After a month of fantastic football, Germany clinched
their third European Championship crown when substitute Oliver Bierhoff
scored the first ever "golden goal" in the competition's history
But Euro '96's huge success owed a lot to the performances of the hosts
England and the inventive play of surprise finalists the Czech Republic.
For England the competition re-established their position on the footballing
map after their failure to qualify for the World Cup in the USA in 1994.
Having automatically qualified for the tournament, England's build-up
to the Championship was good but, despite beating them at Wembley only
months earlier, the Three Lions started with a rather disappointing 1-1
draw against Switzerland.
Alan Shearer, who hadn't scored for his country since September 1994,
buried a fierce drive midway through the first half but after Stuart Pearce
gave away a penalty, Terry Venables' side had to settle for a point.
England only took control of their own destiny with a 2-0 win over Scotland.
Alan Shearer converted Gary Neville's right-wing cross but the game's
pivotal moment came when David Seaman saved Gary McAllister's penalty.
From their own penalty area, England broke away and Tottenham midfielder
Darren Anderton fed Paul Gascoigne, who chipped the ball over Colin Hendry
before driving a right-footed volley past his rangers teammate Andy Goram.
Gascoigne's inspired form continued into the next game against Holland,
who had followed up on their opening 0-0 draw against Scotland with a
two goal win over the Swiss.
On an unforgettable night, England swept the Dutch aside with a display
rarely matched in their footballing history. Shearer and Teddy Sheringham
both scored twice though Patrick Kluivert's second-half consolation was
key as it kept Holland in the competition at the expense of the Scots.
France and Spain came through Group B thanks to crucial wins against Bulgaria
and Romania respectively. Both the sides went through their three matches
unbeaten but neither looked like a team capable of going all the way.
In the 'Group of Death', Italy and Germany faced stiff opposition from
Eastern European giants the Czech Republic and Russia.
Both the Italians and Germans opened with wins but in their second game,
Cesare Maldini's azzurri came unstuck against the Czechs and lost 2-1,
meaning they had to get a result against the Germans - who on the same
day defeated Russia 3-0 - in their final game to qualify.
After the Russians held the Czechs to a 3-3 draw at Anfield, Italy had
to beat Germany to go through. They could only manage a goalless draw
so one of the early favourites departed the scene.
Group D was the hardest to predict but those who felt that the defending
champions Denmark would go through were wrong as Portugal and, more surprisingly,
Croatia made it through to the last eight.
England's bright start to their quarter-final saw Andoni Zubizarreta save
Alan Shearer's powerful drive but soon the well-drilled Spanish started
to cause some trouble and twice they were unlucky with offside calls.
Both Kiko and Julio Salinas had goals dubiously disallowed before Javier
Manjarin inexplicably hesitated when clean through, gifting David Seaman
enough time to come out and block.
There was more bad luck for Spain in the second half when they were denied
two strong penalty claims, first when Tony Adams didn't quite time a tackle
on Jose Luis Caminero and then when Paul Gascoigne caught Alfonso Perez.
Terry Venables' side had their moments though, and Shearer missed the
best chance of the match when he volleyed Darren Anderton's cross over
the bar from only two yards out.
After a rather dull period of extra-time, the match went to a penalty
shoot-out in which England gained the upper-hand immediately when Fernando
Hierro struck the crossbar with the very first kick.
England kept their noses infront - Stuart Pearce avenging his miss in
Turin six years earlier - until Seaman saved from Miguel Nadal to send
the English through.
Up in Liverpool, in a match which pitted superb attack against frugal
defence, Holland and France's quarter-final was something of a disappointment.
Few chances were created and in the end the match was decided on a penalty
shoot-out in which Clarence Seedorf's penalty smacked against the crossbar
to give the French their first European Championship semi-final appearance
in 12 years.
The Germans came up against an impressive Croatian side in the quarter-finals
and were rather fortunate to come through the game as 2-1 winners, though
the display of the inspirational Matthias Sammer was a joy to behold.
Germany took the lead with virtually their first attack. Sammer chested
down a chipped pass from Scholl.
Mario Stanic gave away a needless penalty when he handballed and Jurgen
Klinsmann cooly dispatched the resulting penalty.
The Croatians equalised when Nikola Jurcevic passed the ball to Davor
Suker. The tall striker memorably rolled the ball under his foot, beat
Andreas Kopke and steered the ball into the unguarded net.
However soon after that, Stimac was sent off and Germany won the match
through Sammer when he got in behind the Croatian defence.
The Portugal-Czech Republic game was decided by a single goal which came
when Joao Pinto lost the ball in midfield.
Karel Poborsky picked up possession and ran forward down the inside-left
channel.
After the midfielder momentarily lost control of the ball - he was fortunate
that a rebound went his way - before pulling off an audacious lob to beat
Baia.
A poor semi-final at Old Trafford saw the Czechs beat Aime Jacquet's France
in a penalty shoot-out after a quiet 0-0 draw.
The decisive moment came in sudden death at the end of the shoot-out.
With the scores tied a five apiece, Petr Kouba saved Reynald Pedros' penalty
and Miroslav Kadlec sent the Czechs through.
The match of the tournament pitted hosts England against their old rivals
Germany in a game which had everything.
On a hot Wednesday evening in north west London, England took the lead
after only three minutes, courtesy of an Alan Shearer header from a Gascoigne
corner.
But on 16 minutes Germany were level again when Stefan Kuntz managed to
rid his marker to score from a Thomas Helmer cross from the left wing.
The game went into extra time and Kuntz put the ball in the back of the
net to seemingly send Germany through to the final.
However, with Germany starting to celebrate, the goal was disallowed by
Hungarian referee Sandor Puhl for pushing on Tony Adams. It was a good
call but nevertheless a rather lucky escape for Venables' side.
In an unforgettable period of extra-time both Darren Anderton, who struck
a post, and Paul Gascoigne, who couldn't quite reach a Shearer centre,
so nearly scored for England.
The game inevitably went to a penalty shoot-out. Shearer, David Platt,
Pearce, Gascoigne and Sheringham were all successful from the spot, and
it fell to Gareth Southgate to keep England's on track for the final,
but the goalkeeper saved the penalty.
Andy Moller scored for Germany, England were out and Germany went on to
the final to face the Czech Republic.
Whilst the Germans were controlled and passed the ball around well, they
couldn't break down a stubborn Czech side that clearly went into the match
with a counter-attacking game-plan.
Twice Stefan Kuntz, scorer of the equaliser against England, missed decent
chances to open the scoring but as the Germans pressed, so the Czechs
launched quick breaks and with their one good chance of the half, Pavel
Kuka shot wide.
It took a penalty to break the deadlock when Sammer was adjudged to have
brought down Poborsky, even though it looked as though the defender had
challenged Poborsky outside the area.
Berger scored and all of a sudden the Czechs were half-an-hour from victory.
Berti Vogts sent on Oliver Bierhoff to try and add some more presence
to the German attack and he made an impact immediately. Christian Ziege
swung a free-kick from deep on the right and when Petr Kouba was slow
to come out, Bierhoff headed in.
Five minutes into extra-time, Bierhoff scored the first ever golden goal
to decide the destination of the Henri Delaunay trophy. The Udinese forward
turned his marker and a left-foot shot which deceived Kouba who saw the
ball to slip through his fingers and drop agonisingly inside the far post.
1996 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
QUALIFYING
England qualified as hosts. Top team qualified for finals. Weakest
second-placed teams enter playoff.
Other second-placed teams qualified automatically.
Group 1
04/09/1994 Israel 2 - 1 Poland (1-0)
07/09/1994 Romania 3 - 0 Azerbaijan (1-0)
07/09/1994 Slovakia 0 - 0 France (0-0)
08/10/1994 France 0 - 0 Romania (0-0)
12/10/1994 Israel 2 - 2 Slovakia (2-2)
12/10/1994 Poland 1 - 0 Azerbaijan (1-0)
12/11/1994 Romania 3 - 2 Slovakia (1-0)
16/11/1994 Azerbaijan 0 - 2 Israel (0-1) *
16/11/1994 Poland 0 - 0 France (0-0)
13/12/1994 Azerbaijan 0 - 2 France (0-1) *
14/12/1994 Israel 1 - 1 Romania (0-0)
29/03/1995 Israel 0 - 0 France (0-0)
29/03/1995 Romania 2 - 1 Poland (1-1)
29/03/1995 Slovakia 4 - 1 Azerbaijan (3-0)
25/04/1995 Poland 4 - 3 Israel (1-2)
26/04/1995 Azerbaijan 1 - 4 Romania (1-2) *
26/04/1995 France 4 - 0 Slovakia (2-0)
07/06/1995 Poland 5 - 0 Slovakia (1-0)
07/06/1995 Romania 2 - 1 Israel (1-0)
16/08/1995 Azerbaijan 0 - 1 Slovakia (0-0) *
16/08/1995 France 1 - 1 Poland (0-1)
06/09/1995 France 10 - 0 Azerbaijan (3-0)
06/09/1995 Poland 0 - 0 Romania (0-0)
06/09/1995 Slovakia 1 - 0 Israel (0-0)
11/10/1995 Israel 2 - 0 Azerbaijan (1-0)
11/10/1995 Romania 1 - 3 France (0-2)
11/10/1995 Slovakia 4 - 1 Poland (1-1)
15/11/1995 Azerbaijan 0 - 0 Poland (0-0) *
15/11/1995 France 2 - 0 Israel (0-0)
15/11/1995 Slovakia 0 - 2 Romania (0-0)
Team P W D L GF GA GDIF PTS %
1 ROMANIA 10 6 3 1 18 9 +9 21 70.0
2 FRANCE 10 5 5 0 22 2 +20 20 66.7
3 Slovakia 10 4 2 4 14 18 -4 14 46.7
4 Poland 10 3 4 3 14 12 +2 13 43.3
5 Israel 10 3 3 4 13 13 0 12 40.0
6 Azerbaijan 10 0 1 9 2 29 -27 1 3.3
Records were taken for all second-placed teams against the first,
third and fourth-placed teams
in the group. This resulted in the following table. The bottom two
teams had to play-off for the
last remaining place on neutral ground.
