In safe hands: EURO-winning goalkeepers

A EURO winner with West Germany in 1972, Sepp Maier believed the job of a good No1 was a simple one: "A goalkeeper needs to exude a sense of calm – and make sure he doesn't fall asleep!"

No goalkeepers have scored winners in a EURO final yet, but 15 have played powerful supporting roles so far.

Victorious EURO goalkeepers 

2020: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Italy)
2016: Rui Patrício (Portugal)
2012: Iker Casillas (Spain)
2008: Iker Casillas (Spain)
2004: Antonis Nikopolidis (Greece)
2000: Fabien Barthez (France)
1996: Andreas Köpke (Germany)
1992: Peter Schmeichel (Denmark)
1988: Hans van Breukelen (Netherlands)
1984: Joël Bats (France)
1980: Harald Schumacher (West Germany)
1976: Ivo Viktor (Czechoslovakia)
1972: Sepp Maier (West Germany)
1968: Dino Zoff (Italy)
1964: José Ángel Iribar (Spain)
1960: Lev Yashin (Soviet Union)

Gianluigi Donnarumma became the latest name on the list by playing a starring role in the EURO 2020 final. The 22-year-old denied England pair Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka in the penalty shoot-out to secure Italy their second European title – and earn himself the Player of the Tournament prize in the process.

Peter Schmeichel put in an exemplary performance when Denmark overcame the odds to win the 1992 final. John Jensen and Kim Vilfort struck in the 2-0 final triumph against Germany, but Schmeichel's early save from Jürgen Klinsmann set the tone. "If that had gone in, I think we would have lost easily," he said. "When my team-mates saw me saving something like that, they knew I would be in top form, that I would help them out. That sort of gave them extra powers."

The 1976 finals, meanwhile, are best remembered for the insouciant shoot-out penalty that Antonín Panenka lifted over West Germany goalkeeper Maier – yet Czechoslovakia goalkeeper Ivo Viktor had a role to play too, however unusual.

"It was me who made Antonín Panenka eternally famous," he explained. "I made a terrible mistake in the last minute of regular time. I went for a cross which I was sure I would easily get, but Bernd Hölzenbein got there first and headed over me, so extra time followed. Panenka shone in the shoot-out with his chip into the middle of the goal, but I sometimes remind him that if I hadn't made that terrible blunder, nobody would have heard of him."

Iker Casillas's stops from Daniele De Rossi and Antonio Di Natale during the spot kicks against Italy in the 2008 quarter-final changed more than the course of a shoot-out, but the destiny of Spanish football. "That was the moment when everything Spain needed to end our run of not winning tournaments just clicked," he said. Suddenly, in Casillas's words, Spain's "inner doubts" had been banished. Two EURO titles and a FIFA World Cup followed, with Casillas becoming, in 2012, the first keeper to lift the Henri Delaunay Cup twice.

Over his career Dino Zoff had a similar steadying influence for Italy, notably in 1968 when he helped the Azzurri scrape a 1-1 draw with Yugoslavia in the Rome final before they edged the replay 2-0 two days later. "We didn't deserve to draw the first match," he remembered. "Two days later, however, we definitely deserved to win. I conceded one goal in three games at the finals, but the important thing wasn't Zoff's goalkeeping; it was the team's victory."

The EURO-winning custodians are a mix of rock-solid stoppers such as Zoff and Greece's 2004 clean-sheet king Antonis Nikopolidis, and mavericks like the Soviet Union's 1960 hero Lev Yashin.

Both of France's past successes featured charismatic No1s: 1984 champion Joël Bats was an artist at heart, later writing poetry and making popular children's record L'Escargot (the Snail), while Laurent Blanc's pre-match routine of kissing Fabien Barthez on the head before every game was France's lucky charm at EURO 2000.