European Championship History - 1992 Sweden

The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship finals tournament was hosted by Sweden between the 10th and 26th of June, and was the ninth European Football Championship. Euro 1992 was the first major football tournament to be hosted by Sweden since the 1958 World Cup 34 years earlier.

Group Stages

Group A featured tournament hosts Sweden, France, England and rank outsiders Denmark who had only qualified at the last minute due to Yugoslavia's disqualification from the tournament. Denmark shocked people by securing second place behind the hosts and ahead of England and France. A dramatic 2-1 win over France sent the Danes through.

Defending champions the Netherlands came out on top of Group B. The Dutch defeated the newly reformed German national side and finished above them in the group. In third place were Scotland, while the USSR who had qualified shortly before the break-up of the country, took part as the Commonwealth of Independent States and finished bottom of the group.

Semi-finals

The first semi-final fixture saw Germany defeat the hosts Sweden 3-2. A late goal from Karl-Heinz Riedle gave the Germans a 3-1 lead before Kennet Andersson pulled one back, but it was too late and Sweden were eliminated.

Denmark shocked the continent when Peter Schmeichel saved Marco van Basten's penalty in the shoot-out, after the two sides had drawn 2-2. The Danes progressed to the final following a 5-4 penalty shoot-out win.

The Final

Germany who were the odds on favourites to win faced the tournaments underdogs in front of 37,800 fans in the final in Gothenburg. The reigning World and European champions went 1-0 down to a John Jensen goal in the 19th minute. Kim Vilfort made it 2-0 with just over ten minutes remaining and secured the tournament for Denmark, making it one of the biggest European shocks in history.