When you think about the chanting of the thousands of fans on the stadiums, the millions watching at home, coffee shops, office, or anywhere, you will affirm that football has a sport that is celebrated globally. It just keeps getting better in a sport like a football, several teams, leagues, and tournaments to keep you thrilled. Yes, there are several tournaments, but there are just two tournaments that pull spectators globally.
These two tournaments are the FIFA World Cup and the European Championship. The later pulls more coward, has the 2016 FIFA World Cup recorded more than 300 million viewers globally. But, the crux will be on the UEFA European Football Championship.
It is also popularly known as the European Championship, a tournament that is hosted every four years. The year 1960 was when the tournament was inaugurated with the name European Nations’ Cup but has time went on, the name was changed to UEFA European Football Championship. For every tournament that has been played, the format used is “UEFA Euro (year), which is still the naming method to date.
A total of 24 countries play in the UEFA European Championship. But, for the tournament, countries pass through a qualifying process except for the host nations who qualify automatically. The nation that claims the title will be allowed to compete in the FIFA Confederation Cup the following year.
A total of 15 UEFA European Championship had been hosted since it was inaugurated in 1960, among which ten nations have bagged the victory. A few had won the championship more than once; another even won the tournament twice in a roll while several nations had only won it once.
Here is a better insight. Spain and Germany had won the cup three times; except that Spain won the cup twice in a roll when there claimed the victory in 2008 and bagged another in 2012. On the other hand, France had claimed victory twice while other countries like Italy, Denmark, Netherland, Soviet Union, Greece, Czechoslovakia, and Portugal had won the title once.
Portugal is the current defending champion of the UEFA European Championship after defecting their host France in the 2016 tournament 1-0 in Stade de France. It was a dogged clash between the two teams during the 2016 finals, to the extent that Portugal’s striker Christiano Rolando had to be substituted with Quaresma after a serious tackle for the host defender in the 25 minutes. Portugal claimed the victory when Eder found the back of the net during the first half of extra time.