They also indicate the extent to which UEFA – and their local organizing committees – have commissioned ever–more elaborate and expensive brand identities to define the European Football Championship since 1996.

Graphic design has an captivating relationship to the game of football, particularly with regard to professional club identities developed or redefined in the modern era. The United States, in particular, had a great many adventurous insignias created in the late sixties and seventies for its brand–new soccer teams; unshackled from the burden of history, tradition, and ethnic association. Teams such as the San Francisco Gales, New York Cosmos, or Atlanta Apollos adopted minimal identities clearly inspired by the style of modernist graphic artist Paul Rand – largely regarded as the father of modern corporate design. The adoption of this aesthetic showed an ambitious vision to lay lasting and professional foundations in North America. A patently patriotic and singular visual manifesto, here the ideals of American corporate mobility were cunningly applied to sport.

Of course, these homegrown design methods were actually German, Swiss, and Dutch in origin; and Paul Rand was actually Peretz Rosenbaum, son of immigrant Jews in Brooklyn.

Yet, such is design; so often maintaining an oxymoronic nature. Paradoxically, the most meticulous work is usually the simplest, and a successful solution can have most any ideology grafted onto it after the fact.

The 1960 logo (and 64, 68, 72, 76, 80, 84, 88, and 92)

From the same classic modernist era as Rand, the European Nations’ Cup was born in 1960. True to the time, a simple icon was created for the competition held in France, holding to the very definition of cool graphic minimalism. A rising wave of five lines in the national colors (two red, one white, two blue) over the confederation initials (a conjoined E/F following the same waveform) creates a fluttering flag symbolizing the international competition.

And symbolize it, it did. This exact same icon was used for every tournament through 1992 in Sweden – with only the colors modified to reflect the changing host country, with two digits added to indicate the competition year.

Not Mario Brothers, but still Italian

An intriguing exception was the 1980 European Championship in Italy, the second to be held in that country. While the officially recorded emblem was that same UEFA flag icon, the tournament organizers had developed a second: a flower with the familiar 32–panel “classic” football as its bloom, over the simple text EUROPA 80. While possibly looking like it belonged to a contemporary Atari video game,it did presage developments 12 years hence toward unique logos for each staging of the competition. At this point, the tournament did not yet enjoy the high profile it now possesses, and fan interest/financial support only hinted at the
marketing behemoth the Euros have now become.

Strangely, very little concrete information is actually available (publicly or otherwise) on the origins of European Championship identity prior to the 2004 tournament. Consultation with reference material, design historians, and UEFA Media Services all led nowhere – in fact, correspondence with UEFA acknowledged their media archives do not even attempt to record and save such data.

What follows, then, is an assessment of the tournament’s recent brand development, with the benefit of the limited source materials available.

Euro96 England

There's lots of rural charm in the country

This was the tournament where I first became aware of the European Championships, thanks to coverage on ESPN and family interest in the exploits of the Spanish national team. The tournament was entertaining, Spain’s shirts were “all-time” gorgeous, and inscribed on it all was the now famous Euro 96 logo.

Looking back, it was certainly an appropriate icon for the times, being an image that as easily could have served as cover art for a Blur single. Yet I recall having little idea what it was supposed to depict. It was clearly an abstract soccer ball, yes, but why was it drawn so strangely?

It was only well after the tournament that its representation became clear: an abstract football player, dribbling against a blue sky, under a yellow sun. Even now, it does seem a curious image given the extended period England went without hosting a major event, and all the possibilities for imagery therein.

Now, the typography beneath is far more successful, partly for existing before UEFA dropped its half–moon corporate wordmark into everything with which it was associated. The lettering is tight, smart, and simple while maintaining a playfulness through a mixed but harmonious selection of typefaces.

All the necessary information is there in just 18 characters: who, what, where, and when. Notably, this was the first tournament officially referred to with the “Euro” abbreviation. Different naming directions might have been explored – but what prevailed, thankfully, showed a predilection to the succinct.

A bit of cheese, not all that gouda

Euro2000 Belgium/Netherlands

Where Euro96 was available on ESPN, I remember watching Euro2000 via pirated signals at restaurants. Characteristically, it featured prolonged Spanish disappointment, but also the best match I’d witnessed to that point in my life: Spain 4–3 Yugoslavia. I thought Gaizka Mendieta was beyond incredible, and Fernando Morientes claimed my most-favored-player status from Raul (for a time).

The logo barely registered. Maybe I didn’t see it enough, or perhaps this just wasn’t an inclination I’d yet developed. Upon reflection, it is a very unsatisfactory emblem, doubly so as a representation for two paragons of creative design in Belgium and The Netherlands. The merging of the two countries’ flags is a solid enough conceptual foundation from which to draw, but the execution lacks anything truly aesthetically unique to the region, one rich with inspirational creativity – ranging widely from Victor Horta’s natural ornamentation to Theo van Doesburg’s stark essentialism.

The typography used is even worse. The half–moon UEFA mark appropriately reflects the sphere above, but a bland serif titling adds nothing to the mark. The use of the same character for 0 and O further makes the lettering heavy to the right side.

The presence of those four 0s normally might spark some creative handling of their juxtaposition, but in this instance it was a path un-pursued. All in all, a disappointing and ultimately forgettable image.

Brought to you by the letter F for "filters"

Euro2004 Portugal

The competition was wonderful, the stadiums spectacular, the atmosphere magnificent, the logo atrocious. Lord knows how many tones, gradients, filters, and blurs were employed to execute the “official” version of the mark. It’s interesting that now, most records have chosen to archive the “simplified” version produced for merchandise and printing purposes instead of the Photoshop bonanza.

Reference materials from the logo unveiling claim “passion” as the unifying design principle (thus justifying the heart shape), as if passion was an export unique to Portugal. The base concept of a heart drawn around a ball is weak alone; but unneeded additions, complications and blends further obscures whatever rationale that wasn’t actually there in the first place.

On the other hand, the typography is somewhat successful, and productively keeps with the theme such as it is. The “PORTUGAL” tag does appear an afterthought, once they realized nothing about the image indicated where the tournament was actually taking place. There are certainly problems with character kerning and the fluidity between glyphs in the title (rendered as if it were a handwritten script) but these concerns largely pale against the atrocity residing above it.

The hills were alive with the sound of Spaniards

Euro2008 Austria/Switzerland

A tournament, once more, that was widely televised in the United States. My brief residency in Italy the year prior had permitted travel around the continent, and for the first time I’d actually been to nearly every city and stadium in the competition. I particularly recall poking my head between the gates at Basel’s St Jakob-Park, or sneaking into the unguarded upper tier of Ernst-Happel-Stadion during an Austria Wien training session. Now, here they were hosting many of the biggest names in sport.

Of course, Spain’s triumph will be my primary remembrance through future years, but the logo is much more along the lines of what one might expect visually from the two countries.A single line curving around a ball, rendered in red (their common national color) and green, with the line beveled and spiked to represent the primary topographical feature for which the nations are known – the Alps. While the use of shine and gradient is often overdone, it’s subtle enough here to be effectual. The light reflection on the lower swoop even gives the feeling of a Alpine skier or bobsledder racing to the finish.

The style and implementation of type below is exactly what you’d envision representing the Swiss. Simple, unadorned, sans–serif. A change in line weight to set off segments of information, compact leading, and precise attention to detail are its hallmarks. Even the location identifier is subtly aligned to the inner edges of the second–outermost characters. Overall, though it possesses a bit more shine and polish than necessary, it’s still a winning result.

Seriously, they grow it there

Euro2012 Poland/Ukraine

This brings us to the recently revealed Euro2012 logo, the first such competition to be held in Eastern Europe. Co–hosted by Poland and the Ukraine (two countries one might not otherwise think of together) it’s sure to be the most publicized yet in the United States; while it’s more likely than not I’ll be watching from elsewhere, if not in person.

The European Championship is a genuine brand now, a mark of excellence and quality known around the world. The logo is more important than ever, but only as part of an overall brand identity carrying through every aspect of the tournament’s presentation. Colors, graphics, and typeface – the Euro brand is now a complete experience. Everything from the press packets, to the façade of the Olimpiysky’s VIP box (where the champion will receive the Delaunay Trophy) will have been designed along set identity guidelines.

Still, the logo is the most visible manifestation of the brand, and this one succeeds. Faced with the challenging task of creating an image common to countries not normally associated, wildlife and the decorative arts served as fertile inspiration. While still possessing a “made–for–television” appearance via the use of delicate color blends not reproducible in other applications, it remains more restrained than most. Simplified versions exist for other applications, of course. Blooms in the nations’ respective colors stem from a white and gold ball–plant, not wholly unlike the aforementioned unofficial Europa 80 mark. Figures illustrating celebrating players or cheering fans subtly jump from the petals of each.

The typography below might be its major triumph. The UEFA mark is set against the curve of the lower Ukrainian stem, and directly above the Euro “O”. The lettering is built around this central axis, fluidly joining the R to the O, and using a lighter weight face for the year matching the curves around the UEFA mark. Much like the previous tournament, the location identifier is tight and balanced in the same style as the rest, feeling considered and part of the overall scheme.

For all its obtuse bureaucracy, UEFA has still shown attentiveness to branding and design appropriate to its European focus – a virtue that FIFA, on the other hand, has clearly been unable to adopt. Though often too complex, the newer Champions’ League branding alongside an annually renewed finals’ identity are additional indicators of UEFA’s keen visual awareness.

Unfortunately, recent World Cups, with the possible exception of the 2002 tournament in Korea/Japan, have had grossly deficient identities wholly unsuited to the most prominent sporting event on the planet. The South Africa 2010 logo is just the most recent atrocity. While on one hand FIFA have shown a >predilection to contemporary arts, with initiatives to bring aboard global creatives for tournament poster designs,, hperhaps one day soon FIFA will give its crown jewel its deserved aesthetic attention.

(Thanks to UEFA, the SFV, and Clyde Araujo at Under Consideration for their assistance)

Now Uefa is considering expanding the Championship finals to take in 24 teams, greater than the number of teams that played in the entire 1960 qualifying campaign.

This is a terrible idea. I’m sure television executives are still shedding tears over England’s failure to qualify for Euro 2008, but letting everyone in bar San Marino in the future will make the qualifying tournament a joke, and fill the finals with tedious matches.

Of course, Uefa would make more money out of a larger tournament, with added ticket sales, and television/marketing revenue, and Platini can sell it as a benefit to the smaller nations. Here’s hoping they restrain themselves.

Photo credit: Antoon’s Foobar on Flickr.

1964 European Nations’ Cup Finals
Host: Spain
Winners: Spain

Yes, you that read that correctly: Spain, the perennial underachievers of international football, actually won this tournament. Of course, like England two years later, Spain’s only major victory had a considerable assist from hosting the final tournament.

In the first part of this article, we looked at how the holders, the Soviet Union, powered their way past Italy to the semi-finals, where they’d face Denmark, who had progressed mainly thanks to a favourable draw. Meanwhile, the hosts Spain would play Hungary, perhaps not the force they had been in their 1950s heyday, but a dangerous threat all the same.

Remember, the tournament was very different from today in 1964: the finals (the host was chosen once the semi-finalists had been determined) only featured four teams.

Madrid, June 17, Santiago Bernabéu
Spain 2-1 Hungary [aet]
[Pereda 35, Amancio 115; Bene 84]; [ref: Blavier (Belgium); att: 125,000]

Managed by José Villalonga Llorente, who had won the first ever European Cup with Real Madrid at the age of 36 in 1956 and had done the La Liga/Copa Latina/European Cup treble in 1957, Spain had blitzed through the qualifying campaign. Their star players included Inter Milan’s Luis Suárez, European Footballer of the Year in 1960, and Real Madrid’s winger Amancio. Their intricate football was applauded by all, and Spain were not yet haunted by the interminable self-doubt that would later characterise their play.

Hungary, meanwhile, were still trying to shake off the shadow of the magnificent 1950s team, and reaching the semi-finals was an impressive feat in itself. Indeed, they would twice reach the World Cup quarter-finals in the 1960s, and were led by Ferencváros’ Florian Albert, who Jonathon Wilson recently said “stands among the greatest centre-forwards the world has ever known” (he would win the Ballon d’Or in 1967).

The game matched the pedigree of the two teams. Luis Suarez helped set-up Jesus María Pereda to give Spain the lead in the 35th minute, but Újpesti Dózsa’s Ferenc Bene forced extra time with an 84th minute equaliser. With just five minutes left in extra time, Amancio broke the deadlock, and Spain had reached the final.

Spain: Iribar, Rivilla, Calleja, Zoco, Olivella, Fusté, Amancio, Pereda, Marcelino, Suárez, Lapetra
Hungary: Szentmihalyi, Mátrai, Mészöly, Sárosi, Nagy, Sipos, Bene, Komora, Albert, Tichy, Fenyvesi

Barcelona, June 17, Nou Camp
Soviet Union 3-0 Denmark
[Voronin 19, Ponedelnik 40, V.Ivanov 87]
[ref: Lo Bello (Italy); att: 38,000]

In the other semi-final, Denmark were easily outclassed by the strong Soviet team, led by goalkeeper Lev Yashin — perhaps the greatest of all-time. Denmark had done well to get this far, but it’d be almost two decades before they’d be taken seriously as an international footballing force again. The Soviets, meanwhile, marched on as expected, but would now have to take on the hosts.

Soviet Union: Yashin, Chustikov, Shesternev, Mudrik, Voronin, Anichkin, Chislenko, V.Ivanov, Ponedelnik, Gusarov, Khusainov
Denmark: L.Nielsen, J.Hansen, K.Hansen, B.Hansen I, Larsen, E.Nielsen, Bertelsen, Sørensen, O.Madsen, Thorst, Danielsen

Madrid, June 21, Santiago Bernabéu
Spain 2-1 Soviet Union
[Pereda 6, Marcelino 84; Khusainov 8]
[ref: Holland (England); att: 105,000]

So, as some might see as fated, the Soviets would have to travel to the heart of Franco’s regime, Madrid, to defend their trophy. Four years earlier, Spain had refused to go to Moscow to take on the Soviets in the inaugural European Nations’ Cup, but this time, Franco would watch from the home stands as the Communist nation’s representatives played his team in front of 105,000 at the Bernabéu.

Named after Santiago Bernabéu Yeste, who fought for Franco’s army during the Spanish Civil War and later became Real Madrid’s president, the stadium had been expanded to keep ahead of Barcelona’s Nou Camp. The huge crowd exploded when Jesús María Pereda opened the scoring in the sixth minute (though Pereda played for Barcelona, perhaps not entirely to Franco’s delight). A cross from the right-wing had been muffed by two Soviet defenders, with Pereda on hand to lash it home from ten yards out.

But just two minutes later, Galimzyan Khusainov’s shot wriggled under the grasp of José Ángel Iribar to make it 1-1. Deadlock remained until the 84th minute, when Marcelino Martínez powered in a winning downward header from just right of the penalty spot.

Franco was delighted, and it soon became known that, not surprisingly, the defeat had deeply disappointed Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschchev. Neither team has won a major title since.

Spain: Iribar, Rivilla, Olivella, Calleja, Zoco, Fusté, Amancio, Pereda, Marcelino, Suárez, Lapetra
Soviet Union: Yashin, Chustikov, Shesternev, Mudrik, Voronin, Anichkin, Chislenko, V.Ivanov, Ponedelnik, Korneev, Khusainov

Here are the goals from the final:

Tournament Facts:Top scorer, overall: O.Madsen (Denmark) 11 goals
Top scorers, finals tournament: Pereda (Spain), Bene and Novák (Hungary) 2 goals
Goals scored (finals only): 13 (3.25 per match)Sources: RSSF.com; Jonathon Wilson, Behind the Curtain; David Goldblatt, The Ball is Round

1964 European Nations’ Cup Qualifiers

Like four years earlier, the format was vastly different from the extravaganza put on by UEFA today, and it was also still known as the “European Nations’ Cup”. Only 29 nations entered the qualifying stage — albeit an improvement on the seventeen who had taken part in the first event. And it was only when a knock-out tournament had reduced that number to four teams that a host was selected for the finals, Spain.

On the way to Spain, there would be some fantastic scorelines, a hard lesson for England and a major upset as we’ll look at in the first of a two-part piece.

The Preliminary Round

Unlike in 1960, England and Italy entered the qualifying tournament this time, though West Germany still sat it out. England faced France in the first round, drawing 1-1 at Sheffield Wednesday’s ground, Hillsborough, in the first leg on October 3rd, 1962. The return leg didn’t take place for four more months, but when it did, France’s superiority was evident as they won 5-2 at the Parc des Princes.

In what could have been a headline from 2007, the Times of London headlined their report with the depressing line “England footballers no longer thinkers, no teamwork in attack and lapses in defence.”

Still, England had kept the game competitive, Bobby Smith of Tottenham and Bobby Tambling of Chelsea pulling England back into the tie with headers that left it poised at 2-3 in the 74th minute. But the French scored in the next minute, with new England coach Alf Ramsey admitting that was the “killer goal”. The Times‘ correspondent praised the flashes of skill from Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Charlton, but found “no teamwork” from England. Looking ahead to England hosting the World Cup three years hence, the correspondent gloomily concluded that “Where England goes henceforth, is anyone’s guess.”

Meanwhile, Denmark destroyed Malta 9-2 on aggregate, Ireland took care of Iceland, Northern Ireland beat Poland 2-0 twice over, Spain ousted Romania, and Yugoslavia saw off Belgium comfortably. Perhaps the most exciting tie was Bulgaria against Portugal — tied after two legs, a one-off replay in Italy saw the former move on to the next round. Hungary, East Germany, Italy and the Netherlands progressed too, and the Soviet Union, Luxembourg and Austria were gifted byes. Greece withdrew after they were drawn to play Albania.

The Second Round

Spain were declared peacemakers by the Times, as they ousted Northern Ireland 2-1 on aggregate, preventing a Republic vs. Northern Ireland matchup in the quarter-finals (the Republic had beaten Austria 3-2 already) that the Times warned was “The match that might have caused civil war.” The Spaniards were praised for their skill and composure, winning 1-0 in the second leg in Belfast.

Sweden saw off Yugoslavia in an exciting second leg 3-2, after a goalless first leg. Denmark easily took care of Malta, and France dispatched Bulgaria 3-2 on aggregate. Indeed, almost all of the matches at this stage were close, goal-filled affairs, as Hungary edged out East Germany 5-4.

The tie of the round saw the Soviet Union, defending champions, against twice world champions Italy, led by the mercurial Gianni Rivera (Alf Ramsey was once asked who he thought the four best Italian players were: ‘Rivera, Rivera, Rivera, Rivera’, he replied). But in front of 102,358 in Moscow for the first leg, Rivera was ineffective. Goals from Viktor Ponedelnik, who had scored the winning goal in the 1960 final, and Igor Chislenko gave the Soviets a 2-0 win. The USSR proved their superiority in the return leg in Rome, with only a last minute strike by Rivera preventing a home defeat. The Soviets looked good as they aimed to defend their title.

The surprise of the round came when Luxembourg beat the Netherlands 3-2 on aggregate, though the Dutch were not yet the Total Football force they would be in the 1970s. Luxembourg had been regularly crushed in recent years, including by the Dutch in a 1957 World Cup qualifier, but had proved themselves capable of springing the odd upset, beating Portugal 4-2 in a 1960 World Cup qualifier.

In front of just 6,921 at the Stade Municipal in Pétange, Luxembourg, a 3-3 thriller was played out, before Luxembourg shocked the Netherlands in Rotterdam with a 2-1 win.

The Quarter Finals

Luxembourg were out to prove their victory over the Dutch had not been a fluke, and they proved this against Denmark. After a 5-5 aggregate tie over two legs (all of Denmark’s goals were scored, amazingly, by Ole Madsen), a one-off replay was organised, ironically in the Netherlands. Denmark edged out Luxembourg 1-0, ending the latter’s best ever major championship performance to date.

Elsewhere, the Spanish juggernaut moved on as they crushed the Republic of Ireland 7-1 on aggregate. The Soviets disposed of Sweden handily 4-2 overall, Ponedelnik scoring two more. Hungary reminded the football world of their traditional strength, beating the French quite comfortably in front of 70,120 at the Népstadion in Budapest. In the era after the demise of the “Magnificent Magyars”, Hungary remained a serious force in the 1960s (winning Olympic gold in 1964 and 1968) and were led by Lajos Tichy, who scored twice in that tie as part of his remarkable strikerate of 51 goals in 72 internationals, and the brilliant Florian Albert.

So the semi-finals were set. It was quite a line-up: the defending champions the Soviet Union, the powerful Hungarians, the talented hosts Spain, and the unheralded Danes. Spain’s choice as host was surely controversial, as it meant two communist nations had to head to Franco’s turf. Check back soon to see how the games played out, with East-West politics rearing its head.

Sources: The Times digital archive; RSSF.com
Photo credits: Draconiansleet; hamrun43; Gábor Marik

1960 European Nations’ Cup
Host: France
Winners: Soviet Union

Like the World Cup and the European Champion Clubs’ Cup before it, the European Nations’ Cup (as it was then known) was the brainchild of a Frenchman, in this case Henri Delaunay, the secretary of the French Football Federation. The tournament was almost stillborn as it struggled to gain the required sixteen entrants, with all the British countries along with Italy and West Germany sitting it out.

The tournament was structured vastly differently back then: only seventeen countries entered it in the end, and the teams played two-legged home and away fixtures until the semi-finals. And it was only when the final four was set that the host was chosen.

It all begun with a bang, as 100,572 people crowded into Lenin Stadium in Moscow to watch the Soviets beat Hungary 3-1 in September 1958. This was just the start of a long route to Paris for the final almost two years later, as the inaugural European Nations’ Cup was soon pockmarked by Cold War politics.

After going on to beat Hungary 4-1 on aggregate, the Soviet Union were drawn against Spain in the quarter finals. But General Franco refused to allow the Soviets into his country for the first leg, forcing Spain to withdraw. This put the Soviets into the semi-finals, where they brushed aside Czechoslovakia 3-0.

Franco’s controversial decision was a reminder that a football tournament featuring East and West European nations would have been unthinkable just a decade earlier. The slight easing of East-West tensions as the 1950s progressed, after the death of Stalin and the end of the Korean War (both in 1953), transformed the possibilities for intra-European sport.

In fact, historian Antonio Missiroli has even argued that the development of the European Champions’ Cup (now Champions League), the Inter-Cities’ Fair Cup (now UEFA cup) and the European Nations’ Cup signified a certain “anticipation” of the developing lines of European history and politics.

Alan Milward reminded us a few years ago that it is precisely with football and in football that the first bilateral exchanges were re-established and the first pluri-national networks initiated in a continent that had just come out of the Second World War. UEFA was founded in 1954, on FIFA’s 50th anniversary, in the wake of a joint Franco-Belgian-Italian initiative. The first European Champions’ Cup came about after the European Coal and Steel Community but before the Treaty of Rome – even though it was initially dominated by clubs (Real Madrid and Benfica) that did not belong at all to the EEC ‘core’ – as did the Inter-Cities’ Fair Cup. The European Nations’ Cup – later called European Championship, and now Euro – came with détente, in the late 1950s, and the Soviet Union even managed to win its first edition in 1960.

The Soviet success was not a great surprise. Whilst never as consistently competitive in football globally as it was in ice hockey, this was a strong era with Lev Yashin inspirational in goal. After entering their first international competition at the 1952 Olympics, they won gold at the same tournament four years later, and would reach the semi-finals of the World Cup in 1966.

In between, 1960 was perhaps the peak as organised sport in the U.S.S.R. had solidified in the era of postwar reconstruction in the 1950s, and was entering a period of remarkable growth — over 2,000 stadiums would soon be built. Attendance had tripled in the Soviet league in the 1950s, reaching over ten million annually. By 1960, football was televised in Moscow.

The team picked in 1960 was the first to really look beyond the Moscow-based clubs and draw from the talent available elsewhere. This approach would be increasingly important for Soviet teams in later decades.

But it was Lev Yashin, from Moscow, who was the team’s heart and soul at the 1960 tournament. I can’t do a better job of describing him than Eduardo Galeano has in Soccer in Sun and Shadow:

When Lev Yashin covered the goal, not a pinhole was left open. This giant with long spidery arms always dressed in black and played with a naked elegance that disdained unnecessary gestures. He liked to stop thundering blasts with a single claw-like hand that trapped and shredded any projectile, while his body remained motionless like a rock. He could deflect the ball with a glance.

It took Yashin’s spidery best to keep Yugoslavia at bay in the final, for Tito’s nation were their biggest competitors both politically and in footballing terms in Eastern Europe. They would reach the Olympic final four times in a row from 1948-1960, finally winning it in Rome a few months after the European Nations’ Cup ended.

And by the 1960 European Nations’ Cup final, the Yugoslavs had already demonstrated their firepower: after brushing aside Bulgaria in the preliminaries, they headed to Belgrade for the second leg of their tie with Portugal 2-1 down. By halftime they had erased the deficit, and they poured in three goals in the second half to set up a semi-final with France.

It what must be one of the most exciting semi-finals ever seen, witnessed by a mere 26,370 in Paris despite the presence of the home team, Yugoslavia prevailed in a titanic battle featuring nine goals scored by seven different players.

France seemed to be on their way to victory when they went 4-2 up in the 53rd minute, thanks to goals from Vincent, Heutte and Wlsnieski (2). Then all hell broke loose between the 75th and 79th minutes: Jerkovic scored twice and Knez once as the Yugoslavs tore apart a shellshocked French team to clinch a 5-4 victory.

The final between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia could only be something of an anti-climax after that game, despite the political tensions — based off the Tito-Stalin split, though relations had improved somewhat after Nikita Khrushchev took over the Kremlin — bubbling under the surface.

In front of just 17,966 in Paris, Milan Galic opened the scoring for the Yugoslavs just before half-time. The Soviets pulled level in the 49th minute thanks to Torpedo Mosvow’s Slava Metreveli. The winning goal in the first European Nations Cup final came deep into extra time, when SKA Rostov-on-Don’s Viktor Ponedelnik headed home to win the Soviets first and ultimately only major championship.

Sources: CBC Sports; Antonio Missiroli, “European Football Cultures and their Integration; UEFA.com; Eduardo Galeano, Soccer in Sun and Shadow; David Goldblatt, The Ball Is Round.