While the 1980 European Championship provided a neat 50-50 split in terms of teams having to wear alternative strips, the next edition of the tournament, held in France in 1984, was more lopsided.
Of the eight competing nations, seven of them wore their backup colours at least once. The one exception was West Germany – in a group with Portugal, Romania and Spain, they were able to don their usual white and black strip.
It’s a pity that the green version, in the same adidas ‘Aberdeen’ template, didn’t receive wider exposure as it worked very well with the green shorts too.
It had appeared in a friendly earlier in the year against Argentina but, of course, by the time they faced the South American side in the World Cup final in 1986, white shorts were back and the shirt had been updated.
Despite West Germany’s lack of a need to change, there were eight different away kits used – Romania used two different red versions in their games against the Germans and, oddly, Portugal, who wore white.
Romania’s other game, the opener against Spain, was significant in that it was the only one to feature 1-11 – twice, but sadly not at the same time.
Spain began the game in the traditional format, albeit with positional wrinkles, while Romania had nine of the lowest 11 numbers.
With just over an hour left, their number 5, Aurel Țicleanu, replaced Marin Dragnea (15) and then 19-year-old Gheorghe Hagi came on for the number 19, Romulus Gabor, in the 76th minute.
That meant they finished the game 1-11 but, unfortunately, Hagi’s introduction came three minutes after Spain’s only substitution, 14 Julio Alberto for 10 Ricardo Gallego.
The game finished 1-1, a fitting sharing of the spoils for two superb efforts.
