Holland's European Championships Record
Out of all the current European nations still competing, only Germany and Russia have competed in more European Championships than Holland. The Dutch first match in the tournament was in the Preliminary Round of the then 'European Nations Cup' in 1964. Van Der Linden scored their first goal in the competition in a 4-2 aggregate win over the Swiss. It was not until 1976 that they started to have a major influence in the championships, spurred on by successful World Cup campaigns previously, the Dutch finished a creditable third losing to eventual victors Czechoslovakia in extra time of the 1976 semi-final. That 'Total Football' generation of Cruyff, Neeskens and Haan to name but a few last played in the 1980 championships hosted by Italy, but were eliminated in the group stage.
Holland finally got their hands on the Henri Delaunay trophy in 1988 when coach Rinus Michels led a team including Gullit and Van Basten to glory, along their way to the trophy they defeated England in the quarter finals with a Marco Van Basten hat-trick in a 3-1 victory. A last minute Van Basten strike was enough to see off arch-rivals and host nation West Germany in a tense semi-final clash and so on June 25 1988 the Dutch got their hands on major international silverware for the first time defeating the USSR 2-0 in the Olympiastadion, Munich in front of over 70,000 supporters. Ruud Gullit scored in the first half with Van Basten scoring a half volley from an almost impossible angle in the second, which was hailed as the goal of the tournament. Van Basten finished as top scorer with 5 goals; his next closest challenger had 2.
Along with Belgium, Holland hosted the 2000 UEFA European Championships and made a successful start, winning through the group stages and coming from behind to defeat world champions France. A quarter final demolition of Yugoslavia by 6 goals to 1 including a Patrick Kluivert hat-trick set the Dutch up for a semi-final clash against Italy where they were defeated 3-1 on penalties after a goalless draw. In 2004 Holland again qualified for the semi-finals where they were defeated by the hosts Portugal in Lisbon 2-1.
