User:Timbouctou/1978

The 1978 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, which spanned two years (1976–78) had 24 entrants. Yugoslavia U-21s won the competition.

The 24 national teams were divided into eight groups. The group winners played off against each other on a two-legged home-and-away basis until the winner was decided. There was no finals tournament or 3rd-place playoff.

Draw
The allocation of teams into qualifying groups was based on that of 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification with several changes, reflecting the absence of some nations:
 * Group 1 did not include Portugal (moved to Group 2) and Cyprus, but included Sweden (moved from Group 6)
 * Group 2 did not include England and Finland (both moved to Group 5), but included Portugal (moved from Group 1)
 * Group 3 did not include Malta
 * Group 4 did not include Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Iceland, but included France and Bulgaria (both moved from Group 5)
 * Group 5 composed of England and Finland (both moved from Group 2) and Norway (moved from Group 6)
 * Group 6 (based on World Cup qualifying Group 7) did not include Wales, but included Switzerland (moved from World Cup Group 6)
 * Groups 7 and 8 included the same teams as World Cup qualifying Groups 8 and 9 respectively

Squads
See 1978 UEFA European Under-21 Championship squads

Goalscorers

 * 6 goals
 * Vahid Halilhodžić


 * 4 goals


 * Peter Kotte
 * Dieter Kühn


 * 3 goals


 * Preben Elkjær


 * 2 goals


 * 🇧🇬 Stoycho Mladenov
 * 🇧🇬 Radoslav Zdravkov
 * Petr Janečka
 * Jürgen Raab
 * Hans-Jürgen Riediger
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Tony Woodcock


 * 1 goal


 * 🇧🇬 Spas Dzhevizov
 * 🇧🇬 Aleksandar Ivanov
 * 🇧🇬 Atanas Mihaylov
 * Jan Fiala
 * Peter Herda
 * Václav Samek
 * Ivan Nielsen
 * Werner Peter
 * Frank Terletzki
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Andy King
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Steve Sims
 * 🇭🇺 József Szabó
 * 🇮🇹 Salvatore Bagni
 * Srećko Bogdan
 * Damir Desnica


 * Own goal
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Steve Sims (playing against Yugoslavia)

Solomatin
Boris Aleksandrovich Solomatin (Бори́с Алекса́ндрович Солома́тин; 31 October 1924 – 21 December 2005) was a Soviet intelligence officer, who held the rank of major-general in the KGB. Over nearly forty years of service in foreign intelligence he headed KGB residencies in New Delhi, Washington, D.C., New York, and Rome, and also served as deputy head of KGB's First Chief Directorate from 1968 to 1971.

Biography
Solomatin graduated from high school in Tbilisi during the World War II. In June 1942 he enrolled as a cadet at the Tbilisi Artillery School, where he finished a sped-up six-month training course. He was then made commander of the platoon of regimental artillery, was an assistant to the head of the battalion and regimental reconnaissance.

His unit took part in the Battle of Kursk (July–August 1943), and later as part of the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts reached Minsk and Białystok, with many engagements with Germans in Eastern Prussia. At the end of the war in 1945, Solomatin had the rank of senior lieutenant.

In 1946 he was demobilized, and immediately enrolled at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), where he graduated from in 1951. That same year he started working for the Committee of Information (Комитет информации at the Foreign Ministry.

From 1954 to 1958 he served as intelligence officer in India, stationed at the Soviet embassy in New Delhi.