Also in this year: 1988
European Champion Clubs' Cup winners: PSV Eindhoven (0-0 aet, 6-5 pens v SL Benfica)
European Footballer of the Year: Marco van Basten (AC Milan)
Eurovision Song Contest winner: Céline Dion (Switzerland) singing Ne partez pas sans moi
European Golden Boot winner: Tanju Çolak (Galatasaray AS)
Nobel Peace Prize winner: United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces (for their participation in various conflicts since 1956)
Men's Olympic 100m champion: Carl Lewis (United States) running an Olympic record 9.92
Formula 1 world champion: Ayrton Senna (Brazil) driving a McLaren
Oscar for Best Picture: Rain Man
Key events
European Footballer of the Year: Marco van Basten (AC Milan)
Eurovision Song Contest winner: Céline Dion (Switzerland) singing Ne partez pas sans moi
European Golden Boot winner: Tanju Çolak (Galatasaray AS)
Nobel Peace Prize winner: United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces (for their participation in various conflicts since 1956)
Men's Olympic 100m champion: Carl Lewis (United States) running an Olympic record 9.92
Formula 1 world champion: Ayrton Senna (Brazil) driving a McLaren
Oscar for Best Picture: Rain Man
Key events
27 September – Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson sent home from Seoul Olympic games after testing positive for a banned substance, three days after setting a new world record of 9.79 in the 100m final
29 September – Space shuttle Discovery lifts off from Cape Canaveral, two-and-a-half years after the Challenger disaster
2 December – A cyclone in Bangladesh leaves five million homeless and thousands dead.
History
Top scorers
| 5 | Marco van Basten - Netherlands |
| 2 | Oleg Protassov - USSR |
| 2 | Rudi Völler - West Germany |
Team of the Tournament
- Hans van Breukelen »
- Giuseppe Bergomi »
- Ronald Koeman »
- Frank Rijkaard »
- Paolo Maldini »
- Giuseppe Giannini »
- Lothar Matthäus »
- Jan Wouters »
- Ruud Gullit »
- Gianluca Vialli »
- Marco van Basten »
Mascot
After bowing out of the tournament in agonising circumstances in 1984, West Germany expected far greater things when they finally got their chance to host the UEFA European Championship for the first time in 1988 but they were sensationally defeated in Hamburg at the semi-final stage, where the Dutch overcame their neighbours after a 32-year wait to avenge their 1974 FIFA World Cup final loss.
The AC Milan trio of Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten were the stars of the Dutch side and they proved it on the biggest stage when they met the Soviet Union in the final. Gullit headed in the opener before a masterpiece sealed the result. Meeting Arnold Mühren's looping cross in a seemingly impossible position, Van Basten crashed an acrobatic volley over goalkeeper Rinat Dasaev. More >>