When UEFA chose West Germany as the hosts of Euro 1988, they had a slight problem.

The Olympiastadion was in what was then known as West Berlin, a political enclave claimed by West Germany but completely surrounded by East Germany. To avoid any political issues and in agreement with the East Germans and Soviets, they decided not to use it as a venue.

But as a means of “compensation” to the West Germans, UEFA held an unofficial 3-day tournament at the stadium between West Germany, the Soviet Union, Argentina, and Sweden weeks before the start of Euro 1988. Apparently, France were invited but withdrew and Sweden took their place (foreshadowing for another Scandinavian nation at Euro 1992). This was also the debut of West Germany’s iconic chest stripe kit.1

Played as a straight knock-out tournament, there were two semi-finals and one single-leg final played from 31st March–2nd April. The losers from both semi-finals would also play in a third-place playoff. Notably, if any matches ended in a draw after 90 minutes, there was no extra time—it was straight to penalties.

And that’s exactly what happened in the first semi-final between West Germany and Sweden. After 90 minutes, the match ended 1–1 but it was the Swedes who snatched victory against the hosts, 4–2 on penalties. In the other semi, the Soviet Union beat the world champions Argentina 4–2.

West Germany got revenge against Argentina in the third-place playoff with a 1–0 win and in the final, Sweden beat the Soviet Union 2–0 to win the Vier-Länder-Turnier. Oleh Protasov ended with the proverbial golden boot with 2 goals, the only player to score more than 1. Sadly, the tournament didn’t get the nation excited as the average attendance across all four matches was just over 25,000.2

The lessons learned from the tournament were that the hosts still had some adjustments to make. The Team Captain Klaus Allofs would miss the Euros through injury. This would pave the way for Klinnsman to partner Voeller as starting striker. By the time of the Tournament, Andreas Brehme would reclaim his spot at left back to great effect. For the Swedes this was an educational step in their bid to qualify for the 1990 World Cup, which they succeeded. The Soviets recovered in time to finish runners-up in the Euros with Mikhailichenko back in the lineup. As far as Argentina, everything started and ended with Maradona. Argentina was an ordinary team with a half fit or disinterested Maradona, despite the inclusion of other stars.

The aftermath

For Sweden, this mini tournament win was a relative high point considering that they didn’t qualify for Euro 88 and ended Italia 90 with no wins, but they did make it to the semi finals of Euro 92 and finished 3rd at the USA 1994.

The hosts West Germany reached the semi-finals of Euro 88 but lost to the eventual winners the Netherlands 2–1 (this was reversed at Italia 90). They of course won the World Cup in 1990 against Argentina and in 1992, West Germany reuinified with East Germany and the combined German side reached the Euro final but lost 2–0 to Denmark.

The USSR reached the final of Euro 88, losing to the Netherlands. They crashed out of Italia 90 at the group stage and again at Euro 92, now represented as CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). And again in 1994, now as Russia.

As seen above, Argentina reached the Italia 90 final, losing a drab final to West Germany 1–0, and at USA 94 they lost to Romania 3–2 although most of the focus in that tournament was around Maradona and his famous drug test (and that goal celebration)3

Matches

  1. https://soccernostalgia.blogspot.com/2016/03/tournaments-part-4-four-nations-easter.html ↩︎
  2. https://eu-football.info/_tournament.php?id=FNT ↩︎
  3. I think that celebration was adequate for a screamer and I don’t hear anyone asking if Marco Tardelli was on something when he scored in the 1982 final ↩︎

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