National football team of the USSR / European championships

USSR / Commonwealth of Independent States
Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (CCCP)

European Championship record scorer:	Valentin Ivanov and Viktor Ponedelnik (3 each)
European Championship record players:	Oleksiy Mychajlychenko (8)
Rank:	no longer placed, the results are now attributed to the Russian team
Balance sheet
17 European Championship games 7 wins 3 draws 5 defeats 18:16 goals
statistics
First European Championship game USSR 3-0 Czechoslovakia Marseille ( FRA ); July 6, 1960 0
Last European Championship game CIS 0: 3 Scotland Norrköping ( SWE ); June 18, 1992
Highest European Championship victories USSR 3: 0 Czechoslovakia Marseille ( FRA ); July 6, 1960 USSR 3-0 Denmark Barcelona ( ESP ); June 17, 1964 0
Biggest European Championship defeats USSR 0: 3 BR Germany Brussels ( BEL ); June 18, 1972 CIS 0-3 Scotland Norrköping ( SWE ); June 18, 1992
successes
European Championship
Participation in the finals	6 ( first : 1960 )
Best results	European champion 1960
Best results in the countries where the UEFA European Football Championships are held
(As of July 2012)

The article contains a detailed description of the national soccer team of the USSR which competed for the Soviet Union from 1959 to 1988 and in 1992 for the Commonwealth of Independent States at European championships and the qualifications for them. The USSR was able to qualify for the finals of the European Championship six times, reached the final four times and was only able to win it the first time. After the division of the Soviet Union into several independent states, the Russian national team succeeded them and took part in the qualification for the first time in 1996, where they were able to qualify straight away. The successes of the USSR team are now attributed to Russia by UEFA .

Overview

The USSR participated in the first four finals with four participants and also twice in the finals with eight participants. The USSR failed five times on the eventual European champions, three times in the final and once in the qualification. After the last qualification, she participated as the Commonwealth of Independent States, to which the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania no longer belonged and Georgia did not yet belong.

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1960	France	final	Yugoslavia	European champion	Gavriil Kachalin	First title
1964	Spain	final	Spain	Runner-up	Konstantin Beskov
1968	Italy	3rd place match	England	Fourth	Mikhail Yakushin	Failed in the semi-finals by drawing lots on the eventual European champions Italy .
1972	Belgium	final	Germany	Runner-up	Alexander Ponomarev
1976	Yugoslavia	not qualified				In the quarter-finals at the eventual winners Czechoslovakia failed.
1980	Italy	not qualified				In the qualification of Greece failed
1984	France	not qualified				In the qualification of Portugal failed
1988	BR Germany	final	Netherlands	Runner-up	Valery Lobanovsky	Won in the preliminary round against the later final opponent.
1992	Sweden	Preliminary round	Germany , Netherlands , Scotland		Anatoly Byschowets	After a draw against world champions Germany and defending champions Netherlands as well as a defeat against Scotland, knocked out last in the group.

EM 1960

Lineups in the first European Championship final

The USSR also took part in the first European football championship in 1960, which was still held as the “European Cup of Nations”, and had to face Hungary in the round of 16 . After a 3-1 on September 28, 1958 in Moscow , in which Anatoly Ilyin scored the 1-0 in the fourth minute, and a 1-0 a year later in Budapest , the USSR reached the quarter-finals. Spain should then be the opponent there. The Spanish government under dictator Franco forbade the team that had already gathered at Madrid airport for the flight to Moscow from traveling. For its part, the USSR refused to host it in a neutral place. UEFA rated both games for the USSR, which reached the final round, which was played in France .

On July 6, 1960, the first European Championship final match of the USSR took place in Marseille and the team prevailed 3-0 against Czechoslovakia , with Valentin Ivanov scoring two goals. In the final against the Yugoslavs they went goalless for 40 minutes, then the Yugoslavs took the lead and saved the lead at half-time. Four minutes after the restart, Slawa Metreweli equalized, but no further goals were scored, so it was overtime. Six minutes before the end, Wiktor Ponedelnik , who had scored the third goal against the ČSSR, scored the winning goal for the USSR, which was the first ever European Cup winner. With their two goals, Valentin Ivanov and Wiktor Ponedelnik were also top scorers of the tournament with three other players. Final opponent Yugoslavia was then able to win the Olympic gold medal two months later with an almost identical team , for which the USSR could not qualify .

EM 1964

Four years later, more teams than 1960 wanted to participate. Therefore, the round of 16 was preceded by a preliminary round . The USSR received a bye and only had to play against Italy in the round of 16 . After a 2-0 home game, 1-1 in the second leg was enough to reach the quarter-finals. In this they met Sweden . After a 1-1 draw in Solna , the second leg was won 3-1 14 days later and thus reached the final again.

In the semi-finals this time the Danes were the opponents who had qualified by winning against Malta , Albania and Luxembourg . Like four years before, the USSR won the semi-finals 3-0 and was once again in the final. Here they met hosts Spain and lost the title with a 2-1 draw.

EM 1968

For the European Football Championship in 1968, group games were scheduled for the first time in qualifying . The USSR had to face Greece , Austria and Finland . The USSR won the first four games and was already qualified for the quarter-finals. Therefore, the defeat in the fifth game in Austria could be coped with and the qualification was concluded with a win in Greece in the last game. In the quarter-finals, Hungary was the opponent. After a 2-0 defeat in Budapest , they benefited from an own goal by Hungary in the second leg in Moscow and won 3-0.

At the finals in Italy, they met the hosts in the semi-finals. Since neither team scored a goal in 120 minutes, the lot had to decide for the only time at a European Championship . The German referee Kurt Tschenscher actually wanted to decide the coins in the center circle of the playing field in the presence of the two team captains Giacinto Facchetti and Juri Istomin . The two association presidents, Valentin Granatkin and Artemio Franchi , turned against this , demanding that the coin toss be carried out in a closed room. Both met with the referee in his cabin, while the two team captains had to wait in front of the cabin door and the teams on the pitch. Granatkin first asked for a trial throw, the second throw should be the decisive one. Italy was thereby determined as the winner. If the first had already counted, the USSR would have moved into the final. Since everyone involved felt that the coin toss was a great injustice, it was hardly ever used in international tournaments.

See also: List of drawing lots in football

In the game for 3rd place on June 8, 1968 in Rome they met world champion England , who came with 11 players from the World Cup squad. England won 2-0 and thus achieved their best placement to date at a major tournament after the 1966 World Cup. The USSR was the only time in a final without scoring a goal.

European Championship 1972

The USSR was able to qualify again for the European Championship finals in 1972 . In a group with Spain, Northern Ireland and Cyprus , four wins - including the only sporting victory against Spain - and two draws were enough for them to reach the quarter-finals. Here Yugoslavia was the enemy. After a goalless draw in Belgrade , the second leg was won 3-0. The Soviet Union drove it to the European Championship finals in Belgium . In the semifinals, Hungary was the opponent again and with a single goal by Anatoli Konkow in front of only 1,700 spectators, the final was reached for the third time. Here, however, the team was defeated by a German team that celebrated dream football and against which they faced with little hope after a 1: 4 three weeks earlier. With 0: 3, the USSR suffered one of their biggest defeats at the European Championship finals and thus said goodbye to the European Championship stage for 16 years.

EM 1976

In 1976 the final round was held for the last time with four teams. The USSR had to qualify in the group stage against Ireland , Turkey and Switzerland . The USSR lost the first game in Ireland and the last in Turkey, but were able to win four games in between and were in the quarter-finals, as Ireland only managed a 1-1 draw in Turkey. In the quarter-finals, the ČSSR was the opponent. After a 2-0 draw in Bratislava , the 2-2 draw in the second leg was not enough to reach the finals. The ČSSR then reached the final in Yugoslavia and won it against defending champions Germany in the first penalty shoot-out in European Championship history.

EM 1980

The 1980 European Football Championship was held for the first time with eight teams and for the first time the host was known in advance so that he did not have to qualify. The Federal Republic of Germany, England, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland were involved as organizers. On October 19, 1977 UEFA announced that England or Italy should host the European Championship and on November 12, 1977 Italy was announced as the host. The USSR failed in the qualification to Greece, Hungary and Finland and could only win the first game against the eventual group winners Greece and was group last. The Greeks did not get past the preliminary round at the finals.

EM 1984

In qualifying for the European Championship in France in 1984, the USSR had to compete in Group 2 against Portugal , Poland and Finland again. The USSR won the first five games and only needed one point from their last game in Portugal to reach the finals. The final round was missed by a 0-1 defeat, in which the goal came in the 44th minute through a converted penalty. Portugal then failed at the finals in the semi-finals to hosts France, but especially to Michel Platini , who scored the winning goal in overtime in the 119th minute.

EM 1988

The qualification for the EM in Germany was finally successful again for the USSR. In a group with defending champions France , the GDR , Iceland and Norway , the first place was taken. Five games were won and points were only given in three draws.

In West Germany, the USSR faced the Netherlands in the group stage in their first game and won 1-0. After a 1-1 draw against the Irish, who were participating for the first time, and a 3-1 draw against England, with Sjarhej Alejnikau scoring the second fastest goal in the European Championship finals after 2:07 minutes, the USSR was in the semifinals, where they met Italy and with 2: 0 won. The USSR was the first team to make it into the final for the fourth time and met their opponents in the preliminary round, the Netherlands. This time the Dutch were the better team and a penalty kick could not be used to improve the result. The USSR lost a final for the third time with 0-2.

EM 1992

In qualifying for the European Championship in 1992 , the USSR met Italy, Norway, Hungary again and Cyprus. The USSR won five games and drew twice, including two goalless draws against Italy. Since Italy lost in Norway and only scored 1-1 in their home game against the Northern Europeans, the USSR were group winners with only two goals conceded - only the Dutch only conceded two goals in their group. Due to the division of the USSR into several independent states in the early 1990s, which led to the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States , the era of the USSR national football team ended before the finals in Sweden began. As a team from the CIS, the qualified USSR team took part in the final round.

In the first group game, the team met world champion Germany, who took part in a major tournament for the first time with players from the former GDR. Contrary to the statement of the former team boss Franz Beckenbauer that the team would be unbeatable for years with the addition of the GDR players, they could not build on the performance at the World Cup. The final was reached, but it was lost against the Danes, who were nominated shortly before the European Championship for the excluded Yugoslavs due to UN sanctions as a result of the Yugoslav wars. And in the game against the USSR, the Germans struggled and could only reach 1-1 in the 90th minute through Thomas Häßler . The CIS also drew in the second game against the Netherlands, this time without goals, but still had the chance to reach the semi-finals by beating the Scots, who participated for the first time in the last game, if there was a winner in the parallel game or the CIS won with at least two goals difference. The Scots, who already had no chance of reaching the semi-finals after two defeats, destroyed all the dreams of the CIS team with a 3-0 win and thus also ensured that Germany was defeated 3-1 by the Netherlands as group runner-up still reached the semi-finals. It was the last international match for the CIS. Already in the qualification for the 1994 World Cup which took place Russian team part that could also qualify right away.

Player with the most appearances in European championships

Oleksij Mychajlychenko , Soviet player with the most European Championship appearances

Games	player	Year (games)
8th	Oleksiy Mychajlychenko	1988 (5), 1992 (3)
7th	Oleh Kuznetsov	1988 (4), 1992 (3)
5	Syarhej Alejnikau	1988 (5)
	Wagis Chidijatullin	1988 (5)
	Rinat Dassayev	1988 (5)
	Oleg Protasov	1988 (5)
	Vasily Raz	1988 (5)
	Oleksandr Savarov	1988 (5)
4th	10 players
3	7 players
2	38 players
1	12 players

As of July 1, 2012

Player with the most goals at European championships

Gates	player	Year (goals)
3	Valentin Ivanov	1960 (2), 1964 (1)
	Viktor Ponedelnik	1960 (2), 1964 (1)
2	Oleg Protasov	1988 (2)
1	9 players

As of July 1, 2012

Players banned from European championships

• In 1988 Hennadij Lytowtschenko received the second yellow card in the final , but it had no effect.
• In 1992 Achrik Zweiba received the second yellow card in the second group game and was suspended for the last group game.

Share of players playing abroad in the EM squad

Legionnaires were only called up for the last squad when, after the upheaval in the Eastern bloc , Russian and Ukrainian players were also allowed to switch to Western professional clubs. With 11 players, they made up the largest contingent. There were also eight players playing for Moscow clubs and Achrik Zweiba , who played for Dynamo Kiev in Ukraine .

Year (games)	Number (countries)	Players (stakes)
1960 (2)	0
1964 (2)	0
1968 (2)	0
1972 (2)	0
1988 (5)	0
1992 (3)	11 (1 in Germany, 1 in England, 3 in Italy, 1 in Portugal, 2 in Scotland, 1 in Switzerland, 2 in Spain)	Volodymyr Lyutyj (1); Andrei Kantschelskis (3); Syarhej Alejnikau (2), Igor Kolyvanow (2), Igor Shalimov (1); Sergei Juran (3); Oleh Kuznetsov (3), Oleksij Mychajlychenko (3); Igor Dobrowolski (3); Igor Korneev (1); Dmitri Kuznetsov (3)

As of July 1, 2012

Records

• The USSR needed the fewest games to become European champions in 1960: after 2 qualifying and 2 final round games, it was European champion because Spain did not make it to the quarter-finals in Moscow.
• Only team to take part in the first four finals.
• The highest victories in the semifinals: USSR against Czechoslovakia in 1960, USSR against Denmark in 1964 and Spain against Russia in 2008 - all 3-0
• The USSR and Russia played most often (9 times) against the eventual European champions (1964, 1968, 1972, 1988 (2 times), 1996, 2004, 2008 (2 times))

Negative records

• The longest series without a win: the USSR / CIS / Russia could not win 9 games between 1988 (final) and 2004.
• Fewest spectators at a game: 1,700 in the semifinals USSR - Hungary 1972 (other source: 2,000)

Record against the other European champions at European championships

• Netherlands: 4 games (including 1 final), 2 wins (1), 1 draw, 1 defeat, 4: 3 goals
• Spain: 4 games (including 1 final), 4 defeats (3), 2:10 goals
• Germany: 3 games (including 1 final), 1 draw, 2 defeats (1) 1: 7 goals
• Italy: 3 games, 1 win, 1 draw, 1 defeat (1) 3-2 goals
• Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic : 3 games, 2 wins (1), 1 draw , 10: 4 goals
• Denmark: 1 game, 1 win, 3-0 goals
• Greece: 3 games, 2 wins, 1 loss, 3-2 goals
• France: no game

Note: Matches played by the Russian team are shown in italics or in brackets

Games

Marseille Paris Barcelona Madrid Rome Naples Brussels (2) Cologne Hanover Frankfurt Stuttgart Munich Gothenburg Norrkoping (2)

Venues (green = positive balance, yellow = balanced balance, red = negative balance, bold = final venue, number in brackets = number of games if> 1)

The USSR played 16 European Championship games, seven of which were won, five were lost and four ended in a draw. Two games had to be extended. One of them was won by a goal and the other lost by drawing lots.

The USSR never played the opening game, but played the other semifinal game at the same time as the host's semifinals in 1972. The USSR played twice against the hosts and five times against the eventual European champions. Twice - once as the CIS - was played against the reigning world champion, once against the defending champion (as CIS) and once against the reigning Olympic champion. The most frequent opponents are the Netherlands with three games.

• The highest victory in an EM tournament was achieved against the following countries:
  •  England : European Championship group game 1988 3-1 (also 2-0 twice in friendly games, one of them as CIS)
  •  Italy : EC semi-finals 1988 2-0 (also a 2-0 in EC qualification 1964 / round of 16)
  •  Netherlands : European Championship group game 1988 1-0 (also a 2-1 in a friendly)
  •  Czechoslovakia : European Championship semi-finals 1960 (also a 3-0 in a friendly match)
• The team suffered their biggest defeat at a European Championship tournament against these countries:
  •  Federal Republic of Germany : Final 1972 0: 3 (also a 1: 4 in a friendly game)
  •  Netherlands : European Championship final in 1988 (also a 0: 2 and a 1: 3 in friendly matches)
  •  Scotland : European Championship group game 1992 (only loss to Scotland, as CIS)

All EM games
No.	date	Result	opponent		venue	occasion	Remarks
01	0July 6, 1960	3-0	Czechoslovakia	*	Marseille ( FRA )	Semifinals
02	July 10, 1960	2: 1 a.d.	Yugoslavia	*	Paris ( FRA )	final	European Championship title for the USSR first game against Yugoslavia
03	June 17, 1964	3-0	Denmark	*	Barcelona ( ESP )	Semifinals
04th	June 21, 1964	1: 2	Spain	A.	Madrid ( ESP )	final	first game against Spain, last game in Konstantin Beskow's first term
05	05th June 1968	0: 0 a.d.	Italy	A.	Naples ( ITA )	Semifinals	Italy moved into the final by a coin toss decision.
06th	0June 8, 1968	0: 2	England	*	Rome ( ITA )	3rd place match
07th	June 14, 1972	1-0	Hungary	*	Brussels ( BEL )	Semifinals
08th	June 18, 1972	0: 3	BR Germany	*	Brussels ( BEL )	final	Last game in Alexander Ponomarev's second term
09	June 12, 1988	1-0	Netherlands	*	Cologne ( GER )	Group game
10	June 15, 1988	1: 1	Ireland	*	Hanover ( GER )	Group game
11	June 18, 1988	3: 1	England	*	Frankfurt am Main ( GER )	Group game
12	June 22, 1988	2-0	Italy	*	Stuttgart ( GER )	Semifinals
13	June 25, 1988	0: 2	Netherlands	*	Munich ( GER )	final	Last game in Valery Lobanovsky's fourth term
14th	June 12, 1992	1: 1	Germany	*	Norrkoping ( SWE )	Group game
15th	June 15, 1992	0-0	Netherlands	*	Gothenburg ( SWE )	Group game
16	June 18, 1992	0: 3	Scotland	*	Norrkoping ( SWE )	Group game	last game as CIS , last game in Anatoly Byschowez's first term

See also

• National football team of the USSR at world championships

Individual evidence

1. ↑ USSR 3-1 Hungary
2. ↑ USSR 3-0 Hungary
3. ↑ This account of what happened comes from the referee in an interview with 11Freunde magazine , in the UEFA match report it was the two captains who took part in the coin toss with their supervisors in the dressing room and UEFA names Albert Schesternjow as captain in the match schedule .
4. ^ Dietrich Schulze-Marmeling: The history of the European football championship, Verlag Die Werkstatt, ISBN 978-3-89533-553-2
5. ↑ Portugal 1-0 USSR
6. ↑ http://www.fussballdaten.de/em/1972/endrunde/halbfinale/russland-ungarn/
7. ↑ http://www.rsssf.com/tables/72e.html
8. ↑ 11freunde.de: When Italy was still lucky - "It must never happen again" Article from June 26, 2008