Spain and England will bring to a close a month of festival football at the Euros, where current and former icons have fallen while new stars have risen.
The European Championships were first staged in 1960, when the former Soviet Union defeated the then Yugoslavia 2-1 in Paris after extra time.
The last final resulted in England defeated on home soil, which is a perfect place to start our look back at some of the previous Euro showpiece matches.
Much as in 1996, when England reached the Euros semifinals, the chant once again rang around the hills and valleys of England that football was “coming home”. After a gruelling 120 minutes, on the hallowed turf of Wembley Stadium in London, UK, it was Italy that claimed the Euro 2020 title in a heartbreaking defeat for the English.
hree young lions had been the heroes of the tournament for Gareth Southgate’s side – and icons for a new generation of English hopes and dreams – so it was the cruellest of ironies that it was Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho to miss their penalties in the shootout. Luke Shaw, who, along with Saka, hopes to start against Spain on Sunday, opened the scoring in the second minute of the match but Leonardo Bonucci levelled midway through the second half. Saka, only 19 at the time, was left in tears on the pitch but was to face far worse when leaving the field.
The Arsenal forward, and his fellow teammates who missed their kicks, were subjected to a torrent of vile racist abuse through social media that shocked all of England in the days that followed and far outweighed the feeling of deflation on the field. For Italy, it continued a 34-match unbeaten run as they lifted a second Euro crown.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s time had apparently come in the 2016 final as he sought to transfer his illustrious club career to the international stage with Portugal. The then-Real Madrid “Galactico” scored three times in helping his country to the final against France, but was forced to limp off after only 25 minutes of the match due to injury.
With him appeared to go the Portuguese dreams against a formidable French team, who would go on to lift the World Cup two years later.
But Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud were on the side that were left wanting after Eder’s strike in the 109th minute. The French had dominated all the other stats, but it was Portugal who claimed their first Euro title, making up for the heartache of the 2004 defeat in the final to Greece.
Spain are targeting a record fourth Euro title on Sunday, which would move them clear of Germany at the top of the winners pile. Their most famous victory came in 2012 when they virtually breezed past a mighty Italian side. Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona had been back on top of European club football for more than a decade while the powers of Serie A were very much on the wane. The Italian international side, however, was still glittered with the gladiators of colosseums pining for a return to former glories.
The masters of defensive stability remained in place at the back with Gianluigi Buffon in goal and Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci keeping guard in front of him. In midfield, Andrea Pirlo remained the master and commander of the Italian legions.
The power of European football was shifting across the Mediterranean to the southwest of the continent, where the maestros of “tiki taka” football were now playing a game of their own. With the Barca duo of Xavi and Andres Iniesta, and Real’s Xavi Alonso pulling the strings in the heart of the field, the irresistible Spanish team tore the Italians to pieces in every department.
One of the great upsets in the history of a European final itself came in 1992 when world champions Germany were defeated by the golden generation of Danish football. With Manchester United’s Peter Schmeichel in goal, and the legendary Laudrup brothers, Brian and Michael, in midfield, the Danes possessed a foundation upon which to contest the German might.
John Jensen scored the opening goal after 18 minutes to alert all that a shock could be on the cards before Kim Vilfort settled the tie with eight minutes left to play.
When Lamine Yamal unfurled a fizzing effort from outside the area to beat Germany and send Spain into Sunday’s final, a star was born and another glitzy goal was added to the list of great European and global strikes. Arguably the most famous of all in the Euros came in the 1988 final when Marco van Basten unleashed a thunderous volley from the edge of the box to double the Dutch lead against the then USSR in Germany.
Ruud Gullit’s dreadlocks, and his headed opener, similarly became iconic images forged deeply into Netherlands folklore. But It was the strike by van Basten, who scored a hat-trick against England in the group stage, that would go down as one of the golden moments of European football, let alone in a final itself.
