Saturday, June 25, 2011

UEFA Euro 1992 Sweden

The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was hosted by Sweden, who beat Spain to host the event. Spain was at a disadvantage as they had already hosted the EXPO 1992 and the 1992 Summer Olympic Games. It was the ninth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 10 and 26 June 1992.

Eight countries contested the final tournament. Seven countries had to qualify for the final stage as Sweden qualified automatically as hosts of the event. The USSR qualified for the finals shortly before the break-up of the country, and took part in the tournament under the banner of the CIS before the former Soviet republics formed their own national teams after the competition. The CIS team represented the following Soviet republics: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Moldova and Tajikistan. Five out of 15 ex-republics were not members of the CIS, and therefore did not send their players: Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Originally, Yugoslavia qualified for the final stage, but due to the Yugoslav wars, the team was disqualified and their qualifying group's runner-up Denmark took part in the championship. They shocked the continent when Peter Schmeichel saved Van Basten's penalty in the shoot-out, thus defeating the first defending European champions the Netherlands in the semi-finals, and then the reigning world champions Germany for the title.

The official anthem of the tournament was More Than a Game performed by Towe Jaarnek and Peter Jöback. It was the last tournament to use the UEFA plus flag logo, and the last before the tournament came to be known as "Euro" (it is known as "Euro 1992" only retrospectively). It was also the first major football competition in which the players had their names printed on their backs.

1992 UEFA European Football Championship
Europamästerskapet i fotboll
Sverige 1992

UEFA Euro 1992 official logo
Tournament details
Host country Sweden
Dates 10 June – 26 June
Teams 8
Venue(s) 4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions Denmark (1st title)
Runners-up Germany
Tournament statistics
Matches played 15
Goals scored 32 (2.13 per match)
Attendance 430,111 (28,674 per match)
Top scorer(s) Denmark Henrik Larsen
Germany Karlheinz Riedle
Netherlands Dennis Bergkamp
Sweden Tomas Brolin
(3 goals)

UEFA EURO 2012 Poland Ukraine
UEFA Euro 1996 England

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