A high-scoring championship with many exciting matches and an elite standard of play, Euro 2000 is often labelled by football writers as one of the greatest international tournaments of all time.

[4][5][6][7] Belgium and the Netherlands were selected as co-hosts on 14 July 1995 by the UEFA Executive Committee at a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.

Many instances of violence occurred, including several football riots in Rotterdam between 1995 and 1999, which would host the Euro 2000 final.

[15] Belgium had a surprise exit in the group stage, winning the tournament's first game against Sweden,[16] but losing to Turkey and Italy.

Spain needed a win to ensure progression, but found themselves trailing 3–2 after Slobodan Komljenović scored in the 75th minute.

[21] Italy and Portugal maintained their perfect records in the quarter-finals, beating Romania and Turkey, respectively, and the Netherlands started a goal-avalanche against FR Yugoslavia, winning 6–1.

Italian goalkeeper Francesco Toldo, who had been drafted into the starting XI as Gianluigi Buffon missed the tournament through injury, made two saves in the penalty shootout (in addition to his penalty save in normal time) to carry the Italians to the final.

In the other semi-final, Portugal lost in extra time to France after Zinedine Zidane converted a controversial penalty kick.

The finals draw took place 15:00 CET on 12 December 1999, at the Brussels Expo in Belgium; and was streamed live on UEFA's official website.

If two or more teams finished level on points after completion of the group matches, the following tie-breakers were used to determine the final ranking:[56]

[60] Below is a complete list of the allocations:[61] Extra payment based on teams performances: On 9 July 2000, UEFA refused to hand FR Yugoslavia their prize money of CHF7.8 million, because of alleged ties between the Football Association of FR Yugoslavia and Slobodan Milošević's government.

[62] However, no connections were found and the Football Association of FR Yugoslavia later received their money with an additional bonus.

[66] The Adidas Terrestra Silverstream was unveiled as the official match ball of the competition on 13 December 1999 at Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, Anderlecht's home arena by Alessandro Del Piero, Edwin van der Sar, Zinedine Zidane and Luc Nilis.

[67][68] The official mascot for the tournament was Benelucky[69] (a pun on Benelux), a lion-devil hybrid with its mane having the flag colours of both host nations.