Delaunay, secretary of the French Football Federation in the mid-1950s, passed away before the first championship took place but the trophy that they’ll all be playing for in Portugal bears his name to this very day.

Just 17 of the countries affiliated to UEFA applied to enter the inaugural championship, which was played, in honour of the Frenchman, in France. The four qualifiers had a distinctly Eastern European feel and in the final the strong Soviet Union side overcameYugoslavia 2-1 in Paris.

Spain won the second edition of the championship, beating the holders 2-1 in Madrid with Marcelino’s wonderful diving header beating Lev Yashin in the USSR’s goal, and the hosts were again the winners in 1968 when Italy beat Yugoslavia 2-0 in a replay.

The first game between the two sides finished at one apiece, Domerghini equalising Dzajic’s opener in controversial circumstances but in the second match the fresher-looking Italians beat their Yugoslav opponents thanks to first half goals from Riva and Anastasi.

West Germany won their first title in 1972 after beating England and Belgium to reach the final, held in Brussels. There they met the USSR who were by now contesting their third final. Two goals from Gerd Muller and one from Wimmer was enough for Helmut Schoen’s side.

The Germans came close to successfully defending the title four years later but ended up losing on penalties to Czechoslovakia.

Uli Hoeness missed the all-important kick and so it was left to Antonin Panenka to chip the ball past Sepp Maier, thereby giving the Czechs their moment of glory.

The 1980 Finals were the first to resemble those of the more recent past, with eight qualifiers split into two groups of four. West Germany won their group and reached a third consecutive final but more surprisingly Belgium also won theirs to reach their first major final ever.

Though van der Eychen gave the Belgians hope, equalising Horst Hrubesch’s early strike, the tall German forward scored again two minutes from time.

By the time of the 1984 championship, France’s wonderful, free-flowing side were ready for some international success.

Having shown their potential at the 1982 World Cup, the side coached by Michel Hidalgo finally came good as, inspired by the brilliant Michel Platini, they beat Spain 2-0 in the Paris final.

In 1988 Holland had managed to craft together another very good side and, once again led by the legendary Rinus Michels, they won their first international honour after beating the USSR 2-0 in Munich.

There was a surprise four years later as Denmark, who were only invited into the Swedish-hosted tournament because of the political unrest in Yugoslavia, went on to beat Germany 2-0 in the Final.

The 1996 championship, held in England, saw the expansion of the Finals competition to include 16 teams rather than eight, as the tournament increasingly took on the feel of a mini-World Cup.

Germany won their third championship – beating the Czech Republic in the Final, but four years later was a very different story. The Germans looked a bedraggled team as sides such as Portugal and France took the tournament by storm.

Eventually it was Roger Lemerre’s French team that beat Italy in the Final, thereby becoming only the second team to have won the championship more than once.

History of the European Championship

2000 European Championship
1996 European Championship
1992 European Championship
1988 European Championship
1984 European Championship
1980 European Championship
1976 European Championship
1972 European Championship
1968 European Championship
1964 European Championship
1960 European Championship