THE GENIUS AND THE GENEROSITY
McCall recalls how the many sides of Gazza lit up Euro ’96 as he gave sad Scotland the elbow
IT was a moment of sheer genius that broke the hearts of a nation as Paul Gascoigne flicked the ball over Colin Hendry’s head and lashed a volley past Andy Goram. For England fans it was a thing of beauty, for Scotland supporters it was a dagger to the chest.
Tonight, if you can bear to look, you can see it all again as part of ITV’s Euro ’96 Relived series.
But today we can get behind the story as Stuart McCall reveals the remarkable generosity and humility of Gazza during and after an epic and emotional day at Wembley.
And he also disclosed how he got shirty with Rangers team-mate Ally McCoist after the infamous 2-0 defeat by England that still grates with the Tartan Army.
ITV4 are re-showing the entire tournament as live and this evening all the drama and heartache of the extraordinary Auld Enemy
clash from 24 years ago takes centre stage. Scotland had drawn with Holland going into the showdown with Terry Venables’ side, who had been held 1-1 by Switzerland in their opener, and there was belief that Craig Brown’s troops could bring joy to the nation.
But the game was lost in 90 seconds as Gary McAllister missed a penalty — after Alan Shearer had given England the lead — and Gascoigne went up the field to score the most outrageous winner.
McCall said: ‘There was a bit of banter at Ibrox when the draw was made and Scotland were to face England but we were so focused on finishing the season successfully at Rangers.
‘We won the Scottish Cup on the final day, hammering Hearts 5-1. And that came, of course, after Gazza’s amazing hat-trick against Aberdeen that gave us eight in a row.
‘So, it was only really on the day of the England-Scotland game that we really got into it.
‘I’m never one for mixing with the opposition before a match but some of the lads exchanged a few words — Ally McCoist, Gordon Durie and Darren Jackson, who knew Gazza from Newcastle.
‘There were so many match-ups — and direct ones too — on that day. There was me against Gazza in the middle of the park, then there was Colin Hendry against his Blackburn team-mate Shearer, while Colin Calderwood and Teddy Sheringham played together at Tottenham.
‘It wasn’t much of a game in the first half and we had given as good as we’d got and the England fans weren’t too happy it was goalless at half-time.
‘So, we’re going down the tunnel on that concrete and all I can hear is metal studs clanking behind me. I turned around and there’s Gazza running down topless and he hands over his shirt and says: “That’s for your daughter” and runs off to the England dressing room.
‘I’d done a TV interview the night before and said that my daughter Victoria, who was born in England, loved Gazza and she hoped the game would finish 3-3 with Paul and me both getting hat-tricks.
‘So he must have seen that and he gave me the shirt. It was amazing.
‘The sting in the tail, though, was Coisty swapped shirts with him after the game and on the way back to our base on the bus he pulled it out.
‘I said to him: “Why would you take the shirt of the guy who scored the goal that’s probably going to put us out?”
‘He said: “You’re only jealous” and I pulled out the top Gazza gave me and said: “Not at all, I’ve got the original shirt when he didn’t score against us!”. Ally couldn’t believe it.
‘Gazza did that a couple of times too. He gave me a Middlesbrough shirt for my lad’s birthday unprompted and then gave me a pair of boots for my other lad when he was at Burnley.
‘That was the type of guy he was — so thoughtful.’
An emotional day was decided in typical Scottish fashion. Durie won a penalty when he was brought down by Tony Adams and just as McAllister was about to strike, the ball moved off its spot and David Seaman saved his kick.
Illusionist Uri Geller claimed he forced the ball to move — but the Scotland captain insisted it was just a bad miss.
A minute and a half later, Gazza won the game with an outrageous piece of skill as he flicked the ball over Hendry’s head and then lashed a volley past Goram.
McCall revealed: ‘Not a lot of people knew at the time, but we could see just as we were getting ready for the penalty that the England bench were going to take Gazza off.
‘We could see his number being looked out so I feel sure that if David Seaman hadn’t saved Gary’s penalty he was coming off. Of course, the inevitable happened.
‘England broke away and he scored one of the best goals of the tournament.
‘Like he had done for Rangers, when England needed a bit of magic Gazza came up with the goods, unfortunately for us.’
There was a bit of banter at Ibrox when draw paired us with England
If you can stand a re-run it’s on ITV4 tonight at 6.45pm.