The 1968 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was hosted and won by Italy. This was the third UEFA European Championship, an event held every four years and organised by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 5 and 10 June 1968.

It was in this year that the tournament changed its name from the "European Nations' Cup" to the "European Championship". There were also some changes in the tournament's qualifying structure, with the two-legged home-and-away knock-out stage being replaced by a group phase.

Four countries played in the final tournament, which consisted of the semi-finals, a third place play-off, and the final. The host nation for the finals was selected from the four qualified nations.

Qualification

The qualification competition was played in two stages: a group stage (taking place from 1966 until 1968) and the quarter-finals (played in 1968). There were seven groups of four teams and one of three, with matches played in a home-and-away basis. The eight group winners qualified for the quarter-finals, which were played in two legs, home and away. The winners of the quarter-finals went through to the final tournament.

This tournament remains, to this day, the only World Cup or European Championship in which a West German or unified German team was eliminated in the qualifying stages. (Germany did not enter the 1930 FIFA World Cup; West Germany was barred from the 1950 World Cup and, for unknown reasons, did not enter the qualifying stages of UEFA Euro 1960 or 1964.)

Qualified teams

Venues

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|-

! rowspan="4" |

! Rome

! Naples

! Florence

|-

| Stadio Olimpico

| Stadio San Paolo

| Stadio Comunale

|-

| Capacity: 80,000

| Capacity: 82,000

| Capacity: 52,000

|-

| frameless|237x237px

| frameless|181x181px

| frameless|300x300px

|}

Squads

Match officials

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Country

! Referee

|-

| Switzerland

|Gottfried Dienst

|-

| Spain

|José María Ortiz de Mendíbil

|-

| West Germany

|Kurt Tschenscher

|-

| Hungary

|István Zsolt

|}

Final tournament

thumb|300px|1968 UEFA European Football Championship finalists

In all matches but the final, extra time and a coin toss were used to decide the winner if necessary. If the final remained level after extra time, a replay would be used to determine the winner. A coin toss was used in the semi-final between Italy and the Soviet Union.

All times are local, CEST (UTC+2).

Bracket

Semi-finals

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Third place play-off

Final

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Statistics

Goalscorers

Awards

;UEFA Team of the Tournament

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! style="width:25%;" | Goalkeeper

! style="width:25%;" | Defenders

! style="width:25%;" | Midfielders

! style="width:25%;" | Forwards

|- style="vertical-align:top;"

| Dino Zoff

| Bobby Moore<br /> Giacinto Facchetti<br /> Albert Shesternyov<br /> Mirsad Fazlagić

| Angelo Domenghini<br /> Sandro Mazzola<br /> Ivica Osim

| Geoff Hurst<br /> Gigi Riva<br /> Dragan Džajić

|}

References

  • UEFA Euro 1968 at UEFA.com