The 1972 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Belgium. This was the fourth UEFA European Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 14 and 18 June 1972.
Only four countries played in the final tournament, with the tournament consisting of the semi-finals, a third place play-off, and the final.
The Russia national football team (Russian: Сборная России по футболу, romanized: Sbornaya Rossii po futbolu) represents Russia in men's international football. It is controlled by the Russian Football Union (Russian: Российский футбольный союз, Rossiyskiy Futbolnyy Soyuz), the governing body for football in Russia. Russia's home ground is the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and their head coach is Valery Karpin.
As the Russian Empire before 1917, as the Russian SFSR in 1917–1924 and as the Soviet Union in 1924–1991, Russia first entered the FIFA World Cup in 1958. They have qualified for the tournament 11 times (seven of which as the Soviet Union), with their best result being their fourth-place finish in 1966. As the Soviet Union, Russia was a founding member of UEFA in 1954, winning the first edition of the European Championship in 1960 and were runners-up in 1964, 1972 and 1988. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia's best result was in 2008, when the team finished third.
The Germany national football team (German: Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft) represents Germany in men's international football and played its first match in 1908. The team is governed by the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund), founded in 1900. Between 1949 and 1990, separate German national teams were recognised by FIFA due to Allied occupation and division: the DFB's team representing the Federal Republic of Germany (commonly referred to as West Germany in English between 1949 and 1990), the Saarland team representing the Saar Protectorate (1950–1956) and the East Germany team representing the German Democratic Republic (1952–1990). The latter two were absorbed along with their records; the present team represents the reunified Federal Republic. The official name and code "Germany FR (FRG)" was shortened to "Germany (GER)" following reunification in 1990.
Germany is one of the most successful national teams in international competitions, having won four FIFA World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990, and 2014), tied with Italy, and only one fewer than the most successful team, Brazil. Having won three European Championships (1972, 1980, and 1996) Germany is second behind Spain, the record holder in that international competition with four. Germany also won the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2017. They have also been runners-up at the European Championship three times, and four times at the World Cup, with a further four third-place finishes at the World Cup. East Germany won Olympic Gold in 1976. Germany was the first, and is one of only two nations to have won both the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Women's World Cup (the other being Spain). By combined World Cups, Germany stands as the most successful football nation in history with six World Cups – four for the men's team and two for the women's. At the end of the 2014 World Cup, Germany earned the second highest Elo rating of any national football team in history, with 2,223 points. Germany is also the only European nation that has won a FIFA World Cup in the Americas.
Horst-Dieter Höttges (10 September 1943 – 22 June 2023) was a German professional footballer who played as a sweeper or right-back. Having started his career with hometown club Borussia Mönchengladbach, he spent most of his career with Werder Bremen. He made 420 Bundesliga appearances for Werder Bremen, a club record for outfield players, scoring 55 goals and helped the club win the Bundesliga title in the 1964–65 season, his first at Werder Bremen. At international level, he represented West Germany from 1965 to 1974, amassing 66 caps and scoring 1 goal. He was part of the West Germany squads that won the 1974 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 1972.
A total of 946 goals have been scored in games at the men's 17 final tournaments of the UEFA European Championship, not counting penalties scored during shoot-outs. Since the first goal scored by Yugoslav player Milan Galić at the 1960 European Nations' Cup, exactly 545 footballers have scored goals at the Euro tournaments, of whom 39 have scored four or more.
Since in the beginning tournaments were contested between four teams and only two games were played, top goalscorers of the first three editions have scored only two goals. This was bettered in 1972, when West Germany's Gerd Müller scored four goals. Four years later this was matched by his compatriot Dieter Müller and finally in 1984 France's Michel Platini have scored record 9 goals in just 5 games. His record stood for more than three decades until Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 10th goal for Portugal at the UEFA Euro 2020. He has later improved his tally and stands at 14 goals in 30 appearances at the European Championship tournaments — also record. The top 39 goalscorers have represented 15 nations, with 7 players scoring for Germany or West Germany, 5 for France, and 4 for Netherlands. In total, only 6 of them have scored at tournaments with maximum of 8 teams (prior to UEFA Euro 1996).