The summer football came home and penalties saw England out in semis
Euro 96 drama as the Three Lions edge past Scotland but fail at the penultimate stage
In the summer football came home. The UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was held in June in England. While the country united singing Three Lions people thought maybe this year England could win the trophy.
It was the first European Championship to feature 16 finalists, following UEFA’s decision to expand the tournament from eight teams. Games were staged in eight cities including Nottingham,
Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield and Manchester.
At the group stage Scotland and England were both in Group A up against Netherlands and Switzerland. England won two of its games putting it top of the group, whereas Scotland came third having won, lost and drawn.
England’s team consisted of Paul Gascoigne, David Seaman, Gary Neville, Jamie Redknapp, Teddy Sheringham, Paul Ince, Tony Adams and Alan Shearer, who was the tournaments highest scorer with five goals.
England made it all the way to the semi-finals where they faced Germany. The match ended 1-1 and went to penalties.
England lost 6-5 with Gareth Southgate missing England’s final chance. Something which followed him for years in his career.
The final between Germany and the Czech Republic was held at Wembley Stadium on June 30.
The match featured tournament favourites Germany, and the Czech Republic, playing in only their first European Championship since the break-up of Czechoslovakia.
Both teams had qualified for the knockout stage from Group C of the tournament’s group stage, with Germany winning 2–0 in the teams’ earlier meeting.
Germany won the final 2–1, with Oliver Bierhoff scoring the golden goal in the 95th minute.
Bierhoff had earlier equalised in the 73rd minute after Patrik Berger scored a penalty for the Czech Republic on 59 minutes after Karel Poborský had been tripped.
This was Germany’s first major title won as a unified nation.