Brilliant Holland at last find international success
Holland's Adrie van Tiggelen holds aloft the
trophy after his side's 3-0 victory.
Holland deservedly won their first international honour
through playing the most enterprising and entertaining football of the
whole tournament.
Most of the stars who shone brightest in West Germany wore the orange
of the Dutch side and it would have been an injustice had the USSR spoilt
the party at the final in Munich.
With more quality players in their squad than any of the other seven competing
countries, their superior teamwork, technique and discipline was too much
for the teams they faced. However, the Dutch were not the unstoppable
machine that many people look back on that side as having been.
They panicked at times and for a twenty minute spell against the Germans
in the semi-final, lost their composure completely in the wake of intimidating
tactics imposed by their opponents. In addition, the woodwork twice rescued
them in their crunch group match against England.
However Holland did possess the man of the tournament in Marco van Basten.
Fresh and ready to go having missed most of the season through injury,
the AC Milan ace set the competition alight.
His hat trick against England was a display by one of the greatest strikers
of his generation playing at the peak of his powers, but his overall work
in being the target man in attack,able to hold on to the ball and then
distributing to teammates round him, underlined his overall outstanding
contribution.
He saved his best goal for the final. Leading by Gullit's first half strike,
van Basten struck a glorious volley with his right foot some eight yards
from the by-line on the edge of the penalty area which found the top left
corner of the net. Simply stunning.
In many ways the Soviet Union were the surprise team of the tournament.
They went into the final as the only unbeaten side left and the only one
who had scored in as many as four games.
However, for the final they were stretched by injuries and suspensions.
In Alexander Zavarov they had one of the true midfield stars of the championships
and his industry was a central part of the team.
If Holland were one of the luckiest sides, the Republic of Ireland were
undoubtedly the unluckiest. Having effected the perfect smash-and-grab
job on England, the Irish led the Soviets until late on and held the Dutch
until a viciously swerving header dropped into the Irish net.
The secret behind Jack Charlton's team's success was that they played
to their strengths and exposed others' weaknesses.
For England, the championships were massive disappointment. In hindsight
it is easy to blame the hot weather and more importantly a virus suffered
by Gary Lineker which robbed the frontman of his sharpness which had seen
him win the World Cup Golden Boot only two years previously.
However, prior to the tournament, England were confident- having qualified
with the fourth best record, Bobby Robson felt that his side had a good
chance of going all the way and with Gary Lineker, Bryan Robson, John
Barnes, Glenn Hoddle and Terry Butcher in his side, such optimism was
justified.
A looping Ray Houghton header saw England get off to the worst start possible,
losing 1-0 in the group match that they had to win. Lineker missed several
chances and saw one shot fly narrowly over the bar.
Against Holland, England recovered from a van Basten strike through captain
Bryan Robson and started to dominate the match.
For twenty minute either side of half time, England were the better side.
Then van Basten scored two wonderful goals to knock the stuffing out of
Robson's men. In the final game, England showed little fight, went down
3-1 to the USSR and exited the competition without a point.
1988 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
QUALIFYING
West Germany qualified as hosts. Group winners qualified for
finals.
Group 1
10/09/1986 Romania 4 - 0 Austria (1-0)
15/10/1986 Austria 3 - 0 Albania (1-0)
12/11/1986 Spain 1 - 0 Romania (0-0)
03/12/1986 Albania 1 - 2 Spain (1-0)
25/03/1987 Romania 5 - 1 Albania (3-1)
01/04/1987 Austria 2 - 3 Spain (1-1)
29/04/1987 Albania 0 - 1 Austria (0-1)
29/04/1987 Romania 3 - 1 Spain (3-0)
14/10/1987 Spain 2 - 0 Austria (0-0)
28/10/1987 Albania 0 - 1 Romania (0-0)
18/11/1987 Austria 0 - 0 Romania (0-0)
18/11/1987 Spain 5 - 0 Albania (3-0)
Team P W D L GF GA GDIF PTS %
1 SPAIN 6 5 0 1 14 6 +8 10 83.3
2 Romania 6 4 1 1 13 3 +10 9 75.0
3 Austria 6 2 1 3 6 9 -3 5 41.7
4 Albania 6 0 0 6 2 17 -15 0 0.0
Group 2
24/09/1986 Sweden 2 - 0 Switzerland (1-0)
12/10/1986 Portugal 1 - 1 Sweden (0-0)
29/10/1986 Switzerland 1 - 1 Portugal (1-0)
15/11/1986 Italy 3 - 2 Switzerland (1-1)
16/11/1986 Malta 0 - 5 Sweden (0-1)
06/12/1986 Malta 0 - 2 Italy (0-2)
24/01/1987 Italy 5 - 0 Malta (5-0)
14/02/1987 Portugal 0 - 1 Italy (1-1)
29/03/1987 Portugal 2 - 2 Malta (1-1)
15/04/1987 Switzerland 4 - 1 Malta (1-0)
24/05/1987 Sweden 1 - 0 Malta (1-0)
03/06/1987 Sweden 1 - 0 Italy (1-0)
17/06/1987 Switzerland 1 - 1 Sweden (0-0)
23/09/1987 Sweden 0 - 1 Portugal (0-1)
17/10/1987 Switzerland 0 - 0 Italy (0-0)
11/11/1987 Portugal 0 - 0 Switzerland (0-0)
14/11/1987 Italy 2 - 1 Sweden (2-1)
15/11/1987 Malta 1 - 1 Switzerland (0-1)
05/12/1987 Italy 3 - 0 Portugal (1-0)
20/12/1987 Malta 0 - 1 Portugal (0-0)
Team P W D L GF GA GDIF PTS %
1 ITALY 8 6 1 1 16 4 +12 13 81.2
2 Sweden 8 4 2 2 12 5 +7 10 62.5
3 Portugal 8 2 4 2 6 8 -2 8 50.0
4 Switzerland 8 1 5 2 9 9 0 7 43.8
5 Malta 8 0 2 6 4 21 -17 2 12.5
