The leader of the so-called ´Golden Generation` of Portuguese football during the 1990´s, Luis Figo was already an established international at the time of the 1994 European Under-21 Championship finals, which took place in France from the semi-final stage.
Figo, who three years previously had scored in a penalty shoot-out as Portugal beat Brazil to win the World Youth Championship in Lisbon, did not play in the majority of qualifying matches and when he did so it was in the last group fixture – a 2-1 defeat to Italy – when Portugal had already cemented a place in the quarter-finals. Drawn against Poland in the last eight, the Portuguese ran out easy 5-1 aggregate winners with Figo playing both games, but a yellow card in each meant he missed out on the semi-final against Spain in Nimes.
A 2-0 win over the Spanish set up a final tie with Italy to be played in Montpellier, the teams featuring such future greats as, Fabio Cannavaro, Christian Panucci and Filippo Inzaghi on the Italian side and Rui Costa, Jorge Costa, Jo
