international football tournament, the 1986 FIFA World Cup, the Soviet Union were eliminated by Belgium in the second round, losing 4–3 after extra time, despite Igor Belanov's hat-trick. The Netherlands were knocked out in the UEFA play-off match after drawing 2–2 on aggregate with Belgium but having an inferior goal difference. The UEFA Euro 1988 Final was the fourth meeting between the sides, and came just 13 days after they met one another in the group stage. Route to the final Soviet Union The Soviet Union qualified for the UEFA Euro 1988 final tournament as champions of qualifying group 3 where they faced East Germany, France, Iceland and Norway in a home-and-away round-robin tournament. They remained unbeaten throughout their eight games, winning five and drawing the remainder, to finish top of the group, two points ahead of East Germany. In UEFA Euro 1988 Group 2, the Soviet Union's opponents were the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland and England. In their initial group match, the Soviet Union faced the Netherlands for the first time in a competitive fixture. The game was played on 12 June 1988 at the Müngersdorfer Stadion in Cologne in front of 54,336 people. Valeriy Lobanovskyi, the manager, remarked before the match, "it's wise not to attack at all costs... it's more important to win." His side adopted a defensive approach to the match and the first half ended goalless: Rinat Dasayev, the Soviet Union goalkeeper, pushed two shots from Ronald Koeman over the crossbar and saved other attempts to score from Ruud Gullit, John van 't Schip, John Bosman, Jan Wouters and a potential own goal from Volodymyr Bezsonov. Belanov's shot early in the second half was kept out by the Netherlands goalkeeper Hans van Breukelen, but in the 53rd minute, Vasyl Rats played a one-two with Belanov before striking the ball past Van Breukelen to give the Soviet Union the lead. Although Marco van Basten was then brought on, the Netherlands' best chance to equalise came when Vagiz Khidiyatullin deflected a header from Gullit onto his own crossbar, and the match ended 1–0 to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union played their second group game against the Republic of Ireland at the Niedersachsenstadion in Hanover on 15 June 1988. The Republic of Ireland dominated the first half, with Kevin Sheedy and Ronnie Whelan controlling the midfield. Ray Houghton's strike from a Mick McCarthy off-target shot drew