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1960 European Nations' Cup qualifying
Tournament details
Dates	28 September 1958 – 29 May 1960
Teams	17
Tournament statistics
Matches played	24
Goals scored	91 (3.79 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Titus Buberník; Just Fontaine; (5 goals each)
	1964 →

This article describes the qualifying procedure for the 1960 European Nations' Cup, the inaugural edition of the European Nations' Cup tournament, now known as the UEFA European Championship.^[1]

Qualified teams

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on
France (host)	Quarter-finals winner	27 March 1960
Yugoslavia	Quarter-finals winner	22 May 1960
Soviet Union	Quarter-finals winner^[A]	28 May 1960
Czechoslovakia	Quarter-finals winner	29 May 1960

^ Won by walkover after the withdrawal of Spain.

Format

The qualification was a knockout tournament where the teams would play a two-legged tie on a home-and-away basis. If the aggregate scores were level at the end of the tie, a third leg was played at a neutral venue to decide the winners. It consisted of a preliminary round, a round of 16, and a quarter-final round. The four quarter-final winners would qualify for the tournament proper; one of those four countries would then be chosen to host it.

17 teams entered the competition; notable absences included West Germany, Italy and England. Two of the entrants, Czechoslovakia and the Republic of Ireland, were selected to play the preliminary round. The winner of that fixture would join the remaining 15 teams in the round of 16.

In fact, a few matches of the round of 16 took place before the preliminary round matches. The first European Nations' Cup qualifying match was played on 28 September 1958 between the Soviet Union and Hungary. The first goal was scored by Anatoli Ilyin of the Soviet Union four minutes into that game. On 3 December 1958, Greece became the first team to be eliminated from the European Nations' Cup after losing 8–2 on aggregate to France.

Preliminary round

Czechoslovakia and the Republic of Ireland were randomly selected to face each other in the preliminary round. The other 15 countries received byes to the round of 16.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Republic of Ireland	2–4	Czechoslovakia	2–0	0–4

Round of 16

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Soviet Union	4–1	Hungary	3–1	1–0
France	8–2	Greece	7–1	1–1
Romania	3–2	Turkey	3–0	0–2
Norway	2–6	Austria	0–1	2–5
Yugoslavia	3–1	Bulgaria	2–0	1–1
East Germany	2–5	Portugal	0–2	2–3
Poland	2–7	Spain	2–4	0–3
Denmark	3–7	Czechoslovakia	2–2	1–5

Quarter-finals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
France	9–4	Austria	5–2	4–2
Portugal	3–6	Yugoslavia	2–1	1–5
Romania	0–5	Czechoslovakia	0–2	0–3
Soviet Union	w/o^{[note 1]}	Spain	Canc.	Canc.

Goalscorers

There were 91 goals scored in 24 matches, for an average of 3.79 goals per match.

5 goals

4 goals

Jean Vincent

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Roger Marche (against Greece)

Notes

^ Spain refused to travel to the Soviet Union for their quarter-final, so Spain were disqualified and the Soviet Union were awarded a walkover victory.

References

^ Garin, Erik; Stokkermans, Karel; Tabeira, Martín (10 June 2011). "European Championship 1960". RSSSF.com. Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 5 March 2018.