The end of 1983 was mostly important for the end of the qualifications for the 1984 European Championship finals. It was quite exciting ending, but, as a whole, the qualifications were rather puzzling. On one hand, some major favourites failed and that put some question marks on those who qualified. It was exciting to see changes and advancement of the underdog. Countries, settled in secondary positions for a long time, were seemingly coming back: Portugal, Romania, to a certain point Spain. On the other hand, nothing really new was observed in the game – it was recognized that most teams were getting fairly up to modern requirements, but there was also the bitter note that leaders were not improving, even going down a bit. Yet, the ending of the qualifications was especially tough and exciting – winners were decided in the last minute, there was scare, hopes, scandals. France, hosting the finals, qualified directly, the other finalists came from 7 groups.
Group 1 was the easiest – everything was decided early. Belgium won first 4 games and became unreachable. The last 5 games in the group were mere protocol. Scotland failed miserably, but it was not a big surprise. Having nothing to play for perhaps focused the teams on the future, so not much could be made of last five results.
Switzerland finished 2nd and their sunny photo of African tour pretty much shows the mood in the group after it was clear that Belgium was the finalist.
1.BELGIUM 6 4 1 1 12- 8 9
2.Switzerland 6 2 2 2 7- 9 6
3.East Germany 6 2 1 3 7- 7 5
4.Scotland 6 1 2 3 8-10 4
Group 2. High tensions to the end – the winner was decided in the last match. USSR and Portugal went head-to-head all the way, although USSR was seen as obvious favourite – Portugal was second rater since 1970 and the Soviets were one of the most impressive teams at the 1982 World Cup. Big potential, a team ready for the big time, playing in relatively easy group. In the home game USSR destroyed Portugal 5-0. Now they were leading by a point and at least a tie was in the bag – Portugal was no match… but it was, they were hosts of the decisive match and prevailed 1-0. And qualified.
USSR lost. It was the same team many felt in 1982 could reach the sky, just give them a year or two. Well, they did not, although they were team which received the least goals in the European qualifictaions. Poland, 3rd at the World Cup, was not so strong either. Since Portugal was not really the leader most of the time, it was hard to thing they were going up – may be just lucky.
1.PORTUGAL 6 5 0 1 11- 6 10
2.Soviet Union 6 4 1 1 11- 2 9
3.Poland 6 1 2 3 6- 9 4
4.Finland 6 0 1 5 3-14
Group 3. At first seen as the easiest group – England was the overwhelming favourite. But England failed to qualify and not in the last minute either. The winners were quite a surprise, for normally Denmark was third-rate European team. The crucial games were pretty in the middle of the qualifying campaign – two disastrous home games: first England failed to beat Greece – 0-0, then lost to Denmark 0-1. Shame… but it was quite familiar by now. Overall, England was scoring plenty, but not in important matches at home. Three matches before the end of the campaign everything was shockingly clear – Denmark was unreachable and England was out.
This is not the regular English squad, of course, but presents problems plaguing the national team for many years already – every effort to change the squad with different players was failing. The big stars were unable to produce desired results, others were tried, found significantly bellow the stars, back to the old big names – and no results again. So, when everything was finished Robson was both right and wrong saying that there is no need of starting a new team. Really, was it that bad? England lost only one match. They scored the most goals in Europe – Spain scored more, but theirs was more than suspect achievement. The defenders allowed only 3 goals – USSR had better record, but England played more matches. With such results, why changing anything? Such results, but no European finals…
1.DENMARK 8 6 1 1 17- 5 13
2.England 8 5 2 1 23- 3 12
3.Greece 8 3 2 3 8-10 8
4.Hungary 8 3 1 4 18-17 7
5.Luxembourg 8 0 0 8 5-36 0