Wednesday 3 May 2017

671 European Championships 1984


First  viewed :  June  1984

The  European  Championship  is  such  a  big  deal  now  that  it's  hard  to  recall  that  this  tournament  would  have  been  very  easy  to  miss  altogether. The  Finals  were  still  restricted  to  eight  teams  with  the  tournament  wrapped  up  in  just  over  a  fortnight.  With  the  Olympics  on  the  way  and  no  home  interest  in  the  tournament ( England  having  been  eliminated  by  rising  stars  Denmark  in  Bobby  Robson's  first  qualifying  campaign ), the  Beeb  restricted  its  coverage  to  late  night  highlights   and  the  Final.

Which  was  a  shame  because  there  was  some  scintillating  football  on  show  and  it  would  have  brightened  up  those  last  two  take  it  easy  weeks  at  university. The  tournament  was  dominated  by  one  man, France's  Michel  Platini,  who  won  it  for  the  hosts  almost  single -handed  with  nine  goals  in  five  matches  including  hat-tricks  in  successive  matches  played  only  three  days  apart. It's  worth  remembering  that  he  wasn't  even  a  striker.  He  scored  the  opener  in  France's  2-0  defeat  of  Spain  in  the  Final. Denmark  got  to  the  semis  where  they  were  eliminated  by  Spain  on  penalties.

1 comment:

  1. Sign of changing times that Robson kept his job after the failure to qualify... would be an instant sacking these days (as seen by Steve McLaren's fate).

    I do regret being too young to have seen much of Platini, as he struck me as the sort of player I always aspired to be: fairly lazy but capable of game winning brilliance at any moment (hence Glenn Hoddle being another favourite of mine).

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