Euro 96

[TheGoon]

ITV 4 (and the ITV hub) are showing all of Euro 96 from tonight onwards, starting with England vs Switzerland in the opener. We’ve got little other actual football to talk about at the minute, this’ll need to do. 

I fancy Germany for this tournament tbh.

[The Naitch]

I think it's a cracking idea to show the whole tournament like they're doing.

[The Naitch]

 

[The Naitch]

Shearer's fair smashed that. No chance of keeping that out.

[FifeArab]

How did they not score ffs.

[David W]

Same old - Gabriel Clarke visiting the England Scotland camp at half-time.

[The Naitch]

Nailed on penalty IMHO.

[TheGoon]

The Swiss looked pretty decent there. England were so one-dimensional it was actually funny.

[Busta Nut]

12 minutes ago, The Naitch said:

Nailed on penalty IMHO.

Defo was, English saying it was harsh tae, lotta shite.

Looking forward to tomorrow;s games now.

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

A mediocre England team bumbling their way through an easy draw to a semi final as their fans and media confidently declare "it's coming home"? Sounds familiar.

[DA Baracus]

24 minutes ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

A mediocre England team bumbling their way through an easy draw to a semi final as their fans and media confidently declare "it's coming home"? Sounds familiar.

I think that's unfair. England had a difficult group. As their opener saw, Switzerland were decent. We had a very good squad and, had we scored that penalty, I think we would have beat them. As it was they then finished the game off. Netherlands had a fantastic squad and England smashed them. 

England did very well to finish top of that group, and having just looked at their team had a strong squad themselves.

[Gaz]

2 hours ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

A mediocre England team bumbling their way through an easy draw to a semi final as their fans and media confidently declare "it's coming home"? Sounds familiar.

If Paul Gascoigne was six inches taller, they'd have won that tournament. They had a great squad.

[Theroadlesstravelled]

That was a good England squad.

Maybe not the defence but midfield and attack was excellent. Far better than anything they have now.

[Marten]

I remember that tournament well and our humiliating loss against England. I was still happy with Kluivert scoring the goal to get us through after a 4-1 defeat though. 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

16 minutes ago, Marten said:

I remember that tournament well and our humiliating loss against England. I was still happy with Kluivert scoring the goal to get us through after a 4-1 defeat though. 

Still mildly raging at Kluivert tbh.

[BFTD]

Can't be arsed watching it again myself, but I'll be interested to see the reaction to England v Spain on here. They were pretty fortunate to make it through that, IIRC.

We did as well as we deserved. Completely toothless in attack, as we would be for the next...twenty-five years, almost? Christ.

[Gaz]

I watched the Scotland v England game in a pub in Kenmore as a mate of mine were away fishing for the weekend with my Dad.

Can mind the amount of utter simpletons who were saying Gary McAllister was shite. I was 13 years old and even then I could see he was probably our best player.

[Guest JTS98]

England at Euro 96 were a funny team.

Some good players, certainly. But they only played well in fits and starts throughout the tournament and should by rights have been eliminated by Spain in the quarter-finals.

I'm not sure if they'd have made it as far if they hadn't had the advantage of playing all their games at Wembley. A bit of a sneaky thing for a host country to organise the tournament so that they always play in their normal home stadium.

But, yeah, if they'd beaten Germany, you'd imagine they'd have taken managed a home match against the Czechs to become champions of Europe.

Overall a strange tournament. A lot of teams in transition. France preparing to host the World Cup, the Dutch with a lot of good players but who would be stronger two years later also. The Czechs taking everyone by surprise, but then this team wasn't as good as their 2004 side. Scotland probably unlucky with the draw for the second Euros in a row. Spain probably the unlucky team who might well have won it if they had got the breaks against England. Germany somehow stumbling through to win in between poor World Cups.

A strange tournament at a strange time for European football.

Edited May 12, 2020 by JTS98

[DA Baracus]

Berti Vogts was the Germany manager at that tournament.

His career went on a bit of a downward trajectory after that...

[Melanius Mullarkey]

1 hour ago, Gaz said:

I watched the Scotland v England game in a pub in Kenmore as a mate of mine were away fishing for the weekend with my Dad.

Can mind the amount of utter simpletons who were saying Gary McAllister was shite. I was 13 years old and even then I could see he was probably our best player.

I watched Scotland England in the student union in Dundee with my mate who is a geordie.  I poured my pint over him when Gazza scored and he got chucked out.  I later found him lying in a pool of his own vomit up a close on Castle Street.

Simpler times.