Today I'm going back 25 years to 26th June 1996 and England's European Championships Semi-Final against Germany at the old Wembley Stadium.
As you can see from the programme cover, it was another double header issue covering both Semi-Finals albeit that nobody could have attended both games. It's another edition that must be readily available as it'll set you back only about £5 from a dealer today.
Back in 1996 we were in the midst of a tabloid newspaper circulation war chiefly between the Sun and the Piers Morgan's organ the Daily Mirror. We had endured both papers' attempts to portray the players as drunken louts following their pre-tournament trip to Hong Kong and the infamous "Dentist's Chair" but now, just a couple of weeks later, those same players were being built up as heroes after wins against Scotland, Holland and Spain. Incredibly the latter win was secured on penalties, a discipline that we never thought that we'd see England master.
The tabloids stooped to their standard low with the Mirror's front page carrying mocked up photos of Stuart Pearce and Paul Gascoigne in British Tommy-style tin helmets under the headline of "Achtung! Surrender!". The Sun's were slightly (but only slightly) less brazen with "Let's Blitz Fritz" headlining an article inside the paper. There's a sizeable minority of England fans who have never needed any encouragement to roll out the World War Two references and here were the tabloids pandering to them. No doubt, if there had been violence at the stadium that night the tabloids would have been queuing up to admonish the hooligans without any recognition of their own incitement. In fact the game passed off very peaceably in the stadium and the only trouble that there was took place in City centres around Britain where there were reports of German made cars being damaged by drunken yobs.
Confidence in England was sky high and, sure enough, England went ahead after only three minutes following yet another headed goal from Alan Shearer. Thirty years on from England's only tournament win and we were on our way. However, it wasn't long before the Germans had their equaliser. Kuntz! There was no further scoring in regulation time and we settled down for thirty added minutes. During that added period, Darren Anderton hit the post when it was surely easier to score and nobody that saw it will forget Gazza sliding in in front of an open goal and failing to get enough of a connection on a crossed ball for what would have been a certain winner. It was that close you'd think that he'd have made it if only he had elected to play in longer studs.
So once again it was all down to penalties and with England going first there was an opportunity for me to roll out the little known fact that the side going first in the shootout wins twice as often as the team going second. Amazingly England scored all five of their penalties and at 5-4 the Germans had to score their final penalty otherwise England had won. Up stepped Kuntz again and it was 5-5 and we were into sudden death. Somebody had to miss and that somebody was Gareth Southgate. England's dream died as Andreas Moller dispatched the sixth German penalty.
And so here we are today, a quarter of a century later. Soon to be playing the Germans in the European Championships at Wembley once again. And Gareth Southgate? Well after appearing in a pizza advert with a paper bag over his head he's gone on to become England manager and has his chance for redemption against the Germans on Tuesday night. It's almost guaranteed to go to penalties isn't it? But maybe just maybe.... Southgate you're the one. You still turn me on. Football's coming home again!
CRB Match No. 1049
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