European Football Championship 1968

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The third tournament for the Henri Delaunay Cup was the first official European Football Championship. It was held as a semi-final final from 5 to 10 June 1968. While the previous competitions of 1960 and 1964 were still called the European Nations Cup, in 1968 the term European Championship was first used. Since the number of tournaments is often equated with the number of European championships in the press today, this tournament is also called the third European championship.

For the first time, all major European football nations participated in the qualifying rounds. The draw took place on 23 February 1966 in the Zurich Zunfthaus “Zum Rüden”. Iceland had not reported and Malta had withdrawn its nomination from the 33 Member States of UEFA, so that seven groups of four and one group of three were drawn to identify the eight quarter-finalists; the dates for the back and forth games were 1 August 1966 to 28 February 1968. The only exception was Group 4 with only three participants, with the DFB team of the Federal Republic of Germany meeting Yugoslavia and Albania. Only the winners qualified for the quarter-final round.

In the quarterfinal, which was held as a round back and forth among two group winners, four teams qualified. Among these, Italy was chosen as the host country for the finals.

Qualification of German speaking teams

Germany
The national team of the Federal Republic of Germany played in qualifying group 4 against Yugoslavia and Albania. It was the only qualifying group in which only three teams were represented. There were only four games to play. Germany and Yugoslavia won each other’s home games and, as expected, their home games against Albania. After the Yugoslavs were victorious in their neighboring country, the German team needed in the last game on the 17th. December 1967 also a victory in the “football dwarf” Albania, to qualify for the quarterfinals due to the better goal ratio (9:2 against 8:3 of Yugoslavia). The team, which had started with Günter Netzer and Wolfgang Overath, did not go beyond a 0-0 in Tirana and retired. The game was also called the disgrace of Tirana.

GDR
The GDR national team played in Group 5 against Hungary, the Netherlands and Denmark. She was able to win any of her home games, but lost all but one 1:1 in Denmark. As a group second behind Hungary, she was not qualified.

Austria
Austria played in Group 3 against the Soviet Union, Greece and Finland. In this group, the Soviet Union marched easily through the qualification, but it had to bow in Austria with 0:1. Austria was third behind Griechenl after two wins and two draws