[2] In the previous international tournament, the 1982 FIFA World Cup, 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.

[7] 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 fourth minute, Patrick Battiston's 30-yard (27 m) shot struck the crossbar and the ball fell to Platini who sidestepped a defender before striking it into the corner of Belgium'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 one-two with Jean Tigana.

[13] Yugoslavia took the lead in the 31st minute after Miloš Šestić beat Tigana and Giresse, exchanged passes with Safet Sušić before striking the ball into the top corner of the France goal.

[14] Thirteen minutes after the interval, Jean-Marc Ferreri dispossessed Ljubomir Radanović and passed to Platini who struck the ball under Zoran Simović, the Yugoslavia goalkeeper, to level the score.

Joël Bats then saved an attempt from Mehmed Baždarević before Platini completed his second hat-trick of the tournament when he scored with a direct free kick which looped over the wall and into the top corner of the Yugoslavia goal.

With ten minutes remaining, Stjepan Deverić was fouled by Maxime Bossis in the France box and Dragan Stojković scored the resulting penalty after a retake.

[17] Midway through the half, Platini was fouled by Jaime Pacheco and Jean-François Domergue struck the resulting free kick from 25 yards (23 m) over the wall and into the top corner of the Portugal goal, and France held a 1–0 lead at half-time.

Early in the second half, Bento made saves against Fernandez and Giresse before Fernando Chalana played the ball into the France penalty area and found Jordão who headed it past Bats to equalise in the 74th minute.

[17] Both sides had opportunities to score, but midway through the first period of additional time, Chalana played a cross to Jordão who miskicked his volley into the ground but the ball bounced over Bats and into the France goal to give Portugal a 2–1 lead.

[18] Portugal adopted a defensive approach but with six minutes remaining, Domergue scored his and France's second goal, lifting the ball over Bento after play continued despite Platini being brought down by João Pinto.

[20] Spain were drawn into group 7 of the UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying phase, where they faced the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, Iceland and Malta in a home-and-away round-robin tournament.

[25] West Germany started the game strongly: an early header from Hans-Peter Briegel struck the Spain crossbar, José Antonio Camacho cleared the ball off his own goal-line, Arconada's lengthy run ended with him shooting just wide of the post, another Briegel header hit the underside of the bar and Andy Brehme hit the post, while Goikoetxea was substituted through injury for Salva García after tackling Rudi Völler from behind.

Klaus Allofs missed two chances to score early in the second half before Schumacher blocked a shot from Carrasco and Antonio Maceda's header was cleared off the West Germany goal-line by Stielike.

Frank Arnesen's cross was pushed onto the Spain crossbar by Arconada after a header from Preben Elkjær but Søren Lerby scored from the rebound to make it 1–0 to Denmark.

Arcando then saved from both Elkjær's free kick and Nielsen's follow-up shot and extra time ended with the scores still level, taking the match to a penalty shoot-out.

Both sides scored their first four kicks: Kenneth Brylle, Olsen, Michael Laudrup and Lerby for Denmark; Santillana, Señor, Santiago Urquiaga and Víctor Muñoz for Spain.

[32] Spain's Santillana missed two chances to score before half-time: his header was cleared off the line by Battiston, before his shot was wide of France's goal, and the first half ended goalless.

Platini's low shot curled around the wall, Arconada appeared to have it covered but allowed the ball to squirm under his body and over the line, to make it 1–0 to France.

"[40] In the next international tournament, the 1986 FIFA World Cup, France were beaten by West Germany in the semi-finals, but secured third place with a 4–2 victory in the play-off over Belgium, the side which had knocked Spain out in a penalty shoot-out in the quarter-finals.