European Championships: All-time Records

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The European Championships are rated as one of the best international football tournaments and sporting events in the world. It was originally snubbed by major nations but it is now a highly coveted trophy.

european championships

Here are ten all-time records of the competition:

Most wins

Germany (formerly West Germany) and Spain hold the joint record for most wins in the tournament. West Germany and Germany won the title in 1972, 1980 and 1996. Spain won the title in 1964, 2008 and 2012.

France have two wins which they secured in 1984 and in 2000, after winning the World Cup in 1998.

Most appearances

Germany have qualified for the European Championships more times than any other nation. Russia (formerly Soviet Union and CIS) are one behind with a record of ten qualifications followed by the Netherlands and Spain who are both currently on nine qualifications through to the main tournament.

Top scorers

Frenchman Michel Platini, the current president of UEFA, has scored more goals in this tournament than any other player with a total of nine.

Alan Shearer of England is second on the list with seven goals and six players share the third place with six goals.

Most appearances by player

Eight players have all appeared in four different European Championships which is the current record of most tournament finals played; Lothar Matthaus (Germany), Peter Schmeichel (Denmark), Aron Winter and Edwin van der Sar (Holland), Alessandro del Piero (Italy), Lilian Thuram (France), Olof Mellberg (Sweden) and Iker Casillas (Spain).

Most matches played

Edwin van der Sar of the Netherlands and Lilian Thuram of France both hold the record for the highest number of appearances at the European Championships with 16.

Iker Casillas of Spain heads a list of seven different players who have all played 14 matches at the tournament with some still playing.

Most goals during qualifying

The most goals scored by a player during the qualification stage for the main tournament is held by David Healy of Northern Ireland. Healy scored 13 goals during qualifiers for Euro 2008 including two hat-tricks.

The previous record was held by Davor Suker of Croatia who scored 12 goals during qualifying for Euro 1996.

Quickest goal

Dmitri Kirichenko holds the record for the fastest goal ever scored at the tournament. He scored for Russia after 67 seconds in the Euro 2004 group stage match against Greece. Russia went on and secured a 2-1 win in the game but it was Greece who shocked Europe and the world as they went onto win the tournament.

Most clean sheets

Iker Casillas equalled the record for the most clean sheets during Spain’s triumph in 2012. The successful campaign saw Casillas keep nine clean sheets from 14 matches which beat the previous record held by Edwin van der Sar which was nine clean sheets from 16 matches.

Red cards

There has only ever been one red card shown in the final of a European Championships. It was shown to French defender Yvon Le Roux in the 1984 win over Spain, he was shown a second yellow card with only a few minutes of the match left to go.

The highest number of red cards at a tournament came at Euro 2000 when ten players were sent off altogether.

Penalty shoot-outs

Czechoslovakia won the longest penalty shoot-out in the history of the European Championship. They were playing Italy in the third place play-off match in 1980 and won the match 9-8 on penalties after the game ended 1-1 after normal time. The first eight penalties were all scored.

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