UEFA Euro 1968

The 1968 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was hosted and won by Italy. This was the third UEFA European Championship, an event held every four years and organised by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 5 and 10 June 1968.

It was in this year that the tournament changed its name from the "European Nations' Cup" to the "European Championship".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> There were also some changes in the tournament's qualifying structure, with the two-legged home-and-away knock-out stage being replaced by a group phase.

Four countries played in the final tournament, which consisted of the semi-finals, a third place play-off, and the final. The host nation for the finals was selected from the four qualified nations.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Qualification

The qualification competition was played in two stages: a group stage (taking place from 1966 until 1968) and the quarter-finals (played in 1968). There were seven groups of four teams and one of three, with matches played in a home-and-away basis. The eight group winners qualified for the quarter-finals, which were played in two legs, home and away. The winners of the quarter-finals went through to the final tournament.

This remains to this day the only World Cup or European Championship where a West or reunified German team was eliminated in the qualifying stages (they didn’t enter the 1930 FIFA World Cup, were banned from 1950 and didn’t enter the qualifying stages of UEFA Euro 1960 or 1964 for unknown reasons)

Qualified teams

UEFA Euro 1968 qualifying

Venues

Template:Location map+	Rome	Naples	Florence
	Stadio Olimpico	Stadio San Paolo	Stadio Comunale
	Capacity: 80,000	Capacity: 82,000	Capacity: 52,000
	File:Rome Olympics 1960 - Opening Day.jpg	File:Stadio di Fuorigrotta - Napoli 1963.jpg	File:Firenze, stadio artemio franchi, campo da gioco, 10,0.jpg

Match officials

Country	Referee
Template:Flagicon Switzerland	Gottfried Dienst
Template:Flagicon Spain	José María Ortiz de Mendíbil
Template:Flagicon West Germany	Kurt Tschenscher
Template:Flagicon Hungary	István Zsolt

Final tournament

File:Euro 1968.png

1968 UEFA European Football Championship finalists

In all matches but the final, extra time and a coin toss were used to decide the winner if necessary. If the final remained level after extra time, a replay would be used to determine the winner. Coin toss was as a matter of fact used in the semi final between Italy and Soviet Union.

All times are local, CEST (UTC+2).

Bracket

{{#lst:UEFA Euro 1968 final tournament|bracket}}

Semi-finals

{{#lst:UEFA Euro 1968 final tournament|sf1}}

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{{#lst:UEFA Euro 1968 final tournament|sf2}}

Third place play-off

{{#lst:UEFA Euro 1968 final tournament|tp}}

Final

Template:Main {{#lst:UEFA Euro 1968 final|final}}

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{{#lst:UEFA Euro 1968 final|replay final}}

Statistics

Awards

UEFA Team of the Tournament<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Template:Fbicon Dino Zoff	Template:Fbicon Bobby Moore Template:Fbicon Giacinto Facchetti Template:Fbicon Albert Shesternyov Template:Fbicon Mirsad Fazlagić	Template:Fbicon Angelo Domenghini Template:Fbicon Sandro Mazzola Template:Fbicon Ivica Osim	Template:Fbicon Geoff Hurst Template:Fbicon Gigi Riva Template:Fbicon Dragan Džajić

External links

• UEFA Euro 1968 at UEFA.com