France were knocked out in the semi-final by West Germany after a penalty shoot-out, and lost 3–2 to Poland in the third-place play-off. Spain failed to progress past the second qualifying group stage, losing to West Germany and drawing with England. The UEFA Euro 1984 Final was the twentieth meeting between France and Spain, with ten of those matches being won by Spain, four by France and the remainder ending in a draw. They had never faced each other in a competitive game. Route to the final France As tournament hosts, France automatically qualified for UEFA Euro 1984 Group 1 where they faced Denmark, Belgium and Yugoslavia in a round-robin tournament where each team played every other team once. France's first group match was against Denmark at the Parc des Princes in Paris on 12 June 1984. As the first half was drawing to a close, a tackle between Denmark's Allan Simonsen and Yvon Le Roux left the Danish player with a broken leg and forced his side to substitute him for John Lauridsen. Goalless at half time, the Denmark goalkeeper Ole Qvist made two separate saves from Michel Platini headers but with twelve minutes remaining, France took the lead. Ivan Nielsen's attempt to intercept a pass resulted in the ball falling to Platini whose shot from outside the Denmark penalty area deflected off Søren Busk's head and flew into the goal. In the 87th minute, Manuel Amoros reacted to fouls by both Lauridsen and Jesper Olsen, first by throwing the ball at Olsen and then headbutting him in the face: he was sent off by Volker Roth, the German referee, and the match ended 1–0. In their second group game, France faced Belgium at the Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes on 16 June 1984. In warm conditions, France dominated the match with Georges Grün making a goal-line clearance in the first thirty seconds. In the fourth minute, Patrick Battiston's shot struck the crossbar and the ball fell to Platini who sidestepped a defender before striking it into the corner of Belgium's goal. Belgium then missed numerous chances to score: Jan Ceulemans saw his header cleared off the goal-line by Luis Fernandez, Michel De Wolf's shot hit the crossbar and Erwin Vandenbergh's header went wide of France's goal. Alain Giresse doubled France's lead in the 33rd minute, chipping the ball over Jean-Marie Pfaff, the Belgium goalkeeper, after playing a