2008, Spain
It was Austria and Switzerland who hosted the 2008 Euro. Both of them were holding the tournament for the first time and this was the second jointly hosted tournament in the history of the European Championship. Qualification for Euro 2008 started in August 2006, just over a month after the end of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The qualifying tournament was contested by national teams from each of UEFA's member associations, with the exceptions of Austria and Switzerland, who had automatically qualified as hosts and Montenegro, who came into existence too late to be admitted to UEFA. England was the only seeded team not to qualify for the tournament finals, whereas Russia was the only unseeded one to qualify.
The qualifying format was tweaked a bit in the Euro 2008 with the winners and runners-up from the 7 groups automatically going through to join Austria and Switzerland. The change meant that there were no play-offs between the runner-ups. Poland, Portugal, Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, Czech Republic, Germany, Croatia, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Romania and Netherlands progressed to the finals.
Group C was immediately labelled as the "group of death", with Italy, France, Romania and the Netherlands competing for the two qualifying places. In contrast, Germany and Portugal were deemed to have an easy draw, as the tournament structure meant they could not meet Italy, France, the Netherlands or Spain until the final. Switzerland and Austria were never tipped to qualify to the quarters but Switzerland did manage a win against Portugal who despite the defeat topped their group. It was Portugal, Turkey, Croatia, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Russia who advanced. The "group of death" landed its biggest blow to France, who managed just a solitary point in their 3 games.
In the quarter-finals, Portugal could not give a warm send-off to their outgoing coach Luiz Felipe Scolari as they lost 2-3 to Germany in an exciting encounter. Turkey continued their streak of last-gasp wins, equalising at the end of extra-time against Croatia and advancing on penalties. Russia, playing under coach Guus Hiddink, scored twice in the extra time to hand Netherlands a heart-breaking defeat at Basel. In Vienna, Spain and Italy played a hard fought draw in regular time. Spain overcame Italy 4-2 on penalties.
In the first semi-final, Germany took on a determined Turkey. For once, Turkey led first, through Ugur Boral's 22nd-minute opener, only for Bastian Schweinsteiger to quickly equalise. Miroslav Klose put the Germans ahead in the 79th minute but Semih Sentürk brought the Turkish back on level terms. Unfortunately for Turkey, a 90th-minute strike from Philipp Lahm sent Germany into the EURO 2008 final and ended the march of a brave side who were unable to summon one last dramatic equaliser.
Guus Hiddink had picked his players up from a 4-1 defeat to Spain in group stages and took them to the semis. But alas, they had to face their nemesis again. Russia looked in fine form as they had brushed aside a strong Dutch side in the quarter-finals and also managed to hold Spain in the first half. However, Xavi set up Andrés Iniesta for the first goal five minutes after the restart to rattle the Russians. Russia looked to Andrey Arshavin to lift them out of the mire but refuge instead came from the right boot of Roman Pavlyuchenko. The 26-year-old gave warning with a free-kick and it then took a stunning stop from Iker Casillas to deny him. Dani Güiza and David Silva rounded off an easy victory for Spain as they looked set to storm the European football scene yet again.
Having won their previous silverware back in 1964 in this very competition, Spain looked to end a long drought against an in form German side. Germany received a significant boost before kick-off with captain Michael Ballack included despite a much-publicised calf problem. On the other hand, Spain lost their leading goal scorer, David Villa, to a thigh injury. As an indicator of the pattern of the match, however, Germany's bright beginning proved misleading. Spain soon fought their way into the game, with Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, at 38, the oldest player to appear in a UEFA European Championship final – forced into action for the first time in the 14th minute. 19 minutes later Spain were celebrating their breakthrough as a pass form Xavi found Fernando Torres who outmuscled a hesitant Philipp Lahm and chipped the ball over a diving Lehmann. Spain became European champions for the second time and announced themselves on the world stage as a potent power.
The Euro 2004 was held in Portugal who hosted the tournament for the first time. Rival bids from Spain and Austria-Hungary were rejected. Portugal were the default qualifiers while 50 teams were divided into ten groups, with each team playing the others in their group twice, once at home and once away. The top team in each group automatically qualified for Euro 2004, and the ten group runners-up were paired off against each other to determine another five places in the finals of the tournament.
