Euro 1980 became the 6th in history and was held for the second time in Italy. Passed by a modified formula. 8 teams participated in the final tournament, divided into 2 groups. In general, the European Championship turned out to be not very productive and interesting. Low attendance and riots in the stands characterized Euro 1980.
Qualifying Tournament
To get into the final stage of the European Football Championship, it was necessary to leave the qualifying group. In the qualifying rounds, 31 national teams took part. The draw took place on November 30, 1977. The teams were divided into seven groups - in three of five teams, in four of four. National teams that took first place in the groups received a ticket to Euro 1980. The Italian team became the mistress of the tournament and fell on it automatically.
The USSR national team proved to be a failure in the qualifying round. The players could not get out of the group, although the Greeks, Hungarians and Finns opposed them. The Soviet team, despite being a favorite, took the last place in the group. The national team managed to win the only match against the Greeks, after which they made a series of draws. In key matches, the players completely lost to the Greeks and could not defeat the Finns, who were considered outsiders in the qualification for Euro 1980.
The qualifying round, except for the failure of the USSR, ended quite expectedly. The favorites confidently took first places in their groups and went to Italy.
Euro 1980
The final part of the tournament began on June 11, 1980 and lasted until June 22. Italy prepared in advance for the adoption of the championship, but incidents could not be avoided.
Cities and stadiums
Four stadiums took the games. The first of them is located in Rome - "Olympic", whose capacity was eighty-six and a half thousand. The second stadium was Giuseppe Meazza, located in Milan and able to receive more than eighty-five thousand spectators. "São Paolo" in Naples has become the third arena with a capacity of more than seventy-two thousand. The last stadium was Komunale in Turin, capable of hosting up to fifty thousand fans.
Group A
The group included teams from Germany, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands and Greece.
The place of favorites was given to Germany, which immediately began to confirm its rank. Outsiders were the Greeks, who did not allow the Soviet Union to get on Euro 1980 football. The Germans, not having suffered a single defeat, went to the finals.
An interesting match turned out between the national team of Germany and the Netherlands, held on June 14. The Germans confidently led the game and managed to score three goals. Klaus Allofs managed to arrange a hat-trick to the 67th minute. After that, Germany’s mentor Jupp Derval, who made his debut in a major tournament, made two substitutions. A rookie Lothar Matteus appeared on the field , who after a few minutes fouls in his own penalty area. A fair penalty was successfully realized, and the Dutch threw all their forces into the attack. At the end, Rene van de Kirkhof scored another goal against the German goal, but despite this, the Netherlands could not achieve a draw. At the end of the match, the German national team seriously slowed down and miraculously did not lose points.
Germany outplayed Czechoslovakia - 1: 0 with eleven thousand spectators, but Greece in Turin was able to keep a draw.
Who won the Euro 1980? A question that interests many young fans. There were still a few games in the group before the final. Czechoslovakia, which came to the tournament in the status of the reigning champion, lost one match, won one and tied. This team was enough to take second place in the group and get out of it.
The Netherlands had the same results as Czechoslovakia, but lost the latter in terms of goals and went home. The worst team in the group was the Greek national team, which played a draw once, which was expected.
Group B
This is a more interesting group, which includes Belgium, Italy, Spain and England.
Everything was unpredictable here, although fans gave preference to the hostess, and Belgium acted as an outsider.
Most of all, of course, attended the matches of the Italian team. In the first match, the host country met with the eternal enemy - Spain. Took the match half-filled “Giuseppe Meazza” in Milan. However, the match did not live up to the expectations of the public, ending with a score of zero.
The second opponent was England. The match was watched by fifty thousand fans from the stands. Italy turned out to be stronger here, scoring in the end of the match. The midfielder of Tardelli became the author of the winning goal.
The final match of the hostess team took place at a stadium in Rome. Belgium and Italy played well, but could not score goals. The teams scored the same number of points, but Belgium reached the final thanks to goals scored. Italy had to play for third place.
England managed to take the third line in the group, which scored three points. It is worth noting that the English fans for the first time noted riots at the international level. On the opening day of the tournament they had to play with Belgium. The teams lost with a goal, scoring one goal. Wilkins scored in the English.
Against Italy, they failed to survive. In the match with Spain, the British showed character and won 2: 1. However, they did not have enough earned points to exit the group.
The worst of all in the group was Spain. The national team tied with Italy and lost the remaining matches.
3rd place match
At Euro 1980, the match for 3rd place ended in a duel. Czechoslovakia and Italy could not determine the winner in regular and extra time. Everything was decided in a penalty shoot-out. Viewers saw eighteen hits. The Italian Fulvio Kollovati failed to beat the goalkeeper of Czechoslovakia. The Czechs were again able to win, thanks to a penalty - four years ago (Euro 1976) they managed to win the championship. The Italian national team did not win even this “comforting” final of the home European Championship. Fans expected victory from the team.
Euro 1980 Final
Unexpectedly for many, Belgium made it to the finals of the tournament, which, before its start, was considered an outsider along with Greece. Germany confidently outplayed the “upstart”, thanks to the double of Horst Hrubesh. The Belgians still managed to score - Vandereikken scored from the penalty spot. The Germans held the final match confidently, creating many dangerous moments. In those years, the team had no problems with high-quality players. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge shone, who won the Golden Ball in the same season, the goal was defended by Harald Schumacher, who did not know fatigue Hans-Peter Brigel, could mock the rivals on the flank of the whole match.
Belgium also included players who later became football stars, for example, goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff.
Interesting Facts
Euro 1980 was not without interesting facts and innovations that may be of interest to football fans.
- The Welsh team should not have taken part in the qualifying matches for the European Championship. The reason is the unrest in the match against Yugoslavia, which took place in 1976 at the home Euro.
- The USSR national team showed the worst result in its history, taking the last line in the qualifying group.
- Italy was the first country to manage to host the final tournament of the European Championship twice. The first time was in 1968.
- For the first time, a competition was held for the tournament mascot. The winner was the hero of fairy tales Carlo Collodi - Pinocchio.
- For the first time, Greece took part in the tournament.
- The second time the Czechoslovak national team climbed the podium, having won bronze medals.
- For the first time, the Belgian national team managed to reach the finals of a major tournament.
- The best scorer was the German Klaus Allofs. He scored all three goals in one game. At this Euro, the Germans won the scorers race for the third time in a row.