Summary
Seven of the eight teams had to qualify for the final stage; Sweden qualified automatically as hosts of the event. Soviet Union qualified for the finals shortly before the break-up of the country, and took part in the tournament under the banner of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) before the former Soviet republics formed their own national teams after the competition. The CIS team represented the following Soviet republics: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Tajikistan. Four out of 15 ex-republics were not members of the CIS: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania did not send their players, Georgia was not a member of the CIS at the time, but Georgian Kakhaber Tskhadadze was a part of the squad.
Originally, Yugoslavia qualified for the final stage, but due to the Yugoslav wars, the team was disqualified and their qualifying group's runner-up, Denmark, took part in the championship. They shocked the continent when Peter Schmeichel saved Marco van Basten's penalty in the semi-final penalty shoot-out against the Netherlands, thus defeating the defending European champions. The shock was compounded when Denmark went on to defeat the reigning world champions Germany 2–0 to win the European title.
Read more about this topic: 1992 UEFA European Football Championship
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