UEFA Euro 1968

The 1968 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Italy. This was the third European Football Championship, an event held every four years and organised by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 5 and 10 June 1968.

It was in this year that the tournament changed its name from the European Nations' Cup to the European Championship.

There were also some changes in the tournament's qualifying structure, with the two-legged home-and-away knock-out stage being replaced by a group phase.

Only four countries played in the final tournament. There were semi-finals, the final and a third place match.

The hosts were only announced after the qualifying round, which meant that they had to qualify along with all the others for the final stage.

Qualification
The qualification competition was played in two stages: a group stage (taking place from 1966 until 1968) and the quarter-finals (played in 1968). There were eight qualifying groups of four teams each with the exception of group 4, which only had three. The matches were played in a home-and-away basis. Victories were worth 2 points, draws 1 point, and defeats 0 points. Only group winners could qualify for the quarter-finals. The quarter-finals were played in two legs on a home-and-away basis. The winners of the quarter-finals would go through to the final tournament.

The following teams participated in the final tournament (see also: UEFA Euro 1968 squads):


 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 england (first appearance)
 * 🇮🇹 italy (first appearance)

Final tournament
All time are CEST/UTC+2

Semi-finals
Match decided by toss of coin: Italy captain Giacinto Facchetti called correctly.

Final
As the match ended in a draw, a replay was played to determine the winner.

Top scorers
With two goals, Dragan Džajić is the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 7 goals were scored by 6 different players in 5 matches, for an average of 1.4 goals per game. None of the goals is credited as own goal.


 * 2 goals
 * Dragan Džajić
 * 1 goal
 * 🇮🇹 Luigi Riva
 * 🇮🇹 Angelo Domenghini
 * 🇮🇹 Pietro Anastasi
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Geoff Hurst
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Bobby Charlton

Fastest goal
12 minutes: Luigi Riva (Italy vs Yugoslavia, Replay)

Average goals
1.4 goals per game

Awards

 * UEFA Team of the Tournament