match)
Top scorer(s) Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Milan Galić
France François Heutte
Soviet Union Valentin Ivanov
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Dražan Jerković
Soviet Union Viktor Ponedelnik
(2 goals each)
1964

The 1960 UEFA European Nations' Cup was the first European Football Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The first tournament was held in France. It was won by the Soviet Union, who beat Yugoslavia 2–1 in Paris after extra time.

The tournament was a knockout competition; just 17 teams entered with some notable absences, West Germany, Italy and England among them. The teams would play home-and-away matches until the semi-finals; the final four teams would move on to the final tournament, whose host was selected after the teams became known.

Spain, still under Francisco Franco's far-right dictatorship, refused to travel to the Soviet Union, the main supporter of the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War, and withdrew from the tournament, so the final four had three communist countries: USSR, Czechoslovakia, and SFR Yugoslavia, to go with hosts France. In the semi-finals, the Soviets made easy work of the Czechoslovaks in Marseille, beating them 3–0. The other match saw a nine-goal thriller as Yugoslavia came on top 5–4, coming back from a two-goal deficit twice. Czechoslovakia beat the demoralized French 2–0 for third place.

In the final, Yugoslavia scored first, but the Soviet Union, led by legendary goalkeeper Lev Yashin, equalized in the 49th minute. After 90 minutes the score was 1–1, and Viktor Ponedelnik scored with seven minutes left in extra time to give the Soviets the inaugural European Championship.


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