UEFA Euro 2000 UEFA Championnat Européen du Football
Belgique/Pays Bas 2000 (French)
UEFA Europees Voetbalkampioenschap
België/Nederland 2000 (Dutch)
UEFA Fußball-Europameisterschaft
Belgien/Niederlande 2000 (German) | 
UEFA Euro 2000 official logo | | Tournament details | | Host countries |  Belgium
 Netherlands | | Dates | 10 June – 2 July | | Teams | 16 | | Venue(s) | 8 (in 8 host cities) | | Final positions | | Champions |  France (2nd title) | | Runner-up |  Italy | | Tournament statistics | | Matches played | 31 | | Goals scored | 85 (2.74 per match) | | Attendance | 1,122,833 (36,220 per match) | | Top scorer(s) | Patrick Kluivert
 Savo Milošević
(5 goals) | | Best player | Zinedine Zidane | | | The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, or Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Football Championship, which is held every four years and organized by UEFA, football's governing body in Europe. The finals of Euro 2000 were co-hosted (the first time this happened) by Belgium and the Netherlands between 10 June and 2 July 2000. The final tournament was contested by 16 nations. With the exception of the national teams of the hosts, Belgium and the Netherlands, the finalists had to go through a qualifying round to reach the final stage. France won the tournament, by defeating Italy 2-1 in the final, via a golden goal. The final saw the first major UEFA competition contested in the King Baudouin Stadium (formerly the Heysel Stadium) since events of the 1985 European Cup Final and Heysel Stadium disaster, with the opening game being played in the rebuilt stadium. [edit] Overview Belgium had a surprise exit in the group stage, winning the tournament's first game against Sweden but losing to Turkey and Italy. Italy also eliminated co-host and favourites Netherlands in the semi-finals, despite going down to ten men and facing two penalty kicks. Italian goalkeeper Francesco Toldo, who had been drafted into the starting XI as Gianluigi Buffon missed the tournament through injury, made two saves in the penalty shootout (in addition to his penalty save in regulation time) to carry the Italians to the final. One of the biggest surprises of the tournament was Portugal, winning their group with three wins, including a 3-0 win against Germany with Sérgio Conceição scoring a hat-trick. They reached the semi-finals, when they lost in extra-time to France after Zinedine Zidane converted a controversial penalty kick. Several Portuguese players challenged the awarding of the penalty for a handball and were given lengthy suspensions for shoving the referee.[1] France won the tournament, defeating Italy 2-1 in the final after a golden goal by David Trezeguet. In Britain, Match of the Day named Stefano Fiore's goal against Belgium the Goal of the Tournament, ahead of Patrick Kluivert's against France and Zinedine Zidane's against Spain.[2] [edit] Qualification  UEFA Euro 2000 finalists. Qualification for the tournament took place throughout 1998 and 1999. Forty-nine teams were divided into nine groups and each played the others in their group, on a home-and-away basis. The winner of each group and the best runner-up qualified automatically for the final tournament. The eight other runners-up played an additional set of playoff matches to determine the last four qualifiers. Belgium and the Netherlands automatically qualified for the tournament as co-hosts. The following 16 teams participated in the tournament: [edit] Mascot The official mascot for the tournament was Benelucky (a pun on Benelux), a lion-devil with its hair colour being a combination of the flag colours of both host nations. [edit] Venues [edit] Match officials  Austria  Denmark  Egypt  England - France
 Germany - Italy
| - Netherlands
 Portugal  Scotland  Spain  Sweden  Switzerland | [edit] Squads [edit] Results [edit] First round All times local (CEST/UTC+2) [edit] Group A
[edit] Group B | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | | Italy | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 9 |  Turkey | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | +1 | 4 | | Belgium | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 3 | | Sweden | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | −2 | 1 |
[edit] Group C
[edit] Group D
[edit] Knockout stage [edit] Quarter-finals
[edit] Semi-finals
| Euro 2000 Champions | 
France
Second title | [edit] Statistics [edit] Goalscorers - 5 goals
- 4 goals
- 3 goals
- 2 goals
| - 1 goal
| - Own goal
| [edit] Average goals 2.74 goals per game [edit] UEFA Team of the Tournament UEFA Player of the Tournament [edit] Trivia - The official song of the event, Campione 2000, by the Swedish musician E-Type, is a popular European football chant. Campione means "champion" in Italian. After the event, it still continues to be a favourite football chant.
- Three of the four teams in Group D had won the European Championship previously, and the other one – the Czech Republic – came into existence after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, who were champions in 1976.
- France are the only reigning world champions to have won the European Championship. West Germany are the only other team to have held both trophies at the same time, winning the Euro first in 1972.
[edit] See also [edit] References [edit] External links | UEFA Euro 2000 | | | Stages | | | | General information | | | | UEFA Euro 2000 finalists | | | Champions | | | | Runners-up | | | | Eliminated in semi-finals | | | | Eliminated in quarter-finals | | | | Eliminated in group stage | | | | | | | |
