The Italian publication of Guerin Sportivo had originally graded every player for the first time in the 1988 European Championship, and now they focused their attention on covering the event held in Sweden. Originally, GS had chosen Marco Van Basten as the standout player in West Germany 1988, with arguably the greatest performance ever produced across all football major tournaments. But this time GS would not pick any player above the rest, but only an ‘ideal’ team with player grades which included the best of each match and the worst. Euro 1992 officially crowned Thomas Hässler as the best player, registering 2 goals in 5 matches for runners-up Germany. Will soon get into the details...
To begin with, let’s get acquainted with all 8 teams that qualified. Sweden 92’ produced 2 groups of 4 teams each with the top 2 of each group advancing to the knockout stage. Group A Sweden (Hosts) Denmark France England Group B Netherlands (Holders) Germany Scotland CIS For those unfamiliar with history, CIS was formerly the Soviet Union, which was disolved on 1 January, 1992. Due to the situation, the team was assembled quickly, which consisted of the independent states of the community. 6 months later Russia was officially announced as the future representative of football. The opening ceremony in pictures: The tournament still had Van Basten and Gullit as the major stars, but Roberto Baggio was missing due to Italy not qualifying. Other standout figures consisted of Bergkamp, Platt, Mikhailichenko, Klinsmann, Laudrup, Papin, Cantona, etc...
The opening match saw the home side Sweden draw vs France, which ended 1-1. GS rated players on a scale from 1 to 10, which 10 was virtually never given due to high standards. Even a 9 out of 10 was rare. The man of the match was Papin, with an excellent 7,5 points out of 10, with his fellow countryman, Cantona receiving a meager 5,5 for worst on the field. Each game also has listed in the photos the way each team is diagrammed on the field.
Thanks, mate. Although Casoni did receive the lowest grade, the worst player for GS was Cantona with a 5,5, due probably to the high expectations from a high profile player. He is considered “Il peggiore”.
The following day England and Denmark drew 0-0, in what was considered a poor spectacle, evidenced by the grade of 5/10 from GS. The bright spot being Jensen for the Danes, who received the player of the match for the Italian publication. Palmer, for England, was viewed as the worst.
Just some trivia before I continue. Euro ‘92 was the last Euro to feature 8 teams to qualify. It was also the first major NT tournament that implemented names on the back of the jerseys. The Danes ended up as champions but didn’t need to qualify thanks to Yugoslavia being banned due to the Balkan’s war. It would also be the last tournament that allowed the back-pass rule with back passes to goalkeepers still permitted.
Interesting thread! I still am puzzled why they even had a Euro with only 8 participants! I know... there was one large Soviet Union and one large Yugoslavia but still, 8 participants seems rather cruel. Did they ever considered a Euro with 12 participants (instead of going from 8 to 16) and then either QFs or SFs after group stage? This Euro 1992 could arguably have been better if Italy and Spain were there, and possibly Romania (Hagi) and Bulgaria (Stoichkov). My first Euro was 2000 but I've always found this Euro particularly interesting.
The next day, 14 June, England and France drew 0-0 in what was considered the worst spectacle so far, receiving a poor grade of 4.5. Man of the match: Pearce 7 Worst: Platini 5 (France’s manager) Both managers drew negative reviews from the press; Taylor could easily have been chosen over Platini as the worst on the pitch, but due to Platini blaming his players instead of shouldering the blame himself, he gets the nod of “Il Peggiore”.
Netherlands 0-0 CIS (formerly the USSR) Man of the match: Kharin 8 Worst: Juran 5 Goalkeeper Kharin has thus far received the highest grade in the tournament, with an excellent 8/10.
Denmark 2-1 France Man of the match: Larsen 7,5 Worst: Blanc 4,5 This defeat for France condemned them to elimination. Although Platini as manager is viewed as a scapegoat for their struggles, it was Laurent Blanc the joint-culprit in this decisive encounter. Laurent Blanc, coming off a lackluster campaign for Napoli, was severely criticized by the Italian press. Although UEFA had him make the all-star team for Euro ‘92, it seemed somewhat strange to find any merit in that decision, considering that he seemed to be one of the weakest links. As a libero, he failed to establish authority in that position and the Italian press were never truly convinced that he could fulfill that role to full effect; only Platini seemed to believe that Blanc would strive under that role. In any event, Blanc’s weak performance at the back was viewed as France’s downfall. It must be stated, Platini as manager failed to establish himself as a resourceful head-coach and his services would end after this tournament reached a conclusion.
Sweden 2-1 England Man of the match: Brolin 7 Worst: Taylor (England’s manager) 4,5 England’s defeat meant elimination and their manager Graham Taylor received flak from the press. England was going through a transition period, many of the old guard had gone, and like France who were deemed as a ‘mediocre team’, England was not considered a great side either. Their failure to qualify to USA ‘94 was a good indication that things were headed in the wrong direction. Mr. Taylor would go on to be remembered as one of the worst English managers with an incessant level of criticism from the English and world press.
Slightly weirdly, after the 1990 World Cup final, I think this is the game I have watched the most. I had it on VHS as a child (until my mother taped over it) and watched it a lot because I didn't have many other videos. My memory broadly tallies with these ratings. I remember Bergkamp, Gullit and Van Basten playing well and Scotland defending well.
There was no official best player at the time, if I'm not mistaken. The UEFA made those retrospectively. There was a press vote however, but not by UEFA or officially recognized as such. Apart from those two free kick goals, Hassler had also an assist against Holland. He has to be a real option for the top but not sure whether he has to be ahead of Laudrup or Bergkamp since those two outplayed him in the direct head-to-head duels (imho) with end product too. I remember Gough as being good for Scotland and there was already a thread for euro 1992 with many other ratings (France Football for example). The assessment of Blanc looks harsh (and he scored 6 non-pk goals in the 1991-92 Serie A). Was always a fan of him. Good that they didn't fail to mention the (incorrectly) disallowed goal. The semi final game and penalty miss is one of my first memories I can somewhat vividly remember (the 1994WC that was played in the night as well). Not only the penalty miss, but also all those created chances before (from 25:00 onward) is one of my first livid memories.
That seems to be the case, mate. It seems that starting in 1996 the first ever official non-retrospective UEFA award was implemented for the European Championships. In regards to Hässler, given that the press voted him as the top choice at the time, it seems justifiable that the people that created the retrospective awards got this one right. Euro ‘92 has its mystic in certain ways: an underdog champion, the last tournament of 8 teams, the introduction of names printed on the back of the players’ jerseys. It was also a time where the world was changing, with the dissolved Soviet Union going into effect. Euro ‘92 was virtually the last tournament that maintained some of its lustre of mystery before the world became globalized.
Netherlands 3-1 Germany Man of the match: Rijkaard 8 Worst: Binz 5 Rijkaard and Kharin share the top marks thus far in the tournament with 8/10 grades.
With the group stage coming to an end, GS rated the top and worst key players of most of the teams. For the CIS (formerly USSR) Alejnikov disappointed with a grade of a 5. Laurent Blanc was viewed as France’s weakest link with a 5, while Papin was the standout player with an 8. For the Germans, Reuter with a 5 struggled, while Hässler shined with a top grade of an 8. David Platt with a 5,5 was viewed as England’s weakest, with Graham Taylor as the main culprit. For the Netherlands, the famous names did well but Rijkaard was their standout player with an 8. Thomas Brolin for the Swedes received a very good 7,5 grade. No reviews of Danes and Scots. By classification, the top 3 players of the first phase were Rijkaard, Papin and Hässler with the highest grades.
It must be stated, Frank Rijkaard in two consecutive Euro tournaments had been nominated as one of the top 3 players by Guerin Sportivo (originally classified as number 2 in their podium in 1988).
The UEFA all-star team that was (I assume) retrospectively given differs enormously with GS. The UEFA version falls more in line with the big names, while GS does some justice to guys like Gough, which did make their list. More on that later.
I might be wrong but it's a list of the players playing in Italy at the time or had played in Italy (Papin was due to move to Milan that summer).