Answers: UEFA European Football Championship

I had published a quiz on the AFC Asian Cup football tournament earlier this year here and it’s now Europe’s turn.

Answers

1) He led his team to victory in the inaugural edition of what was initially known as the European Nations' Cup in 1960. He is the only goalkeeper to be awarded the Ballon d'Or till date. Who and which country?

Lev Yashin, Soviet Union.

2) The coaches of five of the 24 teams at Euro 2024 are from one country. Which country? (it’s beaten the Netherlands’ mark of three coaches out of 16 teams at Euro 2008)

Italy. More here.

3) Who controversially commented on the French football team during Euro 1996 that it was “artificial to bring players from abroad and call them the French team”? The racial fault lines highlighted in the remarks continue to this day.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, then leader of the far-right National Front. More here and here. A multicultural French team won the men’s World Cup in 1998 at home and followed it up with the Euro 2000 trophy. Guadeloupe-born Lilian Thuram, a prominent figure in the 1998 World Cup winning team became an anti-racism activist and author. His son Marcus Thuram, a member of the French team in Euro 2024, urged voters to reject the far-right in parliamentary elections. The next day, star forward Kylian Mbappe backed Marcus Thuram, calling for a vote against “extremes”. The far-right was thwarted by tactical voting in the second round of parliamentary elections and one headline read ‘Marine Le Pen: 0. Kylian Mbappé: 1’.

4) Something happened for the first time at an international title contest in football at the 1976 European Championship Final. What?

Penalty shootout to decide the winner. Czechoslovakia overcame West Germany in the shootout after a 2-2 stalemate.

5) The winning shot in the 1976 final marked the birth of a new scoring tactic. The method is named after the scorer from Czechoslovakia, Antonin ————. Lionel Messi tried this tactic in the recent Copa America against Ecuador but missed. What is the tactic named after the player from Czechoslovakia known as?)

Panenka penalty named after Antonin Panenka. More here and here.

6) Euro 1996 was the first major international tournament whose final was decided by a new format, which was since abandoned. Which format? (Hint: goal by Oliver Bierhoff)

Golden goal. If a team scored during extra time the game was over immediately. Oliver Bierhoff first equalised for Germany against the Czech Republic after coming to the field as a substitute in the second half. He went on to score the deciding golden goal in extra time. More here and here. France beat Italy to win the Euro 2000 trophy thanks to a golden goal in extra time.

The ‘silver goal’ replaced the golden goal in 2003. If a team scored during the first 15 minutes of extra time, the game would go on until the end of the 15-minute period. If a team was in the lead at the end of 15 minutes, they would be the winner. It was scrapped by the sport’s rule-maker International Football Association Board in February 2004. But the silver goal system was used one final time in Euro 2004. It came under criticism after the Czech Republic lost in the semifinal to eventual winner Greece.

7) Which country made it to the Euros for the first time in 2024?

Georgia. The country shocked Portugal 2-0 to make it to the knockout stages in its first major international tournament. It lost to Spain in the round of 16.

8) Who scored his first international goal in Euro 2004 against Greece? His team lost that game 2-1 and Greece went on to become the surprise winner of the tournament.

Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese star is the most capped player in men’s international football as well as the top scorer among men (Canada’s Christine Sinclair is the top goal-scorer in international football). Ronaldo became the first player to take part in six Euros in 2024. He captained the Portugal side that won Euro 2016 though injury forced him out early on in the final.

9) Which country hosted Euro 2012 along with Poland?

Ukraine. European politicians largely boycotted the matches in Ukraine over the jailing of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko over corruption charges. A western-friendly government was in power in Ukraine in 2007 when the joint bid with Poland was chosen for Euro 2012. By 2012, pro-Russia president Viktor Yanukovych was in charge.

10) Why did Russia object to Ukraine’s football kit for Euro 2020?

The Ukraine team’s jersey had a map of Ukraine including Crimea which Russia annexed in 2014. UEFA asked Ukraine to remove one of the slogans on the shirt but allowed the map to be retained.

More about Ukraine in my earlier quiz from 2022 below.

11) Greece had demanded that another country replace its jersey for Euro 2020, arguing that it violated the terms of a treaty with Athens. UEFA rejected Greece’s contention. Which country? (the 2020 edition marked its first European Championship appearance)

North Macedonia. Under a treaty signed with Greece in 2018, the Republic of Macedonia changed its name to Republic of North Macedonia.

12) Country X found a place in a European Championship in the 1990s only because country Y, which had qualified was thrown out even as war was breaking it up. X went on to win the tournament in a major surprise. Name X and Y.

X is Denmark, the winner of Euro 1992. Denmark made it only because Yugoslavia (Y) were thrown out ten days before the tournament because of the civil war that broke up the country.

13) He led his country to its first major football trophy at the Euros in the 1980s. He scored nine goals including two hat-tricks (at least one goal in all five games). Who and which country? (Cristiano Ronaldo surpassed him in the total number of goals scored at the Euros in the 2020 edition, but the Portuguese star needed five Euros to reach that mark)

Michel Platini led France to victory in Euro 1984. More here.

14) Who scored two goals to set up Italy’s victory over Germany in the Euro 2012 semifinals?

Mario Balotelli. Born to Ghanaian parents in Italy, he was informally adopted by a local family following health complications at the age of three. More here, here and here.

15) Football players George ——- and Herman ———-left what was then a South American colony of a European power on the same ship in 1957. They settled as immigrants in the colonising country. Their sons were key to this European country’s first major football triumph at the Euros. One of them was the team captain. Name the two players, the European country, and the South American country of the players’ heritage.

Ruud Gullit was the captain and Frank Rijkaard was a key defender in the Netherlands team that won Euro 1988, which is still the country’s only major football title. The South American country to which several Dutch players trace their roots is Suriname, a Dutch colony from 1667 until independence in 1975. Other players with Surinamese roots include Patrick Kluivert, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf and 2022 World Cup team captain Virgil van Dijk. More here and here. The Dutch team during Euro 1996 was undermined by racial tensions. More here and here.

Suriname is ranked 140 by FIFA and made it to the regional Concacaf Gold Cup for the first time only in 2021.

16) In March 2024 the German football team announced it was ending a long-standing sponsorship deal dating back to the 1950s. It is switching to a rival company from 2027 and Euro 2024 will be the last European Championship with the outgoing sponsor. (hint: the outgoing sponsor’s product had an important role in Germany’s surprise win in the 1954 World Cup final). Name the two companies involved.

Nike is replacing Adidas. More here, here and here. Adidas’ football boots with screw-in studs played a crucial role in West Germany’s greatest football triumph in the 1954 World Cup final against the favoured ‘Magic Magyars’ of Hungary on a rain-soaked ground.

17) This Euro 2024 participant’s away kit is inspired by a widely-known comic strip character. (The author of the cartoon series is from the country). Name the country and the comic strip.

Belgium, Tintin. My earlier quiz on Tintin below.

18) This country played its ‘home’ games of the Euro 2024 qualifiers in Hungary. It crashed out of the qualifiers with a 4-1 loss to Iceland in Budapest. Iceland’s Norwegian coach said before the match that he was hesitant to play against this country. Which country?

Israel.

You can read the answers to my football-themed quizzes during the 2022 World Cup here, here and here.