2000 UEFA European Championship

Lore & Background

The finals saw the first major UEFA competition contested in the King Baudouin Stadium (formerly the Heysel Stadium) since the events of the 1985 European Cup final and the Heysel Stadium disaster, with the opening game being played in the rebuilt stadium. With many high scoring games and a positive standard of play, Euro 2000 is often labelled by football writers as one of the greatest international tournaments of all time.

Reader's Guide

Belgium and the Netherlands were selected as co-hosts on 14 July 1995 by the UEFA Executive Committee at a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. Football hooliganism was a significant problem in the Netherlands in the 1990s. Violence did eventually occur during the Euro 2000 finals, albeit not involving the Dutch team. On 17 June, 174 England fans were arrested in Brussels, Belgium, following violence with Germans and local Turkish groups ahead of an England v Germany match.

Belgium had a surprise exit in the group stage. The other co-host and favourite, the Netherlands, progressed as expected from Group D, along with World Cup winners France. France won the tournament, defeating Italy 2–1 in the final with a golden goal by David Trezeguet after equalising with a last-minute goal, and became the first team to win the European championship while being world champion. In Britain, Match of the Day named Stefano Fiore's goal against Belgium the Goal of the Tournament.