UEFA EURO 1984 (champions - France)
France beat Spain 2-0 at the Parc des Princes on 27 June 1984 for their first official title in any team sport. Michel Platini's ninth goal of the finals - still the competition record, and more than any other nation scored in the whole tournament - went in when Luis Arconada let a modest free-kick creep out of his hands and over the line.
Why this wins its question: The Arconada goal is usually reduced to "the goalkeeper let it through"; UEFA's report gives the sequence, including that Platini's free-kick was a poor one that went almost straight at him. It also carries two figures that survive nowhere else - Platini alone outscored every other nation's entire tournament, and Bellone's chip was the only one of France's 14 goals scored by a striker - and records that Tigana, not Platini, was player of the tournament. The guide's self-contradiction about which edition first had eight teams is stated rather than inherited.
Claims
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France beat Spain 2-0 in the EURO 1984 final at Paris's Parc des Princes on 27 June 1984, and remain the only host nation to win the European Championship since the finals were expanded in 1980.
The opening goal came early in the second half, after Salva was penalised for fouling Bernard Lacombe just outside the penalty area. Michel Platini's free-kick was not one of his best, sweeping low around the wall almost into Luis Arconada's hands; the Spain goalkeeper dropped to collect it, pulled it in to his body, and let it creep out and over the line as he tried to claw it back.
It was Platini's ninth goal of the finals, a competition record that still stands - no other player has scored more than six - and nine of France's 14 goals at the tournament. UEFA's match report notes that no other team scored as many at the finals as Platini managed by himself.
Yvon Le Roux was sent off five minutes from time and France still scored again: Jean Tigana, named player of the tournament despite Platini's goals, sent Bruno Bellone through to chip Arconada. It was the only one of France's 14 goals scored by a striker.
Platini's nine came from the winner against Denmark in the opening game - also the first goal of the tournament, 78 minutes in - perfect hat-tricks in back-to-back wins over Belgium and Yugoslavia, a goal in the semi-final against Portugal and one in the final. He was the only foreign-based player in the France squad, then at Juventus.
France played 12 internationals in the 1984 calendar year and won all 12. Michel Hidalgo coached France and Miguel Munoz coached Spain; Platini and Arconada were the captains, and Vojtech Christov of Czechoslovakia refereed the final.
UEFA's 1984 tournament guide contradicts itself on the format's history: its venues section calls 1984 "the first eight-team final tournament", while the same page dates the expansion of the finals to 1980 and describes 1984 as the second edition to feature a group stage. UEFA's 1980 guide settles it, stating three separate times that 1980 was the first EURO with eight teams, so the 1984 page's venues line is simply wrong. What 1984 was first for is having no third-place play-off at all.