Euro 1976, Yugoslavia
The qualification round for the 1976 European Championship again had 32 teams attempting to qualify for the finals. The four teams that made it to the finals were; Holland, West Germany, Yugoslavia and the host nation Czechoslovakia.
The tournament entered the record books as being the first and to date only European finals that had all of the matches decided after extra time, either by way of penalties or by goals scored.
1976 Final
The two teams that faced each other in the final of the 1976 European Championships were Czechoslovakia who beat Holland 3-2 after extra time. They were joined by West Germany who beat Yugoslavia 4-2 after extra time in which Muller scored a hat trick.
The final took place at the Crvena Zvezda Stadium in Belgrade and was watched by a crowd in excess of 30,000. It look as if the hosts were going to clinch the title as they were wining 2-1 after three first half goals, but in the 89th minute Holzenbein equalised for West Germany to force the match into extra time.
At the end of 120 minutes of play the score was still 2-2, but instead of replaying the match as was done in the Euro 1968. The game was instead settled by a penalty shoot with the hosts emerging victorious winning 5-3.
Goal scorers of the tournament
Euro 1976 had the most goals scored to date in the Championship with a total of 19 goals, this gave the tournament a new record of 4.75 goals per game.
Top Goal Scorer
The top goal scorer was awarded to Dieter Muller of West Germany who matched the previous record of 4 goals in the 1972 finals scored by fellow West German Gerd Muller.
- Dieter Muller (West Germany)
Remaining Goals
With so many other players (11 in total) scoring one goal we will just look at players that scored 2 goals in this tournament.
- Dragan Dzajic
- Ruud Geels
Fastest Goal
There was an improvement in speed over the length that it took to score a goal during Euro 1972. Jan Svehlik scored for Czechoslovakia in the 8th minute of the Czechoslovakia versus West Germany match.
This was still 2 minutes behind the record holder to date; Jesus Maria Pereda, who scored in the 6th minute of a game during the 1964 European Nations Cup.