The French rode their luck, especially in the Rotterdam Final where it took a last-gasp injury time goal to keep them in the match against Dino Zoff's Italy.

After a rather dull first period in which Italy seemed reluctant to venture out of their own half, the game opened up after the break as the Azzurri sensed their chance for glory.

Italy brought on Alessandro Del Piero early in the second half and they soon took the lead. Totti skilfully fed Pessotto on the right and his controlled cross evaded the attention of Desailly and fell for Marco Delvecchio, who hit a volley into the net from close range.

Suddenly the Italians were on song and another chance was created when Totti put Del Piero in the clear. 

Racing clear of the defence, it looked like the Juve forward was going to put Italy two goals to the good but unfortunately he put the ball wide of the goal. 

That miss gave France hope and they started to come back. Toldo was forced to make a couple of good saves from Sylvain Wiltord and Thierry Henry and Zidane started to dictate the pace of the game.

The Italians, however, remained dangerous on the counter and on 84 minutes they should have made the game safe when Del Piero was sent through again. This time he hit a tame shot which Barthez in the French goal saved easily.

With the confidence that being world champions often affords, France started to up the pressure on the normally efficient and reliable Italian defence.

After successfully keeping them out for a dogged five minutes, the Italians finally relented, thus beginning an extraordinary end to an extraordinary competition.

Four minutes into injury time, Barthez pumped a long kick upfield and found the head of David Trezeguet. The substitute headed the ball into the area where Wiltord struck the ball back across goal. 

The shot looked to be a tame one, especially as Toldo - so outstanding throughout the competition - seemed to be in the perfect position to keep out any effort from what was a tight angle.

But for once the Fiorentina man was slow to react and the ball slipped under his body, bringing France back from the abyss. Now they were level.

Italy were killed off thirteen minutes into extra time, when Fabio Cannavaro's weak header fell to Robert Pires who was free on the left. His cross caught the Italians square, the ball was only half-cleared and David Trezeguet hit a stupendous, thumping volley soaring high into the net.

France had finished as runners-up to the Dutch in their group and therefore had the harder quarter-final, against Spain.

Zinedine Zidane's free-kick gave France the lead just after the half-hour, but the lead lasted just eight minutes. Liliam Thuram fouled Munitis in the area and Gaizka Mendietta stroked home the penalty.

A thrilling first half ended in France's favour when Youri Djorkaeff broke clear and knocked a low shot beyond Canizares. Then, in the last minute of time and France on the verge of victory, the Spanish were awarded a penalty for a dubious foul by Barthez on Aberlardo.

Real Madrid golden boy Raul took the penalty but shot horribly over the bar, sending France into the semi-finals to meet Portugal.

The Portuguese, inspired by Luis Figo, were quarter-final victors over surprise qualifiers Turkey and were to that point the most impressive unit in the Championship.

After 19 minutes Nuno Gomes, one of the real finds of Euro 2000, struck a snapshot curling effort past Fabian Barthez and France were on the ropes. 

However, after half-time they equalised through Arsenal's Thierry Henry, before the game slowed down and drifted into extra time.

Not much happened in the extra half-hour until everything exploded into life in the final five minutes.

Abel Xavier was judged to have handled the ball by the post and after the furore which followed, Zidane converted the spot-kick.

Having got past Romania 2-0 in the quarter-finals with goals from Totti and Inzaghi, Italy took on a buoyant Holland in the semis after the Dutch had thrashed Yugoslavia 6-1 in a display worthy of their 1974 and 1988 predecessors.

A Holland-Italy semi whet many an appetite and even though the game finished 0-0, it was not short of incident.

Having witnessed the Dutch drubbing of the Yugoslavs, the match started predictably as Italy sat back and defended against the awesome attacking potential of Bergkamp, Kluivert, Overmars and Zenden.

Early on, Gianluca Zambrotta was sent off after two awful fouls on Zenden before, on 39 minutes, Holland were awarded a penalty. However, Toldo brilliantly saved Frank de Boer's effort to start what turned out to be a night of horrors for the sea of Oranje fans.

In what was a completely one-sided second-half, the hosts were given another penalty when Edgar Davids' charge into the area was stopped illegally by Mark Iuliano. The Juve defender avoided a red card, Kluivert stepped up to take the spot-kick but the ball struck the left-hand post of Toldo's goal.

When the contest went to a shoot-out, you knew that the poor hosts never stood a chance.

Frank de Boer and Jaap Stam missed the first two Dutch kicks while the Italians scored their first three. Then Kluivert scored and gave some hope to Holland, which was reinforced when Paolo Maldini missed for Italy. Finally, though, Toldo saved from Bosvelt and Italy went through to the Final.

England got off to a great start in their opening Group A match with Portugal. After just three minutes, David Beckham was allowed far too much time and space on the right and he swung in a cross that was headed home by Paul Scholes.

Then a good piece of skill by Michael Owen gave another crossing opportunity tor Beckham, which this time was converted by Real Madrid midfielder Steve McManaman.

Two-nil up, eighteen minutes played. However England never looked comfortable and they struggled to keep possesion of the ball for any meaningful length of time.

A wonderful long-range effort from Luis Figo quickly got the Portuguese back in it and then a well-judged glancing header from Joao Pinto levelled things up before half-time.

On the hour Numo Gomes sped onto a through-ball from Rui Costa, got ahead of Tony Adams and steered the ball past David Seaman. The match finished 3-2 and gave the Portuguese a well-deserved win.

In Charleroi, victory against Germany gave England hope of qualification for the quarter-finals. The only goal of the game came eight minutes after half-time when England were awarded a free-kick deep on the right.

Beckham's cross was allowed to bounce, and the ball found its way past three defenders and Owen before dropping on the head of Alan Shearer, who stooped to steer it past the despairing Oliver Kahn.

So attention turned to the final group game against Romania, where a draw would see England through to a quarter-final against Italy. The match got off to a bad start when, after 20 minutes, Christian Chivu's cross was wickedly deflected, looping over stand-in 'keeper Nigel Martyn and falling inside the far post. Romania were ahead.

England were slow to get into the game and were struggling to retain anything like enough possession to create chances to equalise. But then midfield collosus Paul Ince was fouled in the area and Shearer stepped up to gratefully dispatch the penalty to level things up.

Five minutes later Owen was put clear by Scholes and he went round 'keeper Bogdan Stelea, evading the 'keeper's dangerously high challenge, to score his first goal of the tournament.

Despite being a goal up at half- time, England weren't playing with any sort of authority and their weaknesses at the back were exposed when Daniel Munteanu equalised following a poor punched clearance from Martyn.

England retreated into their shell and seemed intent to settle for a draw and ride out time.  Keegan's men managed to survive the pressure that the Romanians applied until two minutes from time, when Phil Neville made an ill-judged tackle in the box. The penalty was stroked home by Ganea  and England were out.

Top Scorers

Player

Country

No. Goals

Patrick Kluivert

Holland

5

Savo Milosevic

Yugoslavia

5

Nuno Gomes

Portugal

4

Sergio Conceicao

Portugal

3

Zlatko Zahovic

Slovenia

3

Thierry Henry

France

3


Tournament Statistics

2000 European Championship - Finals statistics
2000 European Championship - Qualifying statistics