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.
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).
ReplyDeleteI 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).