UEFA Euro 2000

UEFA Euro 2000
Europees Voetbalkampioenschap; België/Nederland 2000 (in Dutch); Championnat d'Europe de football; Belgique/Pays Bas 2000 (in French); Fußball-Europameisterschaft; Belgien/Niederlande 2000 (in German)
	Football without frontiers
Tournament details
Host countries	Belgium; Netherlands
Dates	10 June – 2 July
Teams	16
Venue(s)	8 (in 8 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	France (2nd title)
Runners-up	Italy
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	85 (2.74 per match)
Attendance	1,122,833 (36,220 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Savo Milošević; Patrick Kluivert; (5 goals each)
Best player(s)	Zinedine Zidane

The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe.[1]

The finals tournament was played between 10 June and 2 July 2000, and co-hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands, the first time the tournament had been held in more than one nation. Spain and Austria also bid to host the event.[2] The finals tournament was contested by 16 nations; with the exception of the hosts, Belgium and the Netherlands, the finalists had to go through a qualifying tournament to reach the final stage. France won the tournament by defeating Italy 2–1 in the final, via a golden goal.[3]

The finals saw the first major UEFA competition contested in the King Baudouin Stadium (formerly the Heysel Stadium) since the events of the 1985 European Cup Final and the Heysel Stadium disaster, with the opening game being played in the rebuilt stadium.

A high-scoring tournament with many exciting matches and a very high standard of play, Euro 2000 is often named by football writers as one of the greatest international tournaments ever.[4][5][6][7]

Bid process

Belgium and the Netherlands were selected as co-hosts on 14 July 1995 by the UEFA Executive Committee at a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.[8][9]

Hooliganism concerns

Football hooliganism was a significant problem in the Netherlands in the 1990s, especially the fierce rivalry between Ajax and Feyenoord. There were concerns that hooliganism would overshadow the finals. Many instances of violence occurred, including several football riots in Rotterdam between 1995 and 1999, which would host the Euro 2000 final. One of the most infamous incidents was the Battle of Beverwijk in 1997. Although the violence is normally associated with domestic clubs, there were concerns that it could attach to the Dutch national team.[10][11]

Violence did eventually occur during the Euro 2000 finals, albeit not involving the Dutch team. On 17 June 174 England fans were arrested in Brussels, Belgium, following violence with Germans ahead of an England v Germany match.[12]

Summary

One of the biggest surprises of the tournament was Portugal, winning Group A with three wins, including a 3–0 win against Germany, with Sérgio Conceição scoring a hat-trick,[13] and a 3–2 win over England, in which they came back from 2–0 down.[14] Romania was the other qualifier from the group, beating England with a late penalty in their last group game.[15]

Belgium had a surprise exit in the group stage, winning the tournament's first game against Sweden,[16] but losing to Turkey and Italy.[17][18] They finished third in Group B, behind Italy and Turkey. The other co-host and favourite, the Netherlands, progressed as expected from Group D, along with World Cup winners France. The Netherlands won the group, by beating France in their last group match.[19] Also in Group D, Denmark's three losses with eight goals conceded and none scored set a new record for the worst team performance in the group stages of a Euros. Group C was memorable for the match between FR Yugoslavia and Spain. Spain needed a win to ensure progression, but found themselves trailing 3–2 after Slobodan Komljenović scored in the 75th minute. The Spanish side rescued their tournament by scoring twice in injury time to record a 4–3 victory.[20] FR Yugoslavia managed to go through as well, despite losing because Norway and Slovenia played to a draw.[21]

France and Italy before the final on 2 July

Italy and Portugal maintained their perfect records in the quarter-finals, beating Romania and Turkey, respectively, and the Netherlands started a goal-avalanche against FR Yugoslavia, winning 6–1. Spain fell 2–1 to France; Raúl missed a late penalty that ended Spanish hopes.

Italy eliminated the Netherlands in the semi-finals, despite going down to ten men and facing two penalty kicks. Italian goalkeeper Francesco Toldo, who had been drafted into the starting XI as Gianluigi Buffon missed the tournament through injury, made two saves in the penalty shootout (in addition to his penalty save in normal time) to carry the Italians to the final.

In the other semi-final, Portugal lost in extra time to France after Zinedine Zidane converted a controversial penalty kick. Several Portuguese players challenged the awarding of the penalty for a handball and were given lengthy suspensions for shoving the referee.[22] France won the tournament, defeating Italy 2–1 in the final with a golden goal by David Trezeguet after equalising with a last-minute goal, and became the first team to win the European championship while being world champion.[23]

In Britain, Match of the Day named Stefano Fiore's goal against Belgium the Goal of the Tournament, ahead of Patrick Kluivert's against France and Zinedine Zidane's against Spain.[24]

Qualification

Nationale-Nederlanden building in Rotterdam with "breakthrough" featuring Edgar Davids

Qualification for the tournament took place throughout 1998 and 1999. Forty-nine teams were divided into nine groups and each played the others in their group, on a home-and-away basis. The winner of each group and the best runner-up qualified automatically for the final tournament. The eight other runners-up played an additional set of play-off matches to determine the last four qualifiers. Belgium and the Netherlands automatically qualified for the tournament as co-hosts.

Qualified teams

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament[upper-alpha 1]
Belgium	Co-host	14 July 1995	3 (1972, 1980, 1984)
Netherlands	Co-host	14 July 1995	5 (1976, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996)
Czech Republic[upper-alpha 2]	Group 9 winner	9 June 1999	4 (1960, 1976, 1980, 1996)
Norway	Group 2 winner	8 September 1999	0 (debut)
Sweden	Group 5 winner	8 September 1999	1 (1992)
Spain	Group 6 winner	8 September 1999	5 (1964, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996)
Italy	Group 1 winner	9 October 1999	4 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1996)
Germany[upper-alpha 3]	Group 3 winner	9 October 1999	7 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996)
France	Group 4 winner	9 October 1999	4 (1960, 1984, 1992, 1996)
Romania	Group 7 winner	9 October 1999	2 (1984, 1996)
FR Yugoslavia[upper-alpha 4]	Group 8 winner	9 October 1999	4 (1960, 1968, 1976, 1984)[upper-alpha 5]
Portugal	Best runner-up	9 October 1999	2 (1984, 1996)
Denmark	Play-off winner	17 November 1999	5 (1964, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996)
England	Play-off winner	17 November 1999	5 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996)
Slovenia	Play-off winner	17 November 1999	0 (debut)
Turkey	Play-off winner	17 November 1999	1 (1996)

Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.
From 1960 to 1980, the Czech Republic competed as Czechoslovakia.
From 1972 to 1988, Germany competed as West Germany.
From 1960 to 1984, FR Yugoslavia competed as Yugoslavia.
FR Yugoslavia were initially to appear in 1992 (after qualifying as Yugoslavia), but were replaced after being banned by the United Nations from all international sport.

Final draw

The finals draw took place 15:00 CET on 12 December 1999, at the Brussels Expo in Belgium; and was streamed live on UEFA's official website.[25]

The composition of pots 1 to 4 was based on the teams' UEFA national team coefficient ranking at the end of 1999,[26] with the exception of pot 1 automatically top seeding Germany as holders along with co-hosts Belgium and Netherlands.[27][28][25]

Pot 1
Team	Coeff	Rank
Germany (holders)[lower-alpha 1]	2.278	7
Belgium (co-hosts)[lower-alpha 2]	2.375	5
Netherlands (co-hosts)[lower-alpha 3]	2.250	8
Spain[lower-alpha 4]	2.611	1

Pot 2
Team	Coeff	Rank
Romania	2.600	2
Norway	2.500	3
Sweden	2.389	4
Czech Republic	2.300	6

Pot 3
Team	Coeff	Rank
FR Yugoslavia	2.222	9
Portugal	2.100	11
France	2.100	12
Italy	2.063	13

Pot 4
Team	Coeff	Rank
England	2.000	15
Turkey	1.938	18
Denmark	1.938	19
Slovenia	1.000	37

Automatically selected as a top-seeded team into pot 1, irrespectively of their ranking position.

Defending champions Germany (coefficient 2.278; rank 7th) were automatically assigned to position A1.
Co-hosts Belgium (coefficient 2.375; rank 5th) were automatically assigned to position B1.
Co-hosts Netherlands (coefficient 2.250; rank 8th) were automatically assigned to position D1.
Highest ranked Spain (coefficient 2.611; rank 1st) were automatically assigned to position C1.

Prior to the draw, the seeded teams in Pot 1 were assigned positions: Germany (defending champion) to A1, Belgium (co-host) to B1, Spain (highest coefficient) to C1, and the Netherlands (co-host) to D1. Teams were drawn consecutively from Pots 2 to 4 into a group, with each team then being assigned a specific position (for the purposes of determining the match schedules in each group).[25]

The draw resulted in the following groups:[29][30]

Group A
Pos	Team
A1	Germany
A2	Romania
A3	Portugal
A4	England

Group B
Pos	Team
B1	Belgium
B2	Sweden
B3	Turkey
B4	Italy

Group C
Pos	Team
C1	Spain
C2	Norway
C3	FR Yugoslavia
C4	Slovenia

Group D
Pos	Team
D1	Netherlands
D2	Czech Republic
D3	France
D4	Denmark

Venues

Capacity figures are those for matches at UEFA Euro 2000 and are not necessarily the total capacity that the stadium is capable of holding.[31]

Belgium		Netherlands
Brussels	Bruges	Amsterdam	Rotterdam
King Baudouin Stadium	Jan Breydel Stadium	Amsterdam Arena	Feijenoord Stadion
Capacity: 50,000	Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 52,000	Capacity: 51,000

Brussels Bruges Liège Charleroi		Rotterdam Amsterdam Eindhoven Arnhem
Liège	Charleroi	Eindhoven	Arnhem
Stade Maurice Dufrasne	Stade du Pays de Charleroi	Philips Stadion	GelreDome
Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 33,000	Capacity: 30,000

Team base camps

The 16 national teams each stayed in their own "team base camp" during the tournament.[32]

Team	Base camp	Ref.
Belgium	Lichtaart	[33][34]
Czech Republic	Knokke-Heist	[35]
Denmark	Brunssum	[36]
England	Spa/Waterloo	[32][37]
FR Yugoslavia	Edegem	[34][38]
France	Genval	[39]
Germany	Vaals	[40]
Italy	Grobbendonk	[41][42]
Netherlands	Hoenderloo	[34][43]
Norway	Knokke-Heist	[34][44]
Portugal	Ermelo	[34][45]
Romania	Grimbergen/Arnhem	[46]
Slovenia	Soestduinen	[47][48]
Spain	Tegelen	[49]
Sweden	Oisterwijk	[50]
Turkey	Delden	[51]

Squads

Each national team had to submit a squad of 22 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers.

Match officials

On 15 February 2000, UEFA appointed 12 referees, 16 assistant referees and four fourth officials for the competition, including a referee and an assistant referee from the Confederation of African Football.[52] The event saw assistant referees being allowed to intervene an ongoing game, in particular to help the match official apply the 10-metre rule when deciding free-kicks – as well as warn the referee instantly if he had booked or ejected the wrong player, something that was not possible in previous tournaments.[53] Also, fourth officials were given a larger role in assisting to take command of the match if any decisions are gone unnoticed by the referee or an assistant referee.[53]

The German referee Markus Merk was selected to referee the opening game between Belgium and Sweden.[54]

Referees	Assistant referees	Fourth officials
Günter Benkö	Yuri Dupanov	Michel Piraux
Kim Milton Nielsen	Roland Van Nylen	Kyros Vassaras
Gamal Al-Ghandour	Ivan Lekov	Terje Hauge
Graham Poll	Jens Larsen	Ľuboš Micheľ
Gilles Veissière	Philip Sharp
Markus Merk	Jacques Poudevigne
Pierluigi Collina	Kurt Ertl
Dick Jol	Sergio Zuccolini
Vítor Melo Pereira	Dramane Dante
Hugh Dallas	Emanuel Zammit
José María García-Aranda	Jaap Pool
Anders Frisk	Eddie Foley
Urs Meier	Nicolae Grigorescu
	Igor Šramka
	Carlos Martín Nieto
	Leif Lindberg
	Turgay Güdü

Group stage

UEFA Euro 2000 finalists and their results

The teams finishing in the top two positions in each of the four groups progress to the quarter-finals, while the bottom two teams in each group were eliminated.

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

Tiebreakers

If two or more teams finished level on points after completion of the group matches, the following tie-breakers were used to determine the final ranking:[55]

greater number of points in the matches between the teams in question;
greater goal difference in matches between the teams in question;
greater number of goals scored in matches between the teams in question;
greater goal difference in all group games;
greater number of goals scored in all group games;
higher coefficient derived from Euro 2000 and 1998 World Cup qualifiers (points obtained divided by number of matches played);
fair play conduct in Euro 2000;
drawing of lots.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Portugal	3	3	0	0	7	2	+5	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Romania	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4	Advance to knockout stage
3	England	3	1	0	2	5	6	−1	3
4	Germany	3	0	1	2	1	5	−4	1

Source: UEFA

12 June 2000

18:00

Germany	1–1	Romania
Scholl 28'	Report	Moldovan 5'

Stade Maurice Dufrasne, Liège

Attendance: 28,500

Referee: Kim Milton Nielsen (Denmark)

12 June 2000