The Soviet Union was most successful in the early period.

ALMOST A MIRACLE OF 4 CONSECUTIVE FINALS

As everyone knows, the Soviet Union was the first EURO champion (in 1960). In fact, no team really dominated the EURO arena in the early period, for many reasons. On the one hand, European football was more uniform than on other continents. Moreover, the randomness was always high when people competed in a knockout format and the finals only had 4 teams. On the other hand, in the era before the internet, even football television was not really popular, the teams did not know each other well. The "golden generation" of Soviet football in the 1960s - 1970s all played domestically and few people knew much about them (to prepare for them). In general, the Soviet Union was the most successful team in the early period of the EURO arena, and that was also the most glorious period of this football.

The Soviet Union team won the EURO 1960 championship

When UEFA met to decide on the organization of EURO in 1957, Italy, England and Germany all voted against (with the reason of doubting the possibility of organizing successfully). Of course, these teams did not participate in the qualifying round of EURO 1960. The hope of success was even wider for the remaining teams. It is worth remembering: in the 5 World Cups that took place before UEFA decided to organize EURO, there were 3 times the world championship belonged to Italy and Germany, in which Germany was the defending World Cup champion in 1957. When EURO "got into action", it was Spain's turn to withdraw, because the dictator Franco banned this team from competing in Moscow (in the qualifying round). With Real Madrid winning the European Cup 5 times in a row, and 3 top European stars at that time, Alfredo Di Stefano, Francisco Gento, Luis Suarez, Spain was of course also a big team. Four years later, Franco decided differently: no more political interference in football, and Spain won EURO 1964, beating the Soviet Union on home soil.

Soviet Union team

After winning the EURO 1960 and finishing runner-up in the EURO 1964, the Soviet Union became the first team to play in the EURO final three times in 1972. In the semi-final of EURO 1968, the Soviet Union drew with Italy, but was eliminated completely randomly (a coin toss to see who would reach the final). In short, the Soviet Union was the only team to have always appeared in the finals of the first four EUROs, and if the matter of pure chance had been reversed in 1968, the Soviet Union would have set an unimaginable record: playing in the finals four times in a row. At that time, only Hungary and Yugoslavia had appeared in the finals twice (neither winning). The remaining teams had only appeared once or were absent from the finals in the first four EUROs. Interspersed with those EUROs, the Soviet Union also reached the quarter-finals of the 1958, 1962, 1970 World Cup and the semi-finals of the 1966 World Cup.

LEGENDARY L EV Y ASHIN

The most famous of that golden age of Soviet football was of course the legendary Lev Yashin - the only goalkeeper in history to win the prestigious "European Golden Ball" award (in 1963). In a time when most goalkeepers around the world only did the job of catching the ball (the more beautiful the flight, the more praise) or blocking the opponent's shot, Yashin often commanded the defense and played the ball with his feet. He moved to choose the optimal position, was ready to rush out of the penalty area to control the situation, and kicked the ball with his hands to ensure that the ball would belong to his team in the next situation. In general, these are all the ways of playing football of good goalkeepers today. That means Yashin was ahead of his time by several decades.

On the other hand, Yashin had such a playing style, but his ability to catch the ball was still "unrivaled". According to books and newspapers, Yashin saved at least 4 clear goals in the EURO 1960 final against Yugoslavia. The king of football Pele once said: "I heard people say that the team with Pele as the main player is considered to have won 1 goal over the opponent. The team with Yashin as the main player is considered to have won 2 goals over the opponent". FIFA used Yashin's name to name the award for the best goalkeeper of the World Cup. France Football (owner of the "Golden Ball" award) used Yashin's name to name the award for the best goalkeeper every year.

Interestingly, Yashin had an unsuccessful start at Dynamo Moscow. Due to his limited starting time, he mainly played as a goalkeeper for the club’s ice hockey team (which won the national cup). In addition to Yashin, the Soviet Union squad in the 1960s included two of the best players in the history of the country’s football: Valentin Ivanov and Igor Netto. (continued)

Those teams are no more.

The first final in EURO history (USSR - Yugoslavia) was played between two teams that are now… defunct. No other major tournament has had this phenomenon. In a period when each final tournament had only 4 teams, Eastern European football always had at least 2 representatives, with 3 teams in the first tournament. In total, Eastern European football accounted for more than half (11/20) of the tickets to the finals in the first 5 EUROs.

Eventually, the three great powers of Eastern European football at that time, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia, all disintegrated. They are now divided into 23 different teams. The Czech Republic (in 1996) is the only team of those 23 to have reached the EURO final.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/euro-va-nhung-dieu-thu-vi-lien-xo-thanh-cong-nhat-trong-thoi-ky-dau-185240529192645968.htm