Why we loved them
THERE’S SOMETHING ROMANTIC about failure. It’s one of the reasons tragedies have such a sweet resonance with us. With football, there’s a special place in our hearts for those that entertained and enthralled but never quite reached the promised land.
England’s World Cup campaign in 1990 is a good example – decent football, decent players and the enticing emotion of them coming up short.
At Euro 1996, Terry Venables’s side offered something similar.
In what was a dull and largely uninspiring tournament, they provided one of the very few exceptional performances when dismantling the hotly-tipped Dutch in an emphatic group clash.
Paul Gascoigne’s individual magic against Scotland was another moment to savour while Stuart Pearce exorcising some painful penalty demons against Spain tugged at the heart strings.
With a number of strong, determined personalities like Tony Adams and Paul Ince dovetailing with Gascoigne’s dynamism, the intelligence of Teddy Sheringham and ruthlessness of Alan Shearer, it was a superb group.
The story
England qualified automatically as hosts and the world seemed in one, non-stop Brit-obsessed whirlwind.
It was Noel Gallagher’s Union Jack guitar, Blur versus Oasis, Ewan McGregor, heroin chic and Nick Hornby.
Oh, and there was New Labour with Tony Blair ready to sweep England off its feet in the 1997 General Election.
It was Cool Britannia and inevitable that for the one summer, the world came to England.
It said much that the UK’s number one single when June came around was ‘Three Lions’, a football anthem written and performed by Ian Broudie of The Lightning Seeds, with some help from comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel.
On the pitch, there had been a litany of friendlies and the 1995 Umbra Cup to help with preparations and to assist Venables with fine-tuning his squad.
Incredibly, with the club only having won a League and Cup double for the second time in three years, Manchester United had just two representatives – Gary and Phil Neville.
Gary Pallister was ignored because of the physical demands of the tournament and his well-documented fitness issues while David Beckham, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes were all deemed too inexperienced.
Still, it was a golden era for strikers and goalkeepers, as evidenced by the inclusion of David Seaman, Tim Flowers, Shearer, Sheringham, Les Ferdinand and Robbie Fowler in the squad.
Just a few weeks before the tournament began, Venables brought the squad to Thailand and then to Hong Kong for two exhibition games. There was chaos on the plane journey to Asia as a drunk Gascoigne got embroiled in a fight with an air steward. After they beat China in their opening game, the England players were given the night off to enjoy themselves. And that they most certainly did.
In the coming days, infamously, the photographs of the escapades hit the British red-tops. ‘Look at Gazza … a drunken oaf with no pride’, roared The Sun – the bastion of morality. But the images were damning and made the English squad look like a stag party. Many of the squad were snapped with ripped t-shirts, strapped to a ‘dentists’s chair’ and having tequila poured down their throats.
On the flight home, Gascoigne smashed up two TV screens after getting drunk again.
It was chaos.
But, once the tournament began, England responded well to the finger-pointing and animosity.
There was a rather dull opener against Switzerland though Alan Shearer did score for the first time in 12 games for his country.
Next up was a derby against Scotland where David Seaman and Gascoigne proved the difference.
After Shearer headed home a delicious Gary Neville cross, the Arsenal goalkeeper made a stunning stop from Gordon Durie’s near-post effort before stopping Gary McAllister’s penalty with his elbow.
Within 60 seconds, Gascoigne had latched onto a through-ball, expertly flicked over the head of a bamboozled Colin Hendry, before thumping a low volley past Andy Goram.
To celebrate, Gascoigne lay on the ground as Shearer picked up a nearby water bottle and sprayed the contents into his mouth.
It was the definitive two-fingered salute to the criticism he and the team had received on the eve of the competition.
In their final group game, England were superb against a dispirited Dutch and humiliated Guus Hiddink’s side with free-flowing, relentless attacking. The 4-1 scoreline was a fair reflection on how the game went.
In the quarter-finals, Seaman proved the hero again – saving from Nadal to win a penalty shootout for England after a scoreless 120 minutes of action.
But in the semis, they ran out of good fortune.
Shearer’s opener was cancelled out by Stefan Kuntz and the game went to extra-time. Darren Anderton struck the upright after McManaman had teed him up perfectly from close range.
Gascoigne, meanwhile, got his studs to a superb low cross from Shearer as he lunged despairingly to try and tip the ball to the net, but it wasn’t enough and penalties were needed.
Under such intense pressure, the shootout was a victory for strength of character. Each side scored their first five penalties before Gareth Southgate saw his low, right-footed effort stopped by Andreas Kopke.
Andy Moller stepped up and thumped his strike high to Seaman’s net to win it for the Germans as penalties cost England dear once more.
Stand-out player
Paul Gascoigne‘s off-field issues are widely documented but when he was good, he was very, very good.
Between the summer of 1995 and 1996, he was arguably at his best.
His debut season in Scotland was a colourful one but, at times, he was outrageous – his hat-trick against Aberdeen that clinched the league title a perfect example of what he was like in his pomp.
With England, he’d never better his Euro ’96 performances and it wasn’t only about the goal against Scotland.
There was his superb cross for Teddy Sheringham in that game – the striker seeing a close-range header brilliantly saved by Goram. There was his brilliant, driving run against the Dutch that led to Shearer making it 3-0.
And, of course, that chance against Germany – perhaps the perfect metaphor for his career: so close to being great.
Stand-out moment
The Dutch had their issues and had to come through a play-off against a poor Republic of Ireland side to get to Euro ’96 but they still had an exciting, supremely-talented side.
And England absolutely obliterated them over 90 minutes.
Shearer gave them the lead midway through the opening period from the penalty spot but there was a magical 10-minute spell after the break when they simply ran riot.
Sheringham flicked a header to the bottom corner before he and Gascoigne combined to brilliantly set up Shearer for his brace while Sheringham capped it all off by side-footing home from close-range.
The best display of the tournament.
The team
Starting XI (v Netherlands, 18/6/96)
David Seaman, Gary Neville, Tony Adams, Gareth Southgate, Stuart Pearce, Darren Anderton, Paul Ince, Paul Gascoigne, Steve McManaman, Teddy Sheringham, Alan Shearer.
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