2000, Belgium and Holland

Winner: France | Runner-up: Italy

For the first time a major soccer championship was staged in two countries as Belgium and The Netherlands shared the hosting honours, both qualifying automatically.

Belgium's performances on the pitch matched those of their fans -- apathetic -- but the Dutch people took the tournament to their hearts and were rewarded for draping their nation in orange by their team reaching the last four.

The Dutch beat France in the group stages and expectations were high after they thrashed Yugoslavia 6-1 in the quarter-finals.

England beat Germany in a competitive match for the first time since 1966 but both teams looked off the pace and failed to progress from the group stages as Portugal emerged as real title challengers.

Their hopes disappeared with a 2-1 defeat by France, secured by a controversial Zinedine Zidane penalty three minutes from the end of extra-time amid chaotic scenes that led to subsequent bans for three Portuguese players who took their protests too far.

Italy had quietly made their way through, relying on solid defence, and spoiled the Dutch party with a semi-final victory on penalties after a 0-0 draw.

All the expectation in the final was of another cagey Italian performance but they came out all guns blazing and looked set for victory courtesy of Marco Delvecchio's 55th-minute goal.

However, Sylvain Wiltord equalised in injury time and fellow substitute David Trezeguet won it for the world champions with a golden-goal winner 13 minutes into extra time.

Top goal scorers:

Kluivert (Holland) --6
Milosevic (Yugoslavia) -- 6

Also see:

• 1960, France
  
• 1964, Spain
  
• 1968, Italy
  
• 1972, Belgium
  
• 1976, Yugoslavia
  
• 1980, Italy
  
• 1984, France
  
• 1988, West Germany
  
• 1992, Sweden
  
• 1996, England