European Football Championship 1972

European Football Championship 1972
UEFA EURO 72
Number of nations	4  (of 32 applicants)
European champion	BR Germany (1st title)
venue	Belgium
Opening game	June 14, 1972
Endgame	June 18, 1972 in Brussels
Games	4th
Gates	10  (⌀: 2.5 per game)
spectator	106,510  (⌀: 26,628 per game)
Top scorer	Gerd Müller - 4 goals
yellow cards	9  (⌀: 2.25 per game)

The final round of the fourth European football championship was held in Belgium from June 14 to 18, 1972 .

Germany won the European championship against the Soviet Union in the final in Brussels . Host Belgium failed in the semi-finals. Austria , the GDR and Switzerland failed to qualify. The top scorer was Gerd Müller from Germany , who was the only player to score more than one goal in the finals, with four goals. Müller was also the top scorer of the entire competition (including qualification) with eleven goals.

qualification

→ Main article : 1972 European Football Championship / Qualification

32 national teams, divided into eight groups, took part in the qualification. The group winners played a quarter-finals with a return leg in the run-up to the final round. The qualifying games were held in 1970 and 1971. The quarter-finals took place in April and May 1972. As in all European championships, the host of the final round was only chosen after the final four had been determined.

BR Germany

The Germans played in qualifying group 8 with Poland, Turkey and Albania. After the successful soccer World Cup in Mexico in 1970, the qualification began in October 1970 with a disappointing 1-1 draw against Turkey in Cologne . Only then did the face of a new German team appear, which won all subsequent games and only played 0-0 against Poland in Hamburg on the last matchday . At this point you were already qualified for the quarter-finals.

In the quarterfinals, the legendary pairing with England took place. The 3-1 success of the German team in London ( Wembley-Elf ) is considered to be the birth of the later European championship team, as they started weak and the substitutes took their chance. Uli Hoeneß achieved the 1-0 lead before half-time. In the second half the game developed into a defensive battle. The English runner-up for Sepp Maier's goal was rewarded in the 77th minute with an equalizer by Francis Lee . The preliminary decision brought a penalty in the 85th minute. Sigfried Held was fouled, Günter Netzer converted the penalty . Three minutes later, Gerd Müller scored the 3: 1 after playing with Hoeneß. In the second leg, the English competed with no hope of progressing, the game in Berlin ended 0-0. The Federal Republic was thus qualified for the final round.

GDR

The GDR team played in Group 7 against Yugoslavia, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The qualification started promisingly with a 1-0 home win against the Netherlands. But after the home defeat against Yugoslavia 2-1, the Yugoslavs prevailed as leaders of the group and qualified.

Austria

Austria played in Group 6 against defending champions Italy as well as Sweden and Ireland. The first two games showed the Austrians the right direction. The defeats against Italy and Sweden could not be made up in the course of qualification. Italy easily qualified for the quarter-finals.

Switzerland

Switzerland played in Group 3 against England, Greece and Malta and presented themselves surprisingly strong. They kept up with the English, so the group's last two games against England had two real finals. Switzerland lost the home game 2: 3. In the second leg, the Swiss national team achieved a respectable success with a 1-1 draw.

Venues

Antwerp ( Bosuil Stadium - Deurne )	Brussels Anderlecht Liege Antwerp Locations 1972 in Belgium
Anderlecht ( Stade Émile Versé )
Brussels ( Heysel Stadium )
Liege ( Stade de Sclessin )

Attendees

Soviet Union ( squad )

BR Germany ( squad )

Hungary ( squad )

Belgium ( squad )

Finals

Semifinals

June 14, 1972 in Anderlecht ( Stade Émile Versé )
Soviet Union	-	Hungary	1: 0 (0: 0)

The Soviet Union was able to qualify for all finals by then and was also considered a favorite in this game. While standing Lev Yashin no longer between the posts, but was Yevgeny Rudakov his worthy successor. When the score was 1-0 for the Soviet Union, he held a penalty against Hungary in the 83rd minute. Anatoly Konkow scored the decisive goal to make it 1-0 in the 53rd minute.

June 14, 1972 in Antwerp ( Bosuil - Deurne stadium )
Belgium	-	BR Germany	1: 2 (0: 1)

The team of the DFB was considered to be the favorite for the title, also against the host Belgium, who are in the home advantage. Gerd Müller scored the reassuring lead for the Germans in the 24th minute. The motivated Belgians did not give up either when Gerd Müller increased to 2-0 in the 71st minute and scored the next goal in the 83rd minute through Odilon Polleunis. However, the intensive efforts of the hosts in the final phase were no longer crowned with success.

3rd place match

June 17, 1972 in Liège ( Stade de Sclessin )
Hungary	-	Belgium	1: 2 (0: 2)

Belgium dominated the game from the start and led 2-0 at halftime thanks to goals from Raoul Lambert (24th minute) and Belgian captain Paul Van Himst (28th minute). Hungary scored the connection goal very quickly after half-time with Lajos Kű (53rd minute) with a penalty, but the Belgian victory remained unchallenged.

Endgame

BR Germany		Soviet Union
	final Sunday June 18, 1972 in Brussels ( Heysel Stadium ) Result: 3: 0 (1: 0) Spectators: 43,066 Referee: Ferdinand Marschall ( Austria )   Match report
	Sepp Maier - Franz Beckenbauer - Horst-Dieter Höttges , Georg Schwarzenbeck , Paul Breitner - Herbert Wimmer , Günter Netzer , Uli Hoeneß - Jupp Heynckes , Gerd Müller , Erwin Kremers Trainer: Helmut Schön	Yevgeny Rudakov - murtaz khurtsilava - Revaz Dzodzvashwili , Vladimir Kaplichni , Yuri Istomin - Anatoliy Konkov (46. Oleg Dolmatow ), Vladimir Troschkin , Viktor Kolotow - Anatoli Baidatschni , Anatoli Banischewski (66. Eduard Kozinkewitsch ), Volodymyr Onyschtschenko Coach: Alexander Ponomarev
	1: 0 Gerd Müller (27.) 2: 0 Herbert Wimmer (52.) 3: 0 Gerd Müller (58.)
		Vladimir Kaplichni (43.)

Special postcard on the occasion of the EM success

The national team, which won the 1972 European Championship finals against the Soviet Union, is still considered the strongest German team to this day. She brought the first title to Germany since 1954. At the opening of the Olympic Stadium in Munich three weeks earlier, Germany had already defeated the Soviet Union 4-1 and was therefore the clear favorite.

Germany took the lead through Gerd Müller in the 28th minute. Beckenbauer dashed from the center line to just before the Soviet penalty area, passed Müller, who laid back on Netzer, who hit the crossbar with a brilliant shot. Heynckes picked up the ricochet, Rudakow could only clap, and Müller was there. In the 52nd minute, Herbert "Hacki" Wimmer increased to 2-0 after a clever submission from Heynckes, who in turn had received an exemplary pass from Netzer - a Mönchengladbach combination. In the 57th minute, "Katsche" Schwarzenbeck started from the middle of his own half. Via Müller and Heynckes, the ball landed again at the German pre-stopper , now in the Soviet penalty area , who dropped to Müller, which goalkeeper gave Rudakov no chance. This marked the 51st international goal in the 41st international match of the so-called "bomber of the nation". In his most successful phase in the national team - in terms of scoring goals - he scored 14 times in five international matches in a row.

In the 68th minute, the Soviet libero Churzilawa put the ball on the crossbar of the German goal with a powerful shot from almost 20 meters. This was probably the best chance the USSR had, but it was not essentially an equal opponent for the DFB selection in any phase of the game. The Soviets did not hide and tried to play along, but looked relatively sedate and hardly ever came dangerously to the German gate.

The last five minutes of the game suffered from the fact that numerous German battle strollers left the stands and positioned themselves by the hundreds around the outer lines of the playing field. The commentator for the British BBC television Barry Davies said that something like this probably last happened in the so-called White Horse Final , the English Cup final of 1923, although at the World Cup two years earlier and at the World Cup in 1966 before the final whistle, numerous fans the Wanted to be close to their idols.

Finally, UEFA President Gustav Wiederkehr was able to hand over the Henri Delaunay Cup to the German captain Franz Beckenbauer without any major problems . However, reports of riots in downtown Brussels after the game were sad - harbingers of a somewhat different time.

In the German team, Beckenbauer, who could be found everywhere on the field, Netzer and Müller testified to their absolute world class. Maier was not inferior, any more than Breitner and Wimmer. With the Soviets, Rudakov can boast of having thwarted some major German chances with one or the other strong reflex.

Awards

Honors of the European champions

Günter Netzer was voted Footballer of the Year in Germany and Franz Beckenbauer was voted Europe's Footballer of the Year , with Gerd Müller and Günter Netzer, two players from the same association as the winner , taking second place for the first time. In the election for Team of the Year , the national team had to give way to the national hockey team , as it surprisingly won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Munich .

All-Star Team

An official UEFA All-Star team of the most valuable players in a tournament was first elected at the 1996 European Championship in England. The following team was selected by UEFA to compile the best players from the European Championship in 1972:

goalkeeper	Defense	midfield	striker
Yevgeny Vasilyevich Rudakov	Revaz Dzodzuashvili Murtas Churzilawa Franz Beckenbauer Paul Breitner	Uli Hoeneß Günter Netzer Herbert Wimmer	Jupp Heynckes Raoul Lambert Gerd Müller

List of goalscorers (final round)

rank	player	Gates
1	Gerd Müller	4th
2	Anatoly Konkov	1
	Lajos Kü	1
	Raoul Lambert	1
	Lon Polleunis	1
	Paul Van Himst	1
	Herbert Wimmer	1

Gerd Müller was also top scorer of the entire competition with 11 goals.

Web links

• 1972 UEFA European Championship on uefa.com
• Team of the 1972 tournament on uefa.com
• European Championship 1972 on rsssf.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Konkov strike enough for USSR. UEFA , October 3, 2003, accessed February 24, 2016 . 
2. ↑ Müller magic sends Germany into final. UEFA , October 3, 2003, accessed February 24, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Belgium beat Hungary to win bronze. UEFA , October 3, 2003, accessed February 24, 2016 . 
4. ↑ European Football Championship 1972 Final. UEFA , archived from the original on August 17, 2000 ; accessed on June 28, 2016 . 
5. ↑ 1972 UEFA European Championship. UEFA , accessed February 24, 2016 .