dot   Home     World     Euro 2008     Euro 2008  
Flag Euro 2008

Euro 2008

Best Euro Group Teams Ever

1980 was an interesting year in sports. The US beat the Soviet Union in the most famous hockey game ever. The Wenzels were dominating the world of competitive skiing, and Björn Borg won both the French Open and Wimbledon. But the most significant sports event of that year from our limited perspective was the 1980 European Championship, the first to include a group stage. Since then, 96 teams have entered the group stage of the Euros, half of which went home straight after.

Here’s a look at the best performances in the history of the group stage.

There are seven sides in Euro history that have come out of the group stage with a full nine points from three wins. Two are from Holland, including this year’s Group C winners, and there are one each from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Croatia and the Czech Republic. If you put all of the group performances into one big league table (which is obviously unfair because some played much harder teams than others), this year’s Dutch team comes out on top with an unrivaled 9 points and +8 goal differential. If we were to consider the strength of each team’s opponents, there would be no question:

Holland 2008 is the best Euro group stage team ever

A bit of a warning for the Oranje hopeful, though. A quick look at the other top sides in the table shows just what a good group stage performance means. Portugal 2000 lost in the semis to France. The Dutch that year lost the other semi to Italy, after their own perfect start. The Czechs in 2004? Same thing again, a loss in the semifinal to Greece.

To make a long story short, every all but one (see comments) perfect group stage performance in the history of the Euros has led to the same two results: a win in the quarters (good news) and a loss in the semifinal round (not so good). This is the first year that three teams go into the quarters all with a perfect three wins, so logic tells us that something has to change. After all, three teams can’t all lose in the semis. But we have to wait and see whether Holland, Spain or Croatia can break the cycle and be the first (in the 16-team era … I’m so completely cheating) to win every match of a European Championship.

Subscribe

 

rss icon UEFA Euro 2008 Championships RSS Feed

Print

Share

Comments
By jonkon | June 19th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Top

how about every Spain side from 1930 to 2008?

Posted from United States United States

By Shazback | June 19th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Top

I must have missed the part where France ‘84 lost in the Semis… All I know is that they won all 3 of their group games (1-0 vs Denmark, 5-0 vs Belgium, 3-2 vs Yougoslavia), topping their group with 9 points, 9 goals scored, 2 goals against (so that’s only one little goal conceded worse than the Dutch of 2008), and they went on to win the semis 3-2 against Portugal, and the final 2-0 against Spain…

Interesting factoid? Platini scored in all 5 games France played that year, and won the trophy on home soil as captain, netting a record 9 goals in the process. Surprisingly, however, he wasn’t selected as best player of the tournament, a distinction that went to Jean Tigana, a team-mate of Platini’s.

Posted from France France

By Ian Rose | June 19th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Top

Shazback …. dammit. It was a typo in the spreadsheet that I was using but I should have double-checked it. You are absolutely right that France 1984 was the only team to ever win out, beating Denmark, Belgium and Yugoslavia in the group stage, then Portugal and Spain to win the whole enchilada.

Platini was a god that tournament. Absolutely amazing.

Good catch, and my apologies for the miss.

Comments are closed

 
 
 

MORE EURO 2008 BLOGS

austria
Austria World Cup Blog
111 articles | 118 comments
 
croatia
Croatia World Cup Blog
200 articles | 1,848 comments
 
czechrepublic
Czech Republic World Cup Blog
196 articles | 321 comments
 
france
France World Cup Blog
820 articles | 10,859 comments
 
germany
Germany World Cup Blog Blog
528 articles | 3,274 comments
 
greece
Greece World Cup Blog
147 articles | 80 comments
 
italy
Italy World Cup Blog
624 articles | 23,788 comments
 
netherlands
Netherlands World Cup Blog
2,091 articles | 31,313 comments
 
poland
Poland World Cup Blog
374 articles | 4,745 comments
 
portugal
Portugal World Cup Blog
462 articles | 7,141 comments
 
romania
Romania World Cup Blog
78 articles | 281 comments
 
russia
Russia World Cup Blog
82 articles | 159 comments
 
spain
Spain World Cup Blog
236 articles | 1,946 comments
 
sweden
Sweden World Cup Blog
151 articles | 319 comments
 
switzerland
Switzerland World Cup Blog
227 articles | 353 comments
 
turkey
Turkey World Cup Blog
40 articles | 296 comments
 
euro2008
UEFA Euro 2008 Championships
546 articles | 7,251 comments
 

CATEGORIES & ARCHIVES

 
 
Closer