May Football: Euro 96, I guess

[Ian]

ITV are showing all of Euro 96 this month. I don't remember much outside of the England games so I'll definitely be watching a good amount of it if work doesn't interrupt.

My main memories of it from the time (rather than stuff I 'remember' because I've seen so many clips) are:
- The Spain penalty shootout is the first England shootout I can remember watching. It's also the last one I'd watch a team I support win (in a game that mattered anyway) until United won the Chelsea one so far as I can remember.
- McDonalds had the "Hat Trick" triple cheeseburger, and with that you got your fries in a big paper bag and a little sachet of spices to shake up in there. I was having one of these with a milkshake when England were in the above shootout.
- That ball across the line that Gazza couldn't get to took at least 3 hours to find trundling across the goal.
- The "Dentist's Chair" celebration against Scotland.

There isn't a lot else that I'm absolutely certain are my own memories, but Euro 96 was the first football tournament I remember watching.

Anybody else going to be watching ITV's replays of it? Memories of it as a tournament?

[Jimmy Floyd]

It was the first tournament I was conscious it was going on. 7/8 years old. I remember missing the first game because I had to go to a cricket thing that involved meeting Andy Flower (probably got the right side of that one), then the second one (Scotland) for some reason my mother insisted on taking us swimming and I heard the Gazza goal on the swimming pool radio. Holland I don't remember happening at all, then for Spain I was doing a sleepover at someone's house and remember watching Seaman save the penalties. The semi-final I was sent to bed before extra time, but for some reason I definitely watched the whole final.

The main thing I remember from the non-England games was a surfeit of lobbed goals - Poborsky, Suker (?), and maybe even another one as well. I also remember Portugal having a guy called Oceano, which I thought was the coolest name.

[mugbull]

Don’t worry, we’ll have Bundesliga back soon

[niko_cee]

The Spain game was one of the great footballing robberies.

[SvN]

It was the first proper tournament that England participated in that I can remember. I watched a lot of USA 94 and mostly cheered for Italy because of Roberto Baggio being brilliant. But Euro 96 felt more real, because the games were on at reasonable times and England were playing.

I remember watching every game like it was yesterday. I was naively quite upset when we conceded against the Netherlands because it knocked Scotland out.

The Suker goal against Denmark was brilliant. I always rated it ahead of the Poborsky one. I'm fairly sure we signed Karel on the basis of that goal alone.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I reckon the lack of memory of '94 and indeed '90 is why I have always disliked Italy. I have absolutely no positive early memories of them being anything other than a load of spawny cheats, and at Euro 96 they were utterly useless. I think I remember them losing to Russia, though I could be wrong.

[mugbull]

I was born on the day of the final game as the Czechs lost to Germany. Family legend has it that my mom went into labor minutes after the game ended in a state of despondency

[Ian]

The Spain game was one of the great footballing robberies.

Did they absolutely batter us?

[SvN]

Did they absolutely batter us?

I watched the game recently, and yeah, we were clinging on for dear life. It's funny, at the time, I didn't realise that at all, and it never once felt unjust when we went through on penalties.

[thommo]

I was only 4 during Euro 96 so don't really remember a thing. If ITV are showing the whole thing I'll definitely try and catch a few games.

[niko_cee]

Did they absolutely batter us?

Yeah, and had two perfectly good goals ruled out for non-existent offsides iirc.

Tournament bottlers.

Gazza's goal against Scotland has to be one of the great tournament football moments. Unfortunately I missed it as I was playing cricket at the time.

[Yevrah]

Did they absolutely batter us?

They did and the referee robbed them too.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Gazza's goal against Scotland has to be one of the great tournament football moments. Unfortunately I missed it as I was playing cricket at the time.

I had one of the great cricket days at the 2018 quarter-final vs Sweden. 3pm kickoff on a Saturday, as I recall.

We were playing the same club in 3rd and 4th team fixtures, and it was clear to me after the Colombia win (on Mon/Tue?) that we were nowhere near going to have enough players available on the Saturday to put the usual 4 teams out. Even 3 teams was going to be tricky. However, obviously you don't want to lose the league points for forfeiting, so I decided to gamble on the idea that they were going to be in the same position as us and wait for them to forfeit first.

It got to Thursday, we had seven men for the 3rd team and zero for the 4th. Skippers started getting twitchy but I told them to button it. Friday arrives, still no word, and we still have zero players for the 4th. Three Lions on the radio every five minutes. 4th team captain starts messaging me telling me this is immoral, I tell him to shut his hole and hold steady. Eventually all the guys start rebelling, saying I have to give a cut-off or we'll look like chumps. I tell them to put a sock in it.

Friday 8pm, the call comes. Oppo have no players for a 4th team and have reluctantly had to concede. I commiserate them on their misfortune and say we're looking forward to the 3rd team match. We turn up at their place with nine. At the toss the opposition realise what has occurred and, shall we say, get the hump. It's a special early start (10am) to accommodate the England-Sweden game in the middle, but already about 30 degrees. They win the toss and put us in the field, with 9.

Quickly the score ramps up. It's a declaration game so they can bat as long as they like. One bloke gets to his hundred, the score swells past 200 and they should really declare to try and win it quickly before the football. But no, they want to punish us with hours in the heat. We respond in kind, by placing everyone in the shade under different trees and telling them not to bother chasing anything. This farce goes on for, like, an hour before it's time for the football. We cease hostilities like it's WWI and celebrate the goals (both from set pieces?) together. As soon as it's over, the bad blood returns. They bowl us out for about 80 and spend the whole thing swearing at us.

Probably the most enjoyable heavy defeat of my life.

[Baz]

ITV are showing all of Euro 96 this month.

Anybody else going to be watching ITV's replays of it? Memories of it as a tournament?

Sounds great.

Euro 96 Relived starts on ITV Hub on Monday May 11.

In addition, ITV4 will also play out the X games that featured the England football team in some of their most memorable head to heads, as well as the final between Y and the Z.

Class.

[Ian]

Wait, so only using ITV's shitty online player? Fuck's sake.

[Kikó]

I seem to remember being out and not watching England Scotland - only hearing about it later. I had a memory for years that it was because it was only on Sky so we couldn't watch it (which wasn't true right?).

I remember having a pocket book to add all the scores into. I think I got bored half way through because I had random teams in there and scores like 4-12 which probably didn't happen.

I didn't watch 94 at all, or if we did, there is no memory of it. My only memory of 90 is playing the megadrive game for years.

[Ian]

Thinking back I think I might have ended up with the whole England / Netherlands game on video.

Shearer / Sheringham.

[Spikey M]

The first tournament I was properly able to get into. None have lived upto it since.

[Vercetti]

I remember battering the dutch fairly vividly. And then genuinely thinking we were going to win it.

USA '94 was my first, but only the few games I was allowed to sit up for, as an eight-year-old, which won't have been many. I do remember having several USA '94 mini-footballs from McDonald's, though. They were everywhere at my school after that.

[Ian]

View Tweet

What a stat.

[Manc]

https://www.itv.com/hub/uefa-euro-20...es/2a4494a0002

To get you in the mood.

[Baz]

https://www.itv.com/hub/uefa-euro-20...es/2a4494a0002

To get you in the mood.

Or give you massive spoilers.

[wullie]

I remember before the tournament there was a lot of people asking if Shearer was good enough for England because he hadn't scored in all the worthless friendlies we spent two years playing.

[Ian]

I'd forgotten that that was a thing and a sort of sigh of relief when he scored against Switzerland. Looking at Wikipedia he got 5 of his 30 England goals in his first 21 caps and the other 25 in the remaining 42.

And looking at the squad going into the tournament Fowler and Ferdinand didn't have many caps or goals between them.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I don't understand why Ian Wright didn't get more internationals in the mid 90s. His lethal finishing without much else going on is normally the sort of profile that pays dividends at international level. Taylor and Venables seemed to hate him, given some of the wank that got games up front in that period.

I know his record of 33 (9) with four of the nine being against San Marino doesn't sound great, but 16 of the 33 were off the bench.

[Alex]

The Gascoigne goal against Scotland probably remains the most excited I've ever been watching football in my life. I imagine it always will at this point. Just complete, wide-eyed wonder as a nine year old watching him do that. Absolutely bawled my eyes out when we went out on penalties to the point that my Dad had to tell me to get a grip.

[Disco]

I too remember a time when we didn't have 20 extra years of England baggage to carry into every tournament.

Italia 90 was the first one I remember actually watching (it's what got me interested in football really) and the following 6 years were a parade of shite so when 96 rolled around during the GREAT BRITISH SUMMER, with THE SONG playing on loop pretty much everywhere it felt like a huge deal. We had Shearer in his pomp up front (or STRIKER as it was before people cared about Thierry Henry) and GAZZA who, wait for it, had played in the impossibly distant footballing land of Italy. In hindsight it was just my first proper ride on the England hype merry go round (THAT celebration, THAT Sun front page picture, little flags that you could put on the car etc) but when we won the last two group games (trouncing total football in the process) it all went into overdrive. I listened to the Spain game on my Walkman while we moved house and then the semi-final was a sort of house warming party.

It's odd to look back at it as only two or three actual games of football, it seemed so huge and important at the time, full of sexily unknown players and post-Cold War countries that barely existed. Also slightly sad in that everything that came after felt different, tournaments were now opportunities for inevitable disappointment, the hype hollow and facile. All of which is part of growing up of course, but 96 was the last tournament where I had that childish optimism, after that it was a succession of dreadful penalties and quickly emptying pubs.

[SvN]

France 98 was where I lost my footballing innocence. After the glory of Euro 96, I was so sure we were going to win the World Cup, especially after winning Le Tournoi the summer before.

[Baz]

All of which is part of growing up of course, but 96 was the last tournament where I had that childish optimism, after that it was a succession of dreadful penalties and quickly emptying pubs.

France 98 was where I lost my footballing innocence. After the glory of Euro 96, I was so sure we were going to win the World Cup, especially after winning Le Tournoi the summer before.

Reminded me about this thread I made: When Did You Stop Caring About England?

Also, when looking for that I came across this now semi-redundant thread: Guess The England Squad For Euro 2020 & Qatar 2022.

[Disco]

98 was almost there (it was my first drinking tournament) with the Owen goal and the Beckham red card but all it really did was cement the template that we came to expect from England at tournaments.

[Alex]

I don't understand why Ian Wright didn't get more internationals in the mid 90s. His lethal finishing without much else going on is normally the sort of profile that pays dividends at international level. Taylor and Venables seemed to hate him, given some of the wank that got games up front in that period.

I know his record of 33 (9) with four of the nine being against San Marino doesn't sound great, but 16 of the 33 were off the bench.

We seemed to have more strikers that we knew what to do with in the nineties. Or at least more than we knew how to properly manage. Ian Wright, Robbie Fowler and Andy Cole are the three who always seemed to me to be the biggest missed opportunities. Wright was definitely involved and contributed the most out of the three but, as you say, nowhere near as much as a player of his calibre could have.

Fowler I remember getting a respectable amount of game time for a period and doing OK, but never translating the Liverpool form. I seem to remember him going off the boil quite suddenly too. Andy Cole is the strangest one. I remember almost nothing of him in an England shirt. Apparently he got fifteen caps and a solitary goal. For a player of his quality, almost a complete non-entity for his country. What was going on while he was at his peak at United? Where we just completely ignoring him at international level for some reason?

[Baz]

Similarly Matt Le Tissier?

Didn't Sheringham have beef with Andy Cole?

[Josh]

I was 9 when Euro 96 was on so was prime for my first tournament and genuinely believed England were going to win the whole thing and we would always win every tournament we played in forever.

I lived with my mum and sister at the time who both hated football so watched every game alone. I have a vivid memory of watching the semi final in my bedroom where I had the world smallest tv on top of a wardrobe and I was sat on my bunk bed watching.

I cried like a baby when Southgate missed that penalty. Have always hated him since.

[Alex]

Similarly Matt Le Tissier?

Didn't Sheringham have beef with Andy Cole?

Aye. If some sort of real-life Matt Le Tissier regen turned up as a 17 year old now we'd be wetting ourselves with excitement. Fucking eight caps for England back then though. That's obscene.

[Manc]

2018 for the kids of today must have been magical.

[Ian]

My recollection is just that he (Cole) never really got into the games. Whether he didn't care or it just never clicked with the squads he was in at the time or what I've no idea.

I don't think he ever got a proper run in the team but then he probably really never showed enough in the games he had to warrant one.

[niko_cee]

Our mid-90s forward options were insane, although maybe that's just reflective of the calibre of the league.

I've never really forgiven Venables for overlooking Fowler and Le Tissier so consistently in favour of his mate and all round massive twat Teddy Sheringham, even if he was a good player. Before Fowler got broken he was on an entirely different level, shame coke/Craig Short/fatness got to him so early. Cantona's comeback game remains one of my all time favourite matches.

[Ian]

Where would a player of Le Tissier's work ethic even play now? He'd get run off the pitch by all the tedious cardio monsters who pass for exciting players these days.

I cried like a baby when Southgate missed that penalty. Have always hated him since.

Bit harsh on Sir Waistcoat, looking back now. I reserve my ire for the bottling shitbags who let him go up before them.

Also Wikipedia suggests we didn't make any substitutions.

[niko_cee]

Le Tissier would play as a 10 for Southaampton, and be way too good for them, but stay forever regardless. A sort of carthorse Eden Hazard (who also seems to be a player who doesn't really crave the limelight of galatico status, even if he has it now).

[Josh]

Where would a player of Le Tissier's work ethic even play now? He'd get run off the pitch by all the tedious cardio monsters who pass for exciting players these days.



Bit harsh on Sir Waistcoat, looking back now. I reserve my ire for the bottling shitbags who let him go up before them.

Also Wikipedia suggests we didn't make any substitutions.

Of course, history and actually learning a bit about football means that I understand that my hatred was/is misdirected and irrational.

But little 9 year old me can't get over the fact that he was responsible for making me cry.

[Ian]

Looking at that more it's even worse. Bugger all caps and obviously a defender.

I seem to recall in that semi-recent Euro 96 documentary Ince was discussed for not stepping up but you also had McManaman and Anderton on the pitch. And if push comes to shove and they won't put themselves forward the vastly more experienced captain Tony Adams.

[Jimmy Floyd]

France 98 was where I lost my footballing innocence. After the glory of Euro 96, I was so sure we were going to win the World Cup, especially after winning Le Tournoi the summer before.

That for me describes Euro 2000. I guess it's just the age you are, and that age is around twelve.

[Ian]

Euro 2000.

I was so happy when Owen put is in the lead against Romania. It was all going to be fine.

[niko_cee]

In my mind Southgate was good at pens, and may have taken some for Palace (or was it Villa by then?), but that may not be at all true.

[Kikó]

98 was almost there (it was my first drinking tournament) with the Owen goal and the Beckham red card but all it really did was cement the template that we came to expect from England at tournaments.

Mine was 2002. I was disgustingly drunk after we beat the Argentinians. Stumbled home (I'm sure like those comedy drunk videos) and chucked up in my sink.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Shearer 63 (30)
Sheringham 51 (11)
Wright 33 (9)
Fowler 26 (7)
Ferdinand 17 (5)
Cole 15 (1)
Le Tissier 8 (0)

We also found time to give Stan Collymore three caps, David Hirst three, Dion Dublin four and Chris Sutton one.

[Ian]

https://www.facebook.com/officialcpf...6547829530762/

That is apparently all Southgate's Palace goals. No pens but those first few are all really nice goals.

[Mellberg]

In my mind Southgate was good at pens, and may have taken some for Palace (or was it Villa by then?), but that may not be at all true.

He was at Villa. Only other pen I remember taking was against West ham in a League Cup shootout. He missed.

[SvN]

You know, I would've bet my life he was at Palace during Euro 96.

[Mellberg]

Think he'd been there a year. Remember being convinced he'd score as he was a Villa player. Then came the tears.