UEFA Euro 1996

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UEFA Euro 96

England '96
UEFA Euro 1996 official logo
Tournament details
Host country	England
Dates	8 June – 30 June
Teams	16
Venue(s)	8 (in 8 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Germany (3rd title)
Runner-up	Czech Republic
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	64 (2.06 per match)
Attendance	1,276,137 (41,166 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Alan Shearer (5 goals)
Best player	Matthias Sammer[1]

The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 96) was hosted by England. It was the tenth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA, and the first to use the "Euro" name. The tournament's final stages took place between 8 June and 30 June 1996. The slogan of the tournament was "Football Comes Home", as it was the first time the tournament had taken place in England, where the rules of the game were first standardised. English football and popular culture has since referenced the competition fondly even though the home team did not reach the final.

Since the Taylor Report, England now boasted enough all-seater stadia of sufficient capacity to hold an expanded tournament. Although not all the games were sold out, the tournament had the highest aggregate attendance in championship history (1,276,000) and the highest average per game of 41,158 for the revised 16 team format with 31 games. Only Germany had had a higher average attendance in championship history with an average of 56,656 in 1988 but only staged 15 games in an 8 team championship.

Contents 1 Qualification 2 Venues 3 Match officials 4 Squads 5 Summary 5.1 First round 5.2 Quarter-finals and the Semi-finals 5.3 Final 6 Results 6.1 First round 6.1.1 Group A 6.1.2 Group B 6.1.3 Group C 6.1.4 Group D 6.2 Knockout stages 6.2.1 Quarter-finals 6.2.2 Semi-finals 6.2.3 Final 7 Statistics 7.1 Goalscorers 7.2 UEFA Team of the Tournament 7.3 Fastest goal 7.4 Average goals 8 Cultural Significance 9 References

[edit] Qualification

Fifteen teams had to go through a qualifying round to reach the final stage. England qualified automatically as hosts of the event. This was the first European Championship to introduce the current format of 16 countries competing in the final tournament. UEFA had made the decision to expand the tournament as in the late 1980s and early 1990s it was far easier for European nations to qualify for the World Cup than their own continental championship; 14 of the 24 teams at the 1982, 1986 and 1990 World Cups had been European, whereas the European Championship finals still involved only eight teams.

The qualifying round was played throughout 1994 and 1995. There were eight qualifying groups of six teams each, with the exception of group 3, which only had five. The matches were played in a home-and-away basis.

The winner and the runner-up of each group qualified automatically, with the exception of the two worst runners-up. These two teams had to play an additional playoff between them (single match in neutral ground), to determine the 16th team to join all others in the final tournament. This was between Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands at Anfield Stadium, Liverpool which the Dutch won 2-0.

The following teams participated in the final tournament:

Bulgaria (first appearance)  Croatia (first appearance)  Czech Republic (first appearance)*  Denmark [holders]  England (hosts)  France  Germany  Italy

Netherlands  Portugal  Romania  Russia (first appearance)**  Scotland  Spain  Switzerland (first appearance)  Turkey (first appearance)

* Since the break-up of Czechoslovakia. ** Since the break-up of the USSR.

[edit] Venues

London	Manchester	Liverpool	Birmingham
Wembley Stadium Capacity: 78,000	Old Trafford Capacity: 55,000	Anfield Capacity: 41,000	Villa Park Capacity: 40,000
Leeds	Sheffield	Newcastle	Nottingham
Elland Road Capacity: 40,000	Hillsborough Stadium Capacity: 39,000	St James' Park Capacity: 37,000	City Ground Capacity: 30,000

[edit] Match officials

Austria Gerd Grabher Belgium Guy Goethals Belarus Vadim Zhuk Bulgaria Atanas Uzunov Czech Republic Václav Krondl

Denmark Peter Mikkelsen Kim Milton Nielsen England David Elleray Dermot Gallagher France Marc Batta Germany Bernd Heynemann Hellmut Krug

Hungary Sándor Puhl Italy Piero Ceccarini Pierluigi Pairetto Netherlands Mario van der Ende Russia Nikolai Levnikov Scotland Leslie Mottram

Spain Antonio López Nieto Manuel Díaz Vega Sweden Anders Frisk Leif Sundell Switzerland Serge Muhmenthaler Turkey Ahmet Çakar

[edit] Squads

For a list of all squads that played in the final tournament, see 1996 UEFA European Football Championship squads.

[edit] Summary

[edit] First round

The hosts, England, got off to a slightly disappointing start in their opening match, drawing 1-1 with the Swiss when Alan Shearer’s 23rd minute goal was equalled by a late penalty kick. However, England defeated rival Scotland 2-0 in their next game and then produced one of their finest performances ever with a 4-1 win over the Netherlands. Patrick Kluivert’s late goal for the Netherlands secured his team second-place in the group and ensured that Scotland would exit another major competition on goal difference.

Groups C and D saw some surprising results as the Czech Republic and Croatia, whose national teams had only come into existence within the past several years, qualified for the knockout stages. The Czechs lost to Germany, the eventual group winners, in their opener but then defeated Italy and drew with Russia. Italy’s defeat meant they had to beat Germany in their final game to progress but the World Cup finalists could only manage a 0-0 draw and were eliminated. In Group D, Croatia qualified for the quarter-finals with wins over Turkey (1-0) and Denmark (3-0). The loss to the Croats ultimately sent the Danes, the surprise champions of 1992, home earlier than expected.

The other three quarter-finalist were Portugal (whose Golden Generation was competing at its first major tournament), Spain, and a France team featuring a young Zinedine Zidane.

[edit] Quarter-finals and the Semi-finals

The knockout stages were earmarked by negative, defensive play and as result only 9 goals were scored in the seven games and four of the matches were decided on penalties. The first quarter-final between the hosts and Spain ended goalless, although England had several major calls go their way as the Spanish had two goals disallowed and two valid claims for a penalty denied ^[2]. The English progressed 4-2 on spot kicks. The shootout is still remembered for the emphatic reaction of Stuart Pearce after he scored England’s third penalty, erasing the memory of his miss in the 1990 World Cup semi-final. France and the Netherlands also played out a drab 0-0 draw with France winning the penalty shootout 5-4. Jürgen Klinsmann opened the scoring for Germany in their match against Croatia. A great goal from Davor Šuker evened the score after 51 minutes before Matthias Sammer of Germany scored eight minutes later and the game ended 2-1 to Germany. The Czech Republic progressed after beating Portugal 1-0.

The first semi-final, featuring France and the Czech Republic, resulted in yet another 0-0 draw and penalties were required again. Reynald Pedros was the lone player to miss in the shootout as the Czech Republic won 6-5. The other semi-final was a repeat of the 1990 World Cup semi-final between Germany and England. Alan Shearer headed in after 3 minutes to give his side the lead but Stefan Kuntz evened the score less than 15 minutes later and the score remained 1-1 after 90 minutes. In extra-time, Paul Gascoigne came very close to scoring a Golden Goal but missed a cross from Shearer by mere inches and Kuntz had a goal disallowed for pushing. Neither team was able to find a second goal and another knockout game in this competition required penalties. Both sides scored their first five kicks but in the sixth round, Gareth Southgate had his penalty saved, allowing Andreas Möller to score the winning goal.

[edit] Final

The final saw the upstart Czech Republic hoping to repeat the dramatics of Euro 76 when Czechoslovakia defeated West Germany; the Germans were aiming to secure their third European Championship. A repeat of 1976 looked possible when Patrick Berger scored from a penalty in 59th minute to put the Czech ahead. However, German substitute Oliver Bierhoff scored to make it 1-1, sending the game to extra-time. Five minutes into the extra frame, Bierhoff’s shot was mishandled by Czech goalkeeper Kouba and the ball ended up in the back of the net for the first Golden Goal in the history of the competition. Germany were European champions once again.

[edit] Results

[edit] First round

Note: All times local (BST/UTC+1).

[edit] Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
England	3	2	1	0	7	2	+5	7
Netherlands	3	1	1	1	3	4	-1	4
Scotland	3	1	1	1	1	2	-1	4
Switzerland	3	0	1	2	1	4	-3	1

8 June 1996 15:00	England	1 – 1	Switzerland	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 76,567 Referee: Manuel Díaz Vega (Spain)
	Shearer  23'	(Report)	Türkyilmaz  84' (pen.)

---

10 June 1996 16:30	Netherlands	0 – 0	Scotland	Villa Park, Birmingham Attendance: 34,363 Referee: Leif Sundell (Sweden)
		(Report)

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13 June 1996 19:30	Switzerland	0 – 2	Netherlands	Villa Park, Birmingham Attendance: 36,800 Referee: Atanas Uzunov (Bulgaria)
		(Report)	Cruyff  66' Bergkamp  79'

---

15 June 1996 15:00	Scotland	0 – 2	England	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 76,864 Referee: Pierluigi Pairetto (Italy)
		(Report)	Shearer  53' Gascoigne  79'

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18 June 1996 19:30	Scotland	1 – 0	Switzerland	Villa Park, Birmingham Attendance: 34,946 Referee: Václav Krondl (Czech Republic)
	McCoist  36'	(Report)

---

18 June 1996 19:30	Netherlands	1 – 4	England	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 76,798 Referee: Gerd Grabher (Austria)
	Kluivert  78'	(Report)	Shearer  23' (pen.)  57' Sheringham  51'  62'

[edit] Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
France	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3	7
Spain	3	1	2	0	4	3	+1	5
Bulgaria	3	1	1	1	3	4	-1	4
Romania	3	0	0	3	1	4	-3	0

9 June 1996 14:30	Spain	1 – 1	Bulgaria	Elland Road, Leeds Attendance: 24,006 Referee: Piero Ceccarini (Italy)
	Alfonso  74'	(Report)	Stoichkov  65' (pen.)

---

10 June 1996 19:30	Romania	0 – 1	France	St James' Park, Newcastle Attendance: 26,323 Referee: Hellmut Krug (Germany)
		(Report)	Dugarry  25'

---

13 June 1996 16:30	Bulgaria	1 – 0	Romania	St James' Park, Newcastle Attendance: 19,107 Referee: Peter Mikkelsen (Denmark)
	Stoichkov  3'	(Report)

---

15 June 1996 18:00	France	1 – 1	Spain	Elland Road, Leeds Attendance: 35,626 Referee: Vadim Zhuk (Belarus)
	Djorkaeff  49'	(Report)	Caminero  86'

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18 June 1996 16:30	France	3 – 1	Bulgaria	St James' Park, Newcastle Attendance: 26,976 Referee: Dermot Gallagher (England)
	Blanc  21' Penev  63' (o.g.) Loko  90'	(Report)	Stoichkov  69'

---

18 June 1996 16:30	Romania	1 – 2	Spain	Elland Road, Leeds Attendance: 32,719 Referee: Ahmet Çakar (Turkey)
	Răducioiu  29'	(Report)	Manjarín  11' Amor  84'

[edit] Group C

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Germany	3	2	1	0	5	0	+5	7
Czech Republic	3	1	1	1	5	6	-1	4
Italy	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
Russia	3	0	1	2	4	8	-4	1

9 June 1996 17:00	Germany	2 – 0	Czech Republic	Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 37,300 Referee: David Elleray (England)
	Ziege  26' Möller  32'	(Report)

---

11 June 1996 16:30	Italy	2 – 1	Russia	Anfield, Liverpool Attendance: 35,120 Referee: Leslie Mottram (Scotland)
	Casiraghi  5'  52'	(Report)	Tsymbalar  21'

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14 June 1996 19:30	Czech Republic	2 – 1	Italy	Anfield, Liverpool Attendance: 37,320 Referee: Antonio López Nieto (Spain)
	Nedvěd  4' Bejbl  35'	(Report)	Chiesa  18'

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16 June 1996 15:00	Russia	0 – 3	Germany	Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 50,760 Referee: Kim Milton Nielsen (Denmark)
		(Report)	Sammer  56' Klinsmann  77'  90'

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19 June 1996 19:30	Russia	3 – 3	Czech Republic	Anfield, Liverpool Attendance: 21,128 Referee: Anders Frisk (Sweden)
	Mostovoi  49' Tetradze  54' Beschastnykh  85'	(Report)	Suchopárek  5' Kuka  19' Šmicer  88'

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19 June 1996 19:30	Italy	0 – 0	Germany	Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 53,740 Referee: Guy Goethals (Belgium)
		(Report)

[edit] Group D

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Portugal	3	2	1	0	5	1	+4	7
Croatia	3	2	0	1	4	3	+1	6
Denmark	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
Turkey	3	0	0	3	0	5	-5	0

9 June 1996 19:30	Denmark	1 – 1	Portugal	Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield Attendance: 34,993 Referee: Mario van der Ende (Netherlands)
	B. Laudrup  22'	(Report)	Sá Pinto  53'

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11 June 1996 19:30	Turkey	0 – 1	Croatia	City Ground, Nottingham Attendance: 22,406 Referee: Serge Muhmenthaler (Switzerland)
		(Report)	Vlaović  86'

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14 June 1996 16:30	Portugal	1 – 0	Turkey	City Ground, Nottingham Attendance: 22,670 Referee: Sándor Puhl (Hungary)
	Couto  66'	(Report)

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16 June 1996 18:00	Croatia	3 – 0	Denmark	Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield Attendance: 33,671 Referee: Marc Batta (France)
	Šuker  53' (pen.)  90' Boban  81'	(Report)

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19 June 1996 16:30	Croatia	0 – 3	Portugal	City Ground, Nottingham Attendance: 20,484 Referee: Bernd Heynemann (Germany)
		(Report)	Figo  4' Pinto  33' Domingos  82'

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19 June 1996 16:30	Turkey	0 – 3	Denmark	Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield Attendance: 28,951 Referee: Nikolai Levnikov (Russia)
		(Report)	B. Laudrup  50'  84' Nielsen  69'

[edit] Knockout stages

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	23 June – Manchester
	Germany	2
					26 June – London
	Croatia	1
					Germany (pen.)	1 (6)
	22 June – London
					England	1 (5)
	Spain	0 (2)
									30 June – London
	England (pen.)	0 (4)
									Germany (a.e.t.)	2
	23 June – Birmingham
									Czech Republic	1
	Czech Republic	1
					26 June – Manchester
	Portugal	0
					Czech Republic (pen.)	0 (6)
	22 June – Liverpool
					France	0 (5)
	France (pen.)	0 (5)
	Netherlands	0 (4)

[edit] Quarter-finals

22 June 1996 15:00	Spain	0 – 0 (a.e.t.)	England	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 75,440 Referee: Marc Batta (France)
		(Report)

		Penalties
	Hierro Amor Belsúe Nadal	2 – 4	Shearer Platt Pearce Gascoigne

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22 June 1996 18:30	France	0 – 0 (a.e.t.)	Netherlands	Anfield, Liverpool Attendance: 37,465 Referee: Antonio López Nieto (Spain)
		(Report)

		Penalties
	Zidane Djorkaeff Lizarazu Guérin Blanc	5 – 4	de Kock R. de Boer Kluivert Seedorf Blind

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23 June 1996 15:00	Germany	2 – 1	Croatia	Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 43,412 Referee: Leif Sundell (Sweden)
	Klinsmann  20' (pen.) Sammer  59'	(Report)	Šuker  51'

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23 June 1996 18:30	Czech Republic	1 – 0	Portugal	Villa Park, Birmingham Attendance: 26,832 Referee: Hellmut Krug (Germany)
	Poborský  53'	(Report)

[edit] Semi-finals

26 June 1996 16:00	France	0 – 0 (a.e.t.)	Czech Republic	Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 43,877 Referee: Leslie Mottram (Scotland)
		(Report)

		Penalties
	Zidane Djorkaeff Lizarazu Guérin Blanc Pedros	5 – 6	Kubík Nedvěd Berger Poborský Rada Kadlec

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26 June 1996 19:30	Germany	1 – 1 (a.e.t.)	England	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 75,862 Referee: Sándor Puhl (Hungary)
	Kuntz  16'	(Report)	Shearer  3'

		Penalties
	Häßler Strunz Reuter Ziege Kuntz Möller	6 – 5	Shearer Platt Pearce Gascoigne Sheringham Southgate

[edit] Final

30 June 1996 19:00	Germany	2 – 1 (a.e.t.)	Czech Republic	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 73,611 Referee: Pierluigi Pairetto (Italy)
	Bierhoff  73'  95'	(Report)	Berger  59' (pen.)

Euro 1996 Champions
Germany Third title

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Goalscorers

5 goals

• Alan Shearer

3 goals

• Hristo Stoichkov
• Jürgen Klinsmann
• Davor Šuker
• Brian Laudrup

2 goals

• Oliver Bierhoff
• Matthias Sammer
• Teddy Sheringham
• Pierluigi Casiraghi

[edit] UEFA Team of the Tournament

Goalkeepers	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
David Seaman Andreas Köpke	Radoslav Látal Laurent Blanc Marcel Desailly Matthias Sammer Paolo Maldini	Didier Deschamps Steve McManaman Paul Gascoigne Rui Costa Karel Poborský Dieter Eilts	Alan Shearer Hristo Stoichkov Davor Šuker Youri Djorkaeff Pavel Kuka

UEFA Tournament Golden Boot Award

• Alan Shearer^[1]

UEFA Player of the Tournament

• Matthias Sammer^[1]

[edit] Fastest goal

3 minutes : Alan Shearer (England vs Germany); Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria vs Romania)

[edit] Average goals

2.06 goals per game

[edit] Cultural Significance

The tournament took place towards the end of a cultural and artistic movement in the United Kingdom known as Cool Britannia and the musical movement known as Britpop, both of which were highly patriotic and focused almost entirely on British and English references and influences. One commentator said that Britpop ended when Gareth Southgate missed his penalty in the semi-final of Euro '96.

[edit] References

UEFA Euro 1996 stages v • d • e
Group A Group B Group C Group D Knockout stage Final
UEFA Euro 1996 general information
Qualification Squads Schedule Officials
v • d • e UEFA Euro 1996 finalists Champions Germany Runners-up Czech Republic Eliminated in semi-finals England · France Eliminated in quarter-finals Croatia · Netherlands · Portugal · Spain Eliminated in group stage Bulgaria · Denmark · Italy · Romania · Russia · Scotland · Switzerland · Turkey
v • d • e UEFA European Football Championships Tournaments France 1960 · Spain 1964 · Italy 1968 · Belgium 1972 · Yugoslavia 1976 · Italy 1980 · France 1984 · West Germany 1988 · Sweden 1992 · England 1996 · Belgium/Netherlands 2000 · Portugal 2004 · Austria/Switzerland 2008 · Poland/Ukraine 2012 · 2016 · 2020 Finals 1960 · 1964 · 1968 · 1972 · 1976 · 1980 · 1984 · 1988 · 1992 · 1996 · 2000 · 2004 · 2008 Qualification 1960 · 1964 · 1968 · 1972 · 1976 · 1980 · 1984 · 1988 · 1992 · 1996 · 2000 · 2004 · 2008
v • d • e International football FIFA · World Cup · Confederations Cup · U-20 World Cup · U-17 World Cup · Olympics · Asian Games · All-Africa Games · Pan American Games · Minor Tournaments · World Rankings · Player of the Year · Teams · Competitions · Federations · Codes Asia AFC – Asian Cup Africa CAF – Africa Cup of Nations North America CONCACAF – Gold Cup South America CONMEBOL – Copa América Oceania OFC – Nations Cup Europe UEFA – European Championship Non-FIFA NF-Board – Viva World Cup