OLLIE’S HIT & MISSUS
Hero Bierhoff only made finals at behest of boss Vogts’ wife
THE story goes that Germany manager Berti Vogts was encouraged to take Oliver Bierhoff to the ’96 Euros by his wife.
Of course that may be an old wives tale, but what is certain, is that when the Udinese striker was sprang from the bench his introduction had an immediate effect.
By this stage, the
1992 beaten finalists were looking as if they were again going to fail to live up to their favourites tag, as had been the case against Denmark four years earlier.
The effervescent Patrick Berger (inset) had put his Czech Republic side ahead from the penalty spot in the 59th minute following a trip on Karel Poborsky by Mattias Sammer.
However, for the injury-ravaged German team – Jurgen Klinsmann was playing with a calf strain – the tide changed when Christian
Ziege swung over a free from deep on the right and Bierhoff rose to head home the equaliser.
“He will repay you”, was what Vogts’ wife is said to have told him, and that’s exactly what Bierhoff did when he scored the tournament’s first Golden Goal in the 95th minute, turning to strike a leftfooted shot past the grasp of of Petr Kouba.
CZECH REPUBLIC: Peter Kouba, Miroslav Kadlec (c), Michal Hornak, Jan Suchoparek, Pavel Nedved, Radek Bejbi, Karel Polorsky, Patrick Berger, Jiri Nemec, Pavel Kuka. Subs; Vladimir Smicer.
GERMANY: Andreas Kopke, Matthias Sammer, Markus Babbel, Thomas Helmer, Thomas Strunz, Christian Ziege, Dieter Eilts, Mehmet Scholl, Thomas Habler, Jurgen Klinsmann (c) Stefan Kuntz. Subs; Marco Bode, Oliver Bierhoff.