1960 European Nations' Cup qualifying

This article describes the qualifying procedure for the 1960 European Nations' Cup, the inaugural edition of the European Nations' Cup tournament, now known as the UEFA European Championship.

Format

The qualification was a knockout tournament where the teams would play on a home-and-away basis. It consisted of a preliminary round, a round of 16, and a quarter-final round. The four quarter-final winners would qualify for the tournament proper; one of those four countries would then be chosen to host it.

17 teams entered the competition; notable absences included West Germany, Italy, England and the Netherlands. Two of the entrants, Czechoslovakia and the Republic of Ireland, were selected to play the preliminary round. The winner of that fixture would join the rest 15 teams in the first round (round of 16).

In fact, a few matches of the first round took place before the preliminary round matches. The first ever European Nations' Cup qualifying match was played on 28 September 1958 between the Soviet Union and Hungary. The first ever goal was scored by Anatoli Ilyin of the Soviet Union four minutes into that game. On 3 December 1958, Greece became the first team to ever be eliminated from the European Nations' Cup after losing 2–8 on aggregate to France.

Qualified nations

  Qualified
  Did not qualify
  Did not enter
  Not a UEFA member
Country Method of qualificationFinals appearanceDate qualification was secured Previous appearances in tournament
 France Quarter-finals winner 1st 27 March 1960 0 (debut)
 Yugoslavia Quarter-finals winner 1st 22 May 1960 0 (debut)
 Czechoslovakia Quarter-finals winner 1st 29 May 1960 0 (debut)
 Soviet Union Bye1 1st 29 May 1960 0 (debut)
1Soviet Union qualified after Spain refused to travel to the Soviet Union.

Preliminary round

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Republic of Ireland  2–4  Czechoslovakia 2–0 0–4

First round

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Soviet Union  4–1  Hungary 3–1 1–0
France  8–2  Greece 7–1 1–1
Romania  3–2  Turkey 3–0 0–2
Norway  2–6  Austria 0–1 2–5
Yugoslavia  3–1  Bulgaria 2–0 1–1
East Germany  2–5  Portugal 0–2 2–3
Poland  2–7  Spain 2–4 0–3
Denmark  3–7  Czechoslovakia 2–2 1–5

Second round

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
France  9–4  Austria 5–2 4–2
Portugal  3–6  Yugoslavia 2–1 1–5
Romania  0–5  Czechoslovakia 0–2 0–3
Soviet Union  w.o.  Spain – –

Spain refused to travel to the Soviet Union for their quarter-final, so the USSR were awarded a walkover victory.

Goalscorers

5 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal

External links

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