→The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Football Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations. It took place in and (both hosting the tournament for the first time) from 7 to 29 June 2008. The second jointly hosted finals in the competition's history, the tournament was eventually won by, defeating Germany 1–0 in the final; becoming only the second nation to win all their group stage fixtures and win the European Championship itself; an accomplishment matched by in 1984. Spain were also the first team since Germany in 1996 to win the tournament undefeated.were the defending champions going into the tournament, having won, the previous competition.
They recorded the worst finish in Euro 2008, collecting the least amount of prize money and gaining no points in their three group fixtures. Throughout 31 matches, the participating nations totalled 77 goals, the same as the previous tournament. And automatically qualified as hosts; the remaining 14 teams were determined through, which began in August 2006. As European champions, Spain earned the right to compete for the in South Africa. Contents Summaryfor Euro 2008 started in August 2006, just over a month after the end of the. The qualifying tournament was contested by national teams from each of 's member associations, with the exceptions of and, who had automatically qualified for the finals tournament as hosts and, who came into existence too late to be admitted to UEFA.
UEFA Euro 2008™ is an electronic soccer game released in April 2008, based on the 2008 edition of the European Football Championship, produced by EA. UEFA Euro 2008 is the official video game of the Euro 2008 football tournament, published by EA Sports. Features UEFA Euro 2008: Play as one of 53 teams from qualification right through to a virtual reproduction of Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland. Captain Your Country: Play as yourself on the same team with up to three friends, all playing individual positions on the pitch.
Was the only seeded team not to qualify for the tournament proper, whereas was the only unseeded one to qualify.The draw for the finals tournament took place on 2 December 2007, and saw immediately labelled as the 'group of death', with, and the competing for the two qualifying places. In contrast, and were deemed to have an easy draw, as the tournament structure meant they could not meet Italy, France, the Netherlands or until the final.In the group stage, Spain and the Netherlands all qualified with maximum points. Austria and Switzerland were not expected to progress, despite the advantage of being the hosts.
In, the Swiss lost their captain, to injury in their first game and became the first team to be eliminated from the tournament, after losing their first two matches. Switzerland managed to beat the group winner Portugal in their last game. In, Austria managed to set up a decisive final game against Germany, dubbed 'Austria's final'.
However, they lost by one goal, making Euro 2008 the first European Championship not to have one of the host nations present in the knockout phase. In an exciting final game in Group A, an injury- and suspension-hit came back from 2–0 down to beat the 3–2, after an uncharacteristic handling mistake by, in the last few minutes, left with the simplest of finishes. In the same game, goalkeeper was shown a red card for pushing Czech striker to the ground. The Turks joined Portugal as the qualifiers from Group A. France were the high-profile victims of Group C, recording just one point from a goalless draw against Romania in their opening game. Italy beat the French, on the final day, to finish on four points and joining the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. Finally, in, failed to reproduce the form of their shock, and ended the tournament with no points.
Russia qualified at the expense of, after beating them in a final game decider, joining Spain in the knockout phase.In the quarter-finals, the Portuguese team was unable to give their coach, a fitting send-off – following the mid-tournament announcement that Scolari would be leaving to join English club – losing in an exciting game against Germany. Turkey continued their streak of last-gasp wins, equalising at the end of extra-time against Croatia and advancing on penalties. Coached by Dutchman, Russia eliminated the Netherlands with two extra-time goals.
The last quarter-final match saw Spain defeat Italy on penalties, after a goalless draw in regular time.Turkey's progress was halted by Germany in the semi-finals. Turkey entered the game with nine of their squad members missing due to injury or suspension, but still scored the first goal. Later, they leveled the score at 2–2, before Germany scored the winning goal in the final minute. The world television feed of the match was intermittently lost during the match, which prevented the broadcast of Germany's second goal. This was due to a thunderstorm at the broadcasting relay station in Austria, despite the game being played in Switzerland. Swiss Television SRG SSR still had a feed, because of their own broadcasting facilities at the venue.
During the lost world feed German and Austrian television ZDF and ORF started to broadcast the feed of German speaking Swiss channel SF 1. This act ensured that the German goal was actually broadcast in Germany although not in Turkey. Spain won the second semi-final against Russia by three goals to nil, through second-half goals from, and, earning Spain their first appearance in a major final for 24 years.In the final, held at Vienna's, Spain became European champions for the second time after ' first-half goal proved enough to defeat Germany. Though Germany had a strong start, Spain started to look more dangerous after they had settled. After half an hour, Xavi played a pass in behind the Germany back line towards Torres, who outmuscled a hesitant and clipped the ball over the diving and just inside the far post. That goal proved to be the only goal of the game, which Spain dominated despite Germany having the majority of the possession, and Spain were crowned UEFA Euro 2008 champions.Bid processAustria and Switzerland jointly bid to host the games, and faced major competition from Greece/Turkey, Scotland/Republic of Ireland, Russia, Hungary, Croatia/Bosnia-Herzegovina and a 4-way Nordic bid from Norway/Sweden/Denmark/Finland.
Austria had previously bid to host with Hungary, but they eventually lost out to Portugal.Austria/Switzerland, Greece/Turkey, and Hungary were recommended before the final vote. Greece and Turkey were rejected and let Hungary and Austria/Switzerland battle for the win.The Austria/Switzerland bid is the second successful joint bid in the competition's history, following the hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands. The, held in Poland and Ukraine, became the third jointly hosted tournament.VenuesThe tournament was played at eight venues throughout the two host nations; four in Austria and four in Switzerland. Each venue had a capacity of at least 30,000 for the tournament; the largest stadium was in Vienna with a capacity of 53,295. It was for this reason that Ernst-Happel-Stadion hosted the final. Switzerland played all of their group stage matches at in Basel, which also hosted the opening match of the tournament as a compromise for the final being held in Vienna.
Austria played all of their group stage matches at Ernst-Happel-Stadion.In 2004, the Zurich venue became a problem for the organisers. Originally, the stadium was to be renovated and used as the city's venue, but legal challenges delayed the plan to a point that would not have allowed the ground to be used in 2008. This created a problem, as the agreement between and the organisers stipulated that four venues would be used in each country. The problem was solved when the organisers proposed renovating Letzigrund instead; UEFA approved the revised plan in January 2005. The Letzigrund stadium hosted its first football match on 23 September 2007.ViennaKlagenfurtSalzburgInnsbruckCapacity: 53,295Capacity: 31,957Capacity: 31,020Capacity: 31,6003 matches in2 quarter-final,1 semi-final and3 matches in3 matches in3 matches inGenevaBaselBernZurichCapacity: 31,228Capacity: 42,000Capacity: 31,907Capacity: 30,0003 matches in3 matches in(incl. Opening match),2 quarter-final and1 semi-final3 matches in3 matches inQualifying Main article:The draw for the qualifying round took place in Montreux, Switzerland on 27 January 2006 at 12:00 CET.The qualifying process commenced a month after the.
Austria and Switzerland automatically qualified for the tournament finals as host nations.The qualifying format was changed compared to previous tournaments. The winners and runners-up from seven groups automatically qualified for the Championship, with the hosts filling the other two slots in the 16-team tournament. The change means there were no play-offs between teams finishing in second place in the groups – they qualified directly for the finals. Teams that finished in third place had no opportunity to qualify.