![]() In Group B, Austria managed to set up a decisive final game against Germany, dubbed "Austria's final". Switzerland managed to beat the group winner Portugal in their last game. In Group A, the Swiss lost their captain, Alexander Frei, to injury in their first game and became the first team to be eliminated from the tournament, after losing their first two matches. Austria and Switzerland were not expected to progress, despite the advantage of being the hosts. In the group stage, Croatia, Spain and the Netherlands all qualified with maximum points. In contrast, Germany and Portugal were deemed to have an easy draw, as the tournament structure meant they could not meet Italy, France, the Netherlands or Spain until the final. The draw for the finals tournament took place on 2 December 2007, and saw Group C immediately labelled as the "group of death", with Italy, France, Romania and the Netherlands competing for the two qualifying places. ![]() England was the only seeded team not to qualify for the tournament proper, whereas Russia was the only unseeded one to qualify. The qualifying tournament was contested by national teams from each of UEFA's member associations, with the exceptions of Austria and Switzerland, who had automatically qualified for the finals tournament as hosts and Montenegro, who came into existence too late to be admitted to UEFA. Qualification for Euro 2008 started in August 2006, just over a month after the end of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. As European champions, Spain earned the right to compete for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa. Austria and Switzerland automatically qualified as hosts the remaining 14 teams were determined through qualifying matches, which began in August 2006. ![]() Throughout 31 matches, the participating nations totalled 77 goals, the same as the previous tournament. They recorded the worst finish in Euro 2008, collecting the least amount of prize money and gaining no points in their three group fixtures. Greece were the defending champions going into the tournament, having won UEFA Euro 2004, the previous competition. Spain were also the first team since Germany in 1996 to win the tournament undefeated. The second jointly hosted finals in the competition's history, the tournament was eventually won by Spain, defeating Germany 1–0 in the final becoming only the second nation to win all their group stage fixtures and win the European Championship itself an accomplishment matched by France in 1984. It took place in Austria and Switzerland (both hosting the tournament for the first time) from 7 to 29 June 2008. The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Football Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations.
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