  the 1960 uefa european nations' cup was the first european football championship, held every four years and endorsed by uefa. the final tournament was held in france. it was won by the soviet union, who beat yugoslavia 2â1 in paris after extra time. the tournament was a knockout competition; just 17 teams entered with some notable absences, west germany, italy and england among them. the teams would play home-and-away matches until the semi-finals; the final four teams would move on to the final tournament, whose host was selected after the teams became known. spain, still under francisco franco's far-right dictatorship, refused to travel to the soviet union, the main supporter of the second spanish republic in the spanish civil war, and withdrew from the tournament, so the final four had three communist countries: ussr, czechoslovakia, and sfr yugoslavia, to go with hosts france. in the semi-finals, the soviets made easy work of the czechoslovaks in marseille, beating them 3â0. the other match saw a nine-goal thriller as yugoslavia came on top 5â4, coming back from a two-goal deficit twice. czechoslovakia beat the demoralized french 2â0 for third place. in the final, yugoslavia scored first, but the soviet union, led by legendary goalkeeper lev yashin, equalized in the 49th minute. after 90 minutes the score was 1â1, and viktor ponedelnik scored with seven minutes left in extra time to give the soviets the inaugural european championship. ==venues== {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:c
1959a60_in_European_football 1959a60_in_French_football 1960_European_Nations\'_Cup International_association_football_competitions_hosted_by_France UEFA_European_Championship_tournaments