1988 UEFA European Football Championship
| UEFA Fußball-Europameisterschaft Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1988 |
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|---|---|
UEFA Euro 1988 official logo
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| Tournament details | |
| Host country | West Germany |
| Dates | 10 – 25 June |
| Teams | 8 |
| Venue(s) | 8 (in 8 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 Netherlands (1st title)
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| Runners-up |  Soviet Union |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 15 |
| Goals scored | 34 (2.27 per match) |
| Attendance | 849,844 (56,656 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
Marco van Basten (5 goals) |
The 1988 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in West Germany between 10 and 25 June 1988. It was the eighth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA.
The tournament crowned the Netherlands as European champions for the first, and so far only time. Euro 88 was a rare instance of a major football tournament ending without a single sending-off or goalless draw, nor any knockout matches going to extra time or penalties.
The first group pitted two pre-tournament favourites West Germany and Italy together, along with Spain and Denmark. The Italians had not played in the competition finals since the 1980 edition, which they hosted and West Germany won. Spain and Denmark contested the second semi-final of the 1984 edition. Spain prevailed on penalty-kicks, but lost the final to hosts, France who failed to qualify in 1988.
The Germans and Italians played out the opening game. This game was tightly contested. Roberto Mancini capitalised on a defensive error on the left-hand side of the German goal and the striker squeezed in a shot from a tight angle. Just three minutes later, Italy's goalkeeper, Walter Zenga was penalized for taking more than four steps with the ball and Andreas Brehme scored the resulting free-kick. Both teams settled for a 1–1 draw.
Spain defeated Denmark again, this time 3–2. Míchel opened the scoring after five minutes and Michael Laudrup equalised twenty minutes later. Spain dominated the next hour and Emilio Butragueño and Rafael Gordillo put the Spanish 3–1 to the good. A late surge saw Flemming Povlsen reduce the score line, but was not enough for the Danes, who now needed to win both their remaining games to be certain of a place in the semi-finals.
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