"23 best players over the course of the tournament. The group of eleven analysts watched every game at the tournament before making their decision after the final. Ten players from the winning Spanish team were selected in the team of the tournament, while Zlatan Ibrahimović was the only player to be included whose team was knocked out in the group stage. Fernando Torres tied with five other players on goals and with Mario Gómez on goals and assists; however, he played 92 fewer minutes than Gómez did, thus earning the title. Torres also became the first player to score in"
"the Round of 16, and did not score again until the 88th minute of the third place play-off. No player managed to score a hat-trick in this tournament. Italy, Germany, Argentina, Brazil and France were the only teams to score more than one goal in a knockout match. Germany was one of the exceptions, tending to play an attacking style of football throughout the knock-out stage, which was reflected by the fact that they scored the most goals (14), with players from all three outfield positions (defence, midfield and forward) making the scoresheet. Germany's Miroslav Klose scored five goals to"
"to the knockout stages, and none of the quarter-finalists were from outside Europe or South America. Six former champions took part in the quarter-final round, with Ukraine and Euro 2004 runners-up Portugal as the only relative outsiders. Argentina and Brazil were eliminated in the quarter-finals, leaving an all-European final four for only the fourth time (after the 1934, 1966 and 1982 tournaments). Despite the early goals that flooded the group stages, the knock-out phase had a much lower goals per match ratio. A prime example of the dearth of goals was Portugal, which only scored in the 23rd minute of"
"first time in the history of the competition that the final featured the same two teams as the opening match. The match was considered a dominant win for Greece. After the tournament ended, a lot of players belonging to the ""Geração de Ouro"" (Golden Generation), abandoned their international footballing careers, with only Luís Figo remaining in the team, despite a temporary retirement. The only silver lining for Portugal was the emergence of Cristiano Ronaldo as a key player, who had just signed for Manchester United and had been a real revelation. Ronaldo scored two goals and was selected in the"
"in Group A, an injury- and suspension-hit Turkey came back from 2–0 down to beat the Czech Republic 3–2, after an uncharacteristic handling mistake by Petr Čech, in the last few minutes, left Nihat Kahveci with the simplest of finishes. In the same game, goalkeeper Volkan Demirel was shown a red card for pushing Czech striker Jan Koller to the ground. The Turks joined Portugal as the qualifiers from Group A. France were the high-profile victims of Group C, recording just one point from a goalless draw against Romania in their opening game. Italy beat the French, on the final"
"the knockout phase, extra time and a penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary. As with every tournament since UEFA Euro 1984, there was no third place play-off. ""All times are local, CEST ()."" The UEFA Technical Team was given the objective of naming a team of 11 players during the tournament, a change from the 23-man squads in the past competitions. The group of analysts watched every game before making the decision following the final. Four players from the winning Portuguese squad were named in the tournament. The Player of the Tournament award was given to"
"had beaten the Soviet Union by one point. Portugal ended in group B, alongside Spain, West Germany and Romania. In the first two games, they tied 0–0 and 1–1 against West Germany and Spain, respectively. A 1–0 win over Romania gave them second place in the group, which was enough to go through to the knockout stage. Benfica's Tamagnini Nené scored the winner. They played against the hosts, France, and eventual champions, in one of the most exciting matches in European Championship history. France scored first, but Portugal equalised almost an hour later. The game was tied after 90 minutes"
"Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored two goals in the group stage and one in the knockout phase, as well as providing three assists. The Bronze Boot was awarded to Olivier Giroud, who scored one goal in the group stage and two in the knockout phase, as well as providing two assists; compatriot Dimitri Payet amassed the same tally, but played 50 more minutes than Giroud. The Goal of the Tournament was decided by online voting. A total 5 goals were in the shortlist. On 13 July 2016, after an open vote with over 150,000 entries, UEFA announced that Hungarian midfielder Zoltán"
"their last group match, Croatia suffered a 0–1 defeat to Spain. The late Spanish goal by Jesús Navas, along with Italy's victory over the Republic of Ireland in the final round, forced Croatia to exit the tournament in the group stage once again. Upon his formal departure, Bilić was also praised for his long-standing service to the national side. ""Jutarnji List"" daily labelled him as Croatia's only manager to depart on such positive terms and credited him for his strong revival of the national side during his six-year tenure. Following Bilić's departure, former player and pundit Igor Štimac was appointed"
"their final game to progress, but the World Cup finalists could only manage a 0–0 draw and were eliminated. In Group D, Croatia qualified for the quarter-finals, with wins over Turkey (1–0) and Denmark (3–0). The loss to the Croats ultimately sent the Danes, the surprise champions of 1992, home. Turkey became the first team since the introduction of a group stage to be eliminated without gaining a point or scoring a goal. The other three quarter-finalists were Portugal (whose ""Golden Generation"" was competing at its first major tournament), Spain, and a France team featuring a young Zinedine Zidane. The"
"the tournament. Poland had previously beaten Portugal, and in the end the Portuguese were the only team from Group F to be eliminated in the first round. Portugal, making their first appearance in 20 years, went on strike (in the Saltillo Affair) during the competition. Players refused to train between their first and second games (against England and Poland) and were eliminated after a loss to Morocco in the final group match. Belgium beat the Soviet Union 4–3, despite a hat-trick by the Soviets' Igor Belanov. The game was level at 2–2 after 90 minutes, and in extra time Stephane"
"time to go from 1–0 down to 2–1 winners. Zinedine Zidane scored in the first minute of stoppage time and two minutes later, an error by the English defence gave a France penalty and Zidane fired in the winner. England's other two games were memorable for the performances of their young star Wayne Rooney. Only 18 at the time, Rooney's goal-scoring ability proved instrumental in victories over Switzerland (3–0) and Croatia (4–2). France and England qualified from the group as winners and runners-up, respectively. Group C featured a three-way tie between Sweden, Denmark and Italy for first spot. All matches"
"impressive record in qualifying, finishing ten points clear of Ireland. Despite drawing England, the Group was perceived to be easy work with a waning Colombia and minnows Tunisia. Adrian Ilie scored the only goal with a fine chip in their first match against Colombia at Lyon's Stade Gerland. In Toulouse, they met an England side starting with prodigal striker Michael Owen on the bench, with Teddy Sheringham preferred alongside Alan Shearer. A mistake by Tony Adams was punished by Viorel Moldovan, who played for Coventry City, before Owen came on to claim an equalizer. But Romania won with a scrappy"
"Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, and Tajikistan. Four out of 15 ex-republics were not members of the CIS: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania did not send their players; Georgia was not a member of the CIS at the time, but Georgian Kakhaber Tskhadadze was a part of the squad. 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 Marco van Basten's penalty in the semi-final penalty shoot-out against the"
"1–2. They got their first win against Russia 2–0 and also beat Spain 1–0. They went on to play against England, in a 2–2 draw that went into penalties, with Portugal winning. Portugal beat the Netherlands 2–1 in the semi-final. They were beaten by Greece 1–0 in the final. After the tournament ended, a lot of players belonging to the ""Geração de Ouro"" (Golden Generation), abandoned their international footballing careers, with only Luís Figo remaining in the team, despite a temporary retirement. The silver lining for Portugal was the emergence of Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo was selected in the UEFA Euro"
"the knockout phase, teams play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows: Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round. The UEFA technical study group selected the following 18 players as the squad of the tournament. Votes were cast for players of the season by coaches of the 32 teams in the group stage, together with 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) group, representing each of UEFA's member associations. The coaches were not allowed to vote for players from"
"in a record 13–0 away win along the way. For the final tournament, Germany were placed into Group B alongside Poland, Croatia and longtime rivals Austria. Germany defeated Poland 2–0 but suffered an ignominious 1–2 defeat to Croatia, compounded by a red card for Bastian Schweinsteiger for an aggressive off-the-ball incident. Germany entered the knockout round with a victory over Austria in the last match of group play. The only scorer of the game was Michael Ballack, who scored in the 49th minute with a powerful long-distance free-kick that was later chosen as the German Goal of the Year. Their"
"the group stage were included. The UEFA Technical Team also had to pick a Player of the Tournament, taking fans' votes into account. The player chosen was Spain midfielder Xavi. The Golden Boot was awarded to yet another Spaniard, David Villa, who scored four goals, three of which came in his side's 4–1 win over Russia (the only hat-trick scored in the tournament). UEFA announced that total of €184 million has been offered to the 16 teams competing in this tournament, increasing from €129 million in the previous tournament. The distributions as below: Extra payment based on teams performances: Spain,"
"UEFA national team coefficient rankings as of the end of 2009. The sole exception was the automatic placement of Spain, as reigning European champions, as the top-ranked team (their coefficient ranking would have also placed them in this position anyway). Each nation's coefficient was generated by calculating: The 51 entrants were divided into the following six pots for the drawing of nine qualifying groups on 7 February 2010 in Warsaw, Poland: The countries which eventually qualified for the final tournament are emboldened in the table below. Before the draw UEFA confirmed that, for political reasons, Armenia would not be drawn"
"30 minutes of extra time, there would be a penalty shoot-out to determine who progressed to the next round. As with every tournament since UEFA Euro 1984, there was no third place play-off. The top two placed teams from each of the four groups qualified for the knockout stage. <section begin=bracket /><section end=bracket /> In the first quarter-final, Portugal defeated Turkey thanks to a brace from striker Nuno Gomes. Italy beat Romania by the same scoreline, with Francesco Totti and Filippo Inzaghi scoring a goal apiece. The Netherlands thrashed FR Yugoslavia 6–1 in the third match, Patrick Kluivert (3) and"
"bench but was given the chance to play at the start of the first extra time in substitution of teammate Ivica Olić. In the 118th (with just two minutes to play plus injury time), Klasnić headed an elevated pass provided by Luka Modrić and scored a crucial goal for Croatia. However, Croatia was to be eliminated from the tournament as Semih Şentürk equalised with a goal just two minutes later and Turkey won the subsequent penalty shoot-out. Ivan was remembered for his efforts which saw him become the only player to ever participate at a major tournament after a kidney"
"from Pauleta, the leading goalscorer in the World Cup qualifiers), Iran (2–0, scored by Deco, and Cristiano Ronaldo) and Mexico (2–1, goals from Maniche and Simão). Only Mexico's Francisco Fonseca was able to score against Portugal. The Netherlands lost to Portugal 1–0 in the Round of 16 on 25 June in Nuremberg. The only goal came courtesy of a Maniche strike in an acrimonious match marked by 16 yellow cards, with four players (Khalid Boulahrouz, Costinha, Deco, and Giovanni van Bronckhorst) being sent off. (See the Battle of Nuremberg.) On 1 July at Gelsenkirchen, Portugal drew 0–0 after extra-time with"
"Gianluca Pagliuca was sent off with the game still at 0–0. Yet despite this, Italy was still able to salvage an important 1–0 victory. Norway would ultimately pay a price for their inability to take advantage of Pagliuca's dismissal. With the four teams level on points, the final two group games would each have to finish as draws for things to stay that way. Republic of Ireland made it through after a dreary 0–0 draw with Norway; midfielders Massaro and Bernal traded strikes as Italy and Mexico played to a 1–1 draw. Those results meant that Mexico won the group"
"Antoine Griezmann, who was chosen by UEFA's technical observers, led by UEFA chief technical officer Ioan Lupescu and including Sir Alex Ferguson and Alain Giresse. The Young Player of the Tournament award, open to players born on or after 1 January 1994, was given to Renato Sanches who was named above Kingsley Coman and Portugal teammate Raphaël Guerreiro. The particular player, who deserved the award, was also chosen by UEFA's technical observers. The Golden Boot was awarded to Antoine Griezmann, who scored one goal in the group stage and five in the knockout phase. The Silver Boot was awarded to"
"yellow cards were shown over the course of the tournament's 31 matches, an average of 3.90 yellow cards per match ""Last updated after Russia-Spain on 26 June 2008."" Not counting penalty shoot-outs, there were five penalty kicks awarded during the tournament. For the first time since tournament expansion for Euro 96, no penalties were awarded during the knockout phase. Romanian Adrian Mutu provided the sole penalty miss, late in the match against world champions Italy; had he scored and Romania held on for the win, the Italians would have been knocked out. In the following tables: ""Italics"" indicates that the"
"was considered to be one of the tournament's dark horses due to being stacked with proven world-class players such as 29-year-old Predrag Mijatović, 33-year-old Dragan Stojković, 29-year-old Siniša Mihajlović, 28-year-old Vladimir Jugović, and 31-year-old Dejan Savićević, as well as emerging 19-year-old youngster Dejan Stanković, and tall 24-year-old target forwards Savo Milošević and Darko Kovačević. Another reason for heightened expectations was the fact this was the country's first major international appearance following the UN-imposed exile. However, the talented squad never managed to hit top gear—although it did make it out of the group, it got eliminated by the Netherlands via an"
"with goals coming from captain Ruud Gullit and tournament top scorer Marco van Basten. Hans van Breukelen blocked a low penalty shot of Igor Belanov. Van Basten's goal would later be described as one of the greatest goals in the history of the European Championships. Seven countries had to qualify for the final stage. West Germany qualified automatically as hosts of the event. The holders, France, failed to qualify. The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament: Each national team had to submit a squad of 20 players. The teams finishing in the top two positions in each of"
"and was used in the semi final between Greece and the Czech Republic. As with every tournament since UEFA Euro 1984, there was no third place play-off. ""All times are local, WEST ()."" The UEFA Technical Team was charged with naming a squad composed of the 23 best players over the course of the tournament. The group of eight analysts watched every game at the tournament before making their decision after the final. Five players from the winning Greek team were named to the team of the tournament. Michael Ballack and Gianluca Zambrotta were the only players to be included"
"qualification to a UEFA European Championship final tournament: Albania, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Wales. Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Wales had each previously competed in the FIFA World Cup, while Albania and Iceland had never participated in a major tournament. Similarly, both Austria and Ukraine completed successful qualification campaigns for the first time, having only previously qualified as hosts (of 2008 and 2012 respectively). Scotland were the only team from the British Isles not to qualify for the finals, and 2004 champions Greece finished bottom in their group and failed to qualify for the first time since 2000. Two other"
"drawn in Group A with hosts Portugal, Spain, and Greece. They were not among the favourites to progress and tournament preparations were hampered by injuries to defenders Sergei Ignashevich and Victor Onopko. Russia started their tournament against Spain but a late goal from Juan Carlos Valeron put Russia on the brink of another group stage elimination. Four days later, Russia became the first team officially eliminated after a 0–2 defeat to Portugal. The final game of the group resulted in a surprising 2–1 victory over Greece with Dmitri Kirichenko scoring one of the fastest goals of the tournament. In the"
"to Portugal which sent the Portuguese through to the quarter-finals of the tournament. Sionko equalised in the 17th minute after Deco had opened the scoring in the 8th minute. However, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ricardo Quaresma added two further goals for their team in the second half to leave the Czechs to battle it out with Turkey in the final game of Group A. Libor Sionko Libor Sionko (born 1 February 1977) is a retired Czech footballer who played as a midfielder. At club level he started in his home town of Ostrava, playing for the youth teams of TJ Vítkovice"
"second half. Their lead was a very short one, however, as Italy's Christian Panucci scored a minute later off of a corner kick. Nearing the end of the match, Daniel Niculae earned a penalty for his team, but goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon saved the subsequent Mutu penalty, leaving Romania with two points and needing a win against the Netherlands, which eliminated France 4–1 that same evening. The Netherlands beat Romania 2–0 in the final game of the group, which meant that Italy joined the Netherlands in the quarter-finals and Romania finished third, ahead of France. Romania were drawn into the UEFA"
"UEFA Euro 2012 knockout phase The knockout phase of UEFA Euro 2012 began with the quarter-finals on 21 June 2012, and was completed on 1 July 2012 with the final at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, won by Spain 4–0 against Italy. After the completion of the group stage on 19 June 2012, eight teams qualified for the quarter-finals (two from each group), which are to be played from 21 to 24 June 2012. Host nations Poland and Ukraine failed to qualify for the quarter-finals, making it only the third time in European Championship history that the host nation(s) failed"