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Euro 2000 Championships |
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| The 2000 UEFA European Championship, or Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and organized by UEFA, football's governing body in Europe. The finals of Euro 2000 were co-hosted (the first time this happened) by Belgium and the Netherlands between June 10 and July 2, 2000. The final tournament was contested by 16 nations. |
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| Qualification for the tournament took place throughout 1998 and 1999. Forty-nine teams were divided into nine groups and each played the others in their group, on a home-and-away basis. The winner of each group and the best runner-up qualified automatically for the final tournament. The eight other runners-up played an additional set of playoff matches to determine the last four qualifiers. Belgium and the Netherlands automatically qualified for the tournament as co-hosts. |
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| With the exception of the national teams of the hosts, Belgium and the Netherlands, the finalists had to go through a qualifying round to reach the final stage. Belgium, however, had a surprise exit in the group stage, winning the tournament's first game against Sweden but losing to Turkey and Italy. Italy also eliminated co-host and favorites Netherlands in the semi-finals, despite going down to ten men and facing two Penalty kicks. Francesco Toldo making two saves in the shootout (in addition to his penalty save in regulation time) to carry the Italians to the final. |
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| One of the biggest surprises of the tournament was Portugal, winning their group with three wins, including a 3-0 win against Germany. They reached the semi-finals, when they lost in extra-time to France after Zinedine Zidane converted a penalty kick. Several Portuguese players challenged the awarding of the penalty and were given lengthy suspensions for shoving the referee. The Euro 2000 winner was France, who defeated Italy 2-1 in the final after a golden goal by France's David Trézéguet. |
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| Information supplied by Wikipedia |
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