The Parisians and the EURO – the story continues!

Les Rouge et Bleu's EURO story started in 1984. Midfielder Luis Fernandez (5 matches, 1 goal) and forward Dominique Rocheteau (2 matches) helped France claim a first European crown by defeating Spain 2-0 at the Parc des Princes on 27 June 1984, after the club's number 10, Safet Sušić, had been knocked out with three straight losses for Yugoslavia. "It's a great source of pride for me," said Fernandez, who had been one of French team's main men for the previous 18 months. "It gives me more maturity and self-confidence."

There were no Parisians at EURO '88 and just one four years later in the form of Christian Perez, who was on his way to AS Monaco. With eight straight wins, Michel Platini's side went to Sweden with big ambitions, but they were knocked out after draws with the hosts (1-1) and England (0-0) before losing 2-1 to eventual winners Denmark.

There were no fewer than five Parisians in the France squad at EURO '96: goalkeeper Bernard Lama (5 matches), defender Alain Roche (3 matches), midfielders Vincent Guérin (5 matches) and Youri Djorkaeff (5 matches, 1 goal), who was about to join Inter Milan, and striker Patrice Loko (5 matches, 1 goal). Les Bleus did well, reaching the semi-finals before being knocked out 6-5 on penalties by Czechia after a 0-0 draw. "It's disappointing to miss out on the final," said Lama. "We were so close. Mentally, we could already see ourselves in the final."

In 2000, Lama (1 match) was back-up to Fabien Barthez as Les Bleus won the tournament.

Four years later, the only Parisian at EURO 2004 was the Portuguese hosts' Pauleta. The man with 47 goals for his country failed to hit the back of the net in five matches before Portugal were beaten 1-0 by Greece in the final. "It's abnormal for me not to score in five games, but football doesn't always have an explanation," he said.

The 2008 competition had no Parisians, but in 2012, Thiago Motta and Salvatore Sirigu played for Italy while Blaise Matuidi and Jérémy Ménez were in the France squad. Matuidi picked up a thigh injury just before the tournament and would remain on the bench throughout. Meanwhile, Ménez (3 matches, 1 goal) was one of the rare France players to shine, scoring against Ukraine in a 2-0 group-stage win and keeping a starting role until Les Bleus were knocked out by eventual winners Spain in the quarter-finals.

Motta (5 matches) was injured shortly after coming off the bench in the final, leaving his teammates to play with 10 against 11 as they were outclassed 4-0 by Spain. Sirigu, who was back-up to Gianluigi Buffon, did not feature.

In France in 2016, there were four Parisians involved: Matuidi for France, Sirigu and Motta for Italy and Zlatan Ibrahimović for Sweden. The latter had a tough tournament, failing to score as his country picked up just one point from their three games.

Motta, wearing the number 10 in his final international tournament, was often on the bench and missed the quarter-final loss to Germany (1-1 a.e.t., 6-5 on pens) due to suspension. Sirigu again spent the tournament watching from the bench.

Meanwhile, Matuidi was a regular starter for France (7 matches, 1 assist) but was unable to stop the hosts from losing 1-0 after extra time to Portugal in the final. "When you lose a final like that, you can only have regrets," he said. "But we managed to unite the French people and give them joy and happiness, and we can be proud of that."

For EURO 2020, which was played in 2021, there were six Parisians involved: Alessandro Florenzi and Marco Verratti with Italy, Pablo Sarabia with Spain, Danilo Pereira with Portugal and Presnel Kimpembe and Kylian Mbappé with France. The competition was won by Italy, with Gianluigi Donnarumma named Player of the Tournament just before coming to join Paris Saint-Germain.

Les Bleus, in spite of finishing top of a group featuring Germany and Portugal, lost to Switzerland in the round of 16 (3-3 a.e.t., 5-4 on pens), with Mbappé missing the decisive spot kick. Danilo and Portugal were also knocked out at this stage of the competition, losing 1-0 to Belgium.

Paris Saint-Germain were well-represented in the semi-final between Spain and Italy, in which La Roja boasted the aforementioned Sarabia, who had scored and provided two assists in a 5-0 group-stage win over Slovakia and had found the net again in a 5-3 extra-time win over Croatia in the round of 16. Having picked up an injury, though, he sat out the loss to Gli Azzurri (1-1 a.e.t., 4-2 on pens).

It was Italy, then, with both Verratti (5 matches) and Florenzi (2 matches) in their ranks, that gave the club its first EURO winners since Lama in 2000 by beating England 3-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the final at Wembley.

The midfielder, who had been injured since the start of the tournament, provided the assist for Italy's equaliser in the final with a header that struck the post before Leonardo Bonucci scored from the rebound. During the penalty shoot-out, Donnarumma was imperious, making saves to deny both Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka.

No fewer than 11 Parisians headed to Germany for EURO 2024, from Donnarumma (4 matches) with Italy and Milan Škriniar (4 matches) with Slovakia to Nuno Mendes (4 matches), Danilo (1 match), Vitinha (4 matches) and Gonçalo Ramos (1 match) with Portugal via Warren Zaïre-Emery (0 matches), Bradley Barcola (2 matches), Ousmane Dembélé (4 matches), Randal Kolo Muani (5 matches, 1 goal, 1 assist) and Mbappé (4 matches, 1 goal, 2 assists) with France and Fabián Ruiz with Spain (6 matches, 2 goals, 2 assists).

While the first two were eliminated in the round of 16, Portugal went out in the quarters and France were knockout in the semis. In the end, Spain lifted the trophy thanks to a 2-1 win over England in Berlin to claim their fourth continental crown, following on from their triumphs in 1964, 2008 and 2012.