UEFA Euro 1984 Group 1

Updated on Dec 28, 2023

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Group 1 of UEFA Euro 1984 was one of only two groups in the final tournament's initial group stage. It began on 12 June and was completed on 19 June. The group consisted of hosts France, Belgium, Denmark, and Yugoslavia.

Teams

France were the favourites of English bookmakers to win the tournament with odds of 5/8. Expectations at home were sky-high following the side's brilliant display and fourth-place finish at the 1982 World Cup. Les Bleus of 1984 seemed even stronger, having remedied many of the weaknesses that had dogged them at the World Cup. In Joël Bats, France had found at long last a first-class goalkeeper. The shaky dual-sweeper central defence of 1982 had made way for a rock-solid conventional setup around centre-back Yvon Le Roux and sweeper Patrick Battiston. The midfield, where gritty defensive upstart Luis Fernández had joined 1982 veterans Jean Tigana, Alain Giresse, and Michel Platini in the so-called carré magique ("magic square"), was arguably the best in the world. In offense, manager Michel Hidalgo had worked around the lack of a world-class striker by designing a flexible 4–4–2 system that enabled Platini, then at the zenith of his footballing abilities, to switch from playmaker to centre-forward at short notice. The only major unknown was how the team would fare under the pressure of competition, as it had been exempted from the qualifying round as the host nation.

Belgium was a possible title contender with odds of 7/1. The surprise finalists of Euro 1980 and second-round participants at the 1982 World Cup had matured into a very solid side well used to the pressure and rigors of final-round football and built around a backbone of world-class players such as goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff, midfielder Enzo Scifo, or strikers Erwin Vandenbergh and Jan Ceulemans. The team had proven its mettle in past Euro and World Cup qualifying campaigns and was a very tough opponent for anyone on any given day. One crucial caveat was the absence from the squad of several major players of the defense side, like Eric Gerets or Walter Meeuws, who was sidelined due to suspension by Belgium FA after a corruption scandal with Standard of Liège. On other side full back Michel Renquin reject the selection because before it he has accepted obligations with its club of Servette Geneve. Federal coach Guy Thys called very young player with low number of caps as offensive midfielder Enzo Scifo (from Italian roots, he was naturalized just in time for the Finals), or also central defender Georges Grün.

Denmark celebrated its first appearance at a major tournament in decades yet were heavily tipped as a dark horse to win the Euro (with odds of 8/1) due to an impressive qualifying campaign in which they had edged out England, winning 1–0 at Wembley in the process. Manager Sepp Piontek's compact, athletic side relied on experienced professionals from some of the best European leagues of the time (Belgium, West Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy), had no obvious weakness, and could rely on the world-class individual talent of Preben Elkjaer Larsen, Frank Arnesen, Michael Laudrup, or Søren Lerby to make the difference.

Yugoslavia came in as perennial underachievers with odds of 16/1. As usual, the Balkan side boasted a wealth of individual talent (Katanec, Sušić, Baždarević, Zl. Vujović, Hadžibegić, "Piksi" Stojković- who was appearing in his first tournament with the national team-) that could make many a rival drool with envy. The major unknown was whether manager Todor Veselinović could meld his stars into a cohesive team, a problem that had caused the undoing of nearly every Yugoslavia team in past final rounds. Goalkeeping appeared to be a weak spot. There was not a Vladimir Beara, an Enver Maric or a Milutin Soskic in this team.

References

UEFA Euro 1984 Group 1 Wikipedia

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