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Myths of European Championship.

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The 1992 finals in Sweden gave birth to one of the great myths of the European Championship. Legend has it that, when UEFA decided to replace war-torn Yugoslavia with the team that had finished behind them in the qualifying group, the Danes strolled into the dressing room, kicked off their flip-floops, threw down their beach towels and emptied bagfuls of suntan oil on the floor. As legendary goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel recalls:"We were between two training sessions having lunch when the message came through that we were officially in finals. So the idea that they had to phone us and get us back from our holidays on the beach is a myth." Popular perception, how ever, was determined not to let the truth get in the way of a good story - and it was a great story. The Danes tiptoed into the tournament and won it. Politics certainly had a influence. Apart from the Yugoslav situation, the Soviet fragmentation process meant that the former USSR competed under an unfamiliar CIS banne