1984 European Football Championship
| UEFA Championnat Européen de Football France 1984 |
|
|---|---|
UEFA Euro 1984 official logo
|
|
| Tournament details | |
| Host country | France |
| Dates | 12 – 27 June |
| Teams | 8 |
| Venue(s) | 7 (in 7 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 France (1st title)
|
| Runners-up |  Spain |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 15 |
| Goals scored | 41 (2.73 per match) |
| Attendance | 599,669 (39,978 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
Michel Platini (9 goals) |
The 1984 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in France from 12 to 27 June 1984. It was the seventh European Football Championship, a competition held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. West Germany also submitted a bid to host the tournament, but France were the favoured hosts.
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.
The opening game of tournament featured France and Denmark. The sides played out a very close encounter until Michel Platini's goal on 78 minutes gave the hosts a 1–0 victory. The opening game also saw a premature end to the tournament for Danish midfielder Allan Simonsen, who suffered a broken leg. Platini then scored hat-tricks against both Belgium and Yugoslavia as the French recorded maximum points in Group 1. Denmark took second place in the group with victories over Belgium and Yugoslavia, while Belgium finished third with two points. Yugoslavia, despite going out with no points, gave the hosts a fright in their last group game when they took a 1–0 lead into half-time and then reduced France's 3–1 lead to one goal six minutes from time. The games in Group 1 were unusually high-scoring, and featured 23 goals over the six matches.
Group 2 provided fewer goals, but produced a huge surprise as West Germany failed to qualify for the semi-finals after a 1–0 defeat in their last match to Spain, Antonio Maceda's goal at the death sending the holders out. Portugal also scored a late goal in their final match, against Romania, to take the second qualifying place behind Spain, while the Romanians finished bottom with one point.
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