BRUTAL NIGHT CHAMPS
WE ALL remember the dramas of England’s few losing semi-finals in major football tournaments, from Gazza’s tears in 1990, another penalty heartbreak in 1996 at Wembley, to the extra-time defeat in theworld Cup two summers ago.
There is another one too – The Semi-final That Time Forgot. It was played in
Florence in the 1968 European Championships; the most beautiful of cities to host the ugliest of football matches.
Precious little video footage survives of England, then the reigning world champions, losing 1-0 against Yugoslavia. There are barely a few seconds’ worth of grainy clips on Youtube.
Maybe that’s just as well when you listen to Mike Summerbee, who observed events from the safety of the substitutes’ bench, and who winces even now as he remembers the match played 52 years ago this week.
“It was the most frightening game I saw in my career,” says the Manchester City legend.
“People talk about the Chelsea v Leeds replay in the 1970 FA Cup Final but this one was even worse. It was a brutal match.yugoslavia were very aggressive towards us and we responded to that.
“England didn’t go onto the field thinking we’d put them out of the game, but they started up the aggression and that’s how it stayed until the final whistle.
“Some of the tackles were frightening.there were a lot of cynical things going in the game.they were body-checking England players all the time and there was so much happening off the ball.
“The thing is that Yugoslavia were a very good side as well. They had Dragan Djazic, who was one of the most skilful players in Europe at the time, but they set themselves up to put England out of it.
“They knew they were up against the world champions and thought if they didn’t mix it they’d lose. I remember from the bench, our manager Alf Ramsey trying to keep it down, saying, ‘Keep it steady, keep it steady’ to the players out on the pitch. But it was so aggressive.
“It didn’t work out for us that day. It wasn’t because we didn’t compete – we did compete all right!”
There were few chances.alan Ball headed against the bar for England and the only goal came in the 86th minute from Djazic.
He controlled the ball on his chest, after Bobby Moore misjudged a cross, and flicked it past England keeper Gordon Banks.
England could not equalise but did have Alan Mullery sent off before the final whistle, the first player ever to be dismissed wearing the Three Lions shirt.
He had been raked down the back of his calf by Dobrivoje Trivic, which drew blood from Mullery’s leg, and the England midfielder retaliated by kicking his opponent where it truly hurts. Summerbee sympathised instinctively at the time.
He does to this day. “I’d like to have got on in that match. I always wanted to be out there in the thick of
it,” he says