Lots to identify the finalist, the unusual triumph of the Danes, the abolition of the "golden" and "silver heads", rapid-fire Kirichenko and titled Germans - about this and not only in our material. The history of the EuroCup football championship knows many interesting facts that gave the tournament all sorts of shades. There were curious moments, significant changes in the regulations, an unusual kind of event. Your attention - a dozen of the most delicious, in our opinion,.

HEADS OR TAILS?

A penalty shoot-out after the end of a draw match, designed to determine the winner, is not welcomed by all football fans. Those who wish to find an alternative are sent to 1968, when the way out of the current stalemate was much more primitive. It was called a lot - to determine the winner, just a coin was tossed. In the semi-finals of that Euro, this coin played for our opponents, the Italians. Around the draw, which was attended by team captains - defenders Albert Shesternev and Giacinto Facchetti, three referees who worked at the match, UEFA representative Augustin Pujol and USSR national team coach Mikhail Yakushin, there were many rumors. Walks even now. For it is still unclear How can you allow such nonsense in the regulations at such a high level? In 1972, instead of drawing lots, post-match penalty kicks were introduced.

NO MATCHES FOR THIRD PLACE

Since 1984, there have been no matches for third place at the European Championships. It seems that few people are worried about this, nostalgic for the battles for bronze. Let's take 2008 as an example. Then the Russian team, like Turkey, became the bronze medalist of the championship. Act at that moment the old rule, and the grandmother would say in two, Russian football players would be able to win their first medals at major international tournaments at the national team level.

RANDOM PARTICIPATION AND EURO WIN

The triumph of the Danish team at the European Championships in 1992 became a real sensation of the tournament. You need to start with the fact that the Danes got into the group stage quite by accident, having learned about their participation in the tournament just a few days before the start of the championship. The thing is that the “Vikings” replaced the Yugoslav national team, which was not allowed to compete for political reasons. Moreover, in Denmark there was no team leader - Mikael Laudrup, who quarreled with the coach. As a result, the Danes gave a surprise by reaching the final and beating the Germans there. This is the first and last major Scandinavian football title to date. By the way, the USSR national team, which won in its qualifying group, was then replaced by the CIS team.

NO TITLE PROTECTION

In the entire history of the European Football Championships, not a single team has yet managed to defend the title of champion (the USSR had a chance in 1964 and the FRG in 1976). So the Spanish national team, in case of victory in Poland and Ukraine, can go down in world football history as the first team to win the Euro twice in a row. TWO HOST COUNTRIES In 2000, for the first time, the European Championship was hosted by two countries at once - Belgium and the Netherlands. Until now, this has not been practiced. In 10 previous cases, the host country of the tournament was exclusively one team. In 2008, the Euro was held on the fields of Austria and Switzerland, and the future will be held in Poland and Ukraine.

MINUS "GOLD" and "SILVER" GOALS

In 2004, it was decided to abolish the so-called golden goal rule, which had previously affected many teams. And then, four years later, the silver goal rule was also abolished. From that moment on, the players had to play a fixed extra time, regardless of the number of goals scored in it. And if it was not possible to identify the winner in overtime, shoot the post-match penalties.

QUICK GOAL KIRICHENKO

Interestingly, the fastest goal in the history of the European Football Championships was scored by Russian Dmitry Kirichenko, which was officially confirmed by UEFA. This momentous event happened at Euro 2004 in Russia's match against Greece (67 seconds), our guys then won with a score of 2:1. The Greeks lost only once - to the team of Georgy Yartsev. Later it became clear that the Russian athletes managed to beat the future European champions. And the Portuguese, who were the hosts of the tournament, lost to Greece twice: in the group stage and in the final.

FIVE JUDGES

Euro 2012 will be the first in the history of the tournament, each match will be monitored by five referees. One chief referee, two side referees and one each on the end lines near the goal. This innovation is intended to prevent an error in controversial episodes, when neither the chief nor the side referees are able to determine whether the ball crossed the goal line. And at major competitions, you always want to avoid even the slightest mistake, and even more episodes related to the correctness of scoring. Six eyes are good, but ten are better.

BEST - PLATINI

The best and most productive striker of the European Football Championships today is still ... That's right, the current UEFA President Michel Platini. So far, no one can even repeat the mark of nine goals scored in the Euro. Englishman Alan Shearer was close to this, he scored seven goals.

AND THE MOST TITLED ARE THE GERMANS

The most titled European team is Germany. The Germans won the championship 3 times and 3 more were finalists. On the second line is the Spanish team, which won the championship 2 times and was a finalist 1 time. The Frenchmen close the honorary three of the best, they became champions twice.