Scots were killing us softly at Euro 96 when one day at Wembley ruined it all

BY DAVID MCCARTHY won the Champions League a year earlier and lost a shoot-out to Juventus in the final a month before the Euros.

Then it was a Wembley showdown with the hosts and favourites, complete with the hype that the first meeting with England at a major tourney brought.

To finish it off, a highly competent Swiss side – who drew with the English in their first game – lay in wait.

Had Scotland emerged from that trio of matches with a single point from the Swiss and gone out, there would have been an acceptance that playing in the big boys’ playground had been too much.

But this is Scotland... there’s always a fresh way to kill us softly.

This time it was by winning four points, coming within 13 minutes of qualifying before going out, not on points or goal difference but goals scored.

And the one that did for us? A sclaffed strike from Patrick Kluivert that went through David Seaman’s legs to turn a 4-0 deficit into 4-1 for the Dutch as Scotland were beating the Swiss through an Ally Mccoist thunderbolt, which remains the last winning goal scored by a Scot in a Euros encounter.

Coisty’s cracker wasn’t enough, though. The four points Scotland achieved from their two matches in Birmingham bookended a Wembley clash with the English and a result that remains as raw today.

The better team in the first half, Scotland fell behind just after the break but roared back and blew the chance to level when Seaman saved Gary Mcallister’s penalty. England raced to the other end, Paul Gascoigne left Colin Hendry chewing the Wembley turf and hammered past Andy Goram – whose heroics had ensured a 0-0 draw against the Dutch – and all that was left was another tale of what might have been.

“A lot of people do remind me of the goal in ’96,” Hendry told last year. “If we had scored the penalty... we were good value on the day. We’d dug in against Holland in the first game and

The goal that did for us? A sclaffed shot that went through Seaman’s legs