UEFA EURO 1980 (champions - West Germany)
West Germany beat Belgium 2-1 at Rome's Stadio Olimpico on 22 June 1980 for their second European title, Horst Hrubesch scoring both - his first goals in international football - with the winner in the closing seconds. It was the first eight-team EURO and staged the last third-place play-off in the competition's history.
Why this wins its question: UEFA and the man who scored it disagree about the winning goal of a European Championship final - cross or corner, keeper coming out or staying on his line - and both versions sit on the same UEFA page without either acknowledging the other. That is stated here rather than resolved by preference. The edition also anchors two structural facts the summaries skip: it was the first eight-team EURO and the last with a third-place play-off, which ended 9-8 on penalties.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
West Germany beat Belgium 2-1 in the EURO 1980 final at Rome's Stadio Olimpico on 22 June 1980 for their second European Championship, Horst Hrubesch scoring both goals - the first he had ever scored in international football.
Bernd Schuster, the 20-year-old playmaker, made the opener on ten minutes: he ran diagonally from right to left, traded passes with Klaus Allofs and chipped the ball for Hrubesch to finish on the run. Rene Vandereycken equalised from the penalty spot on 75 minutes, after Uli Stielike's trip on Francois Van der Elst was judged to have happened inside the area.
Hrubesch headed the winner with seconds remaining, but UEFA's account and Hrubesch's own do not match. UEFA's match report and its tournament guide both describe a Karl-Heinz Rummenigge cross that Jean-Marie Pfaff came out to meet and was beaten to at the near post; Hrubesch, quoted on the same report page, calls it a prepared Rummenigge corner from the left taken on a pre-arranged signal, and says Pfaff made the mistake of staying on his line.
Hrubesch was in the squad only because Klaus Fischer of Schalke had broken his leg, and was regarded by some as a one-trick pony. Of the opening goal he said it came "for once with the foot and not the head", and he recalled being so tired after the game, on a very hot day, that lifting the trophy was hard.
EURO 1980 was the first eight-team final tournament, UEFA having doubled the field from four after 1976. The eight were split into two groups, the group winners advancing directly to the final and the runners-up contesting a third-place play-off; for the first time the hosts, Italy, qualified automatically. It ran from 11 to 22 June 1980 across four stadiums.
It also staged the last third-place play-off in EURO history: Czechoslovakia beat Italy 9-8 on penalties in Naples after a 1-1 draw, Fulvio Collovati missing after 17 successful kicks.
Klaus Allofs was top scorer with three goals, the third West German in succession to lead a EURO after Gerd Muller in 1972 and Dieter Muller in 1976. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge won the 1980 Ballon d'Or with Schuster runner-up, and had scored the tournament's opening goal, a header just before the hour against Czechoslovakia. West Germany's run of three consecutive EURO finals, from 1972, remains unmatched.
Greece reached their first major final tournament in 1980, having finished above Hungary and previous winners the Soviet Union in qualifying, and did not appear at another EURO until the one they won, in 2004.