2000 European football championships

The eleventh European championships was the first to be co hosted, Holland would stage the final so Belgium had the opening ceremony. The football certainly provided the festivity. Euro 2000 was considered by many to be the best major tournament of all time. What made the tournament really good was that all the good teams played ever so well. France played great football, the host nation Holland were also a delight to watch. The great individual players also played well, Zidane and Luis Figo in particular played awesome and that is what is expected to be seen in any major competition. Qualification for the European Championships was becoming much more difficult as there were so many new nations emerging, such as Slovenia who in particular suddenly came to the forefront during Euro 2000.
England’s performance without doubt was the biggest disappointment of the competition. England’s road to Euro 2000 had been fought with difficulty, during qualification Glenn Hoddle was sacked and after much hard searching the ‘people’s choice,’ Kevin Keegan was appointed manager. The response was immediate with a 3-1 win over Poland, but subsequently the brittle nature of England’s under keeping became apparent. They had to rely on Sweden doing them a favour against Poland and they just about scraped passed Scotland in their two legged playoff against them. England started off Euro 2000 with a performance that left a load of questions hanging over their heads, they surrendad a 2-0 lead and lost 3-2 against Portugal which actually somehow flattered England’s poor performance. They were lucky to beat a weak German side 1-0 and in their final match against Romania they were unprofessional, untidy and sloppy, they lost that match also 3-2, with Phil Neville conceding a penalty late on in the game.
Belgium started the tournament brightly enough disposing Sweden 2-1 in the opening game; however they went off the boil in their following matches with defeats against Italy and Turkey. Italy won all three of their opening matches and coasted past Romania 2-0 in the quarter finals. Holland were also in outstanding form as they won all three of their group matches, they then thrashed Yugoslavia 6-1 in the quarter finals. Italy and Holland met each other in the first of the two semi finals. The score line ended goalless and the Italians won 3-1 on penalties. The other semi final match between the much fancied French and dark horses Portugal was a thriller, Nuno Gomes struck Portugal in front after twenty minutes, Thierry Henry equalized early on in the second half. With three minutes remaining of extra time, France were awarded a penalty which Zidane converted.
The final between the French and the Italians was a thrilling affair. Both sides had chances to go in to the interval in front. Delvecchio took the initiative to put the Italians in front ten minutes into the second half. The Italians created chances for a two goal cushion however the French answered back during injury time with a fine goal by Sylvain Wiltord. Extra time saw chances begging on both sides until David Trézéguet clinched the golden goal for France. France were now European Champions as well as the current World Champions.

 

Partner sites - Thyroid Medication Football Years Stop Smoking Height Increase Health Website