June 20th and today I'm going back 21 years to the Euro 2000 European Championships held jointly in Belgium and the Netherlands and the debacle that was England versus Romania in Charleroi.
I wonder if any of you were getting worried about me not having posted a programme memory for the past three days? My excuse is that I was busy creating new memories with my trip to Hampden Park, Glasgow to watch the Euro 2020 Group Stage match between Croatia and the Czech Republic. I have to say that I really enjoyed the trip. It was 32 years since my last match in Scotland's National Stadium. Sadly Covid meant that the capacity was severely restricted and UEFA put paid to a larger attendance with their crazy ticket prices (£165 for a Cat 1 ticket for a match between two teams that most people wouldn't have been that interested in!). Anyway, I'm back! (Hurrah!).
The programme featured will set you back around £10 from a dealer today. The tournament was another one that was unusual in that it issued a unique programme for every game albeit that the content was heavily standardised. Nevertheless I have to say that I prefer this to only having a single tournament issue.
In 2000 I was living in France and I had managed to get my hands on tickets to seven games in the tournament which I bought prior to the draw having been made. I like to watch a range of matches and I had fallen out of love with watching England abroad at the time because away games involving England frequently meant trouble or such tight security that it removed the pleasure of going whereas games not involving England always seemed to be a celebration. In this case, when the qualifiers were known and the draw was made I ended up with tickets to see England anyway. A game in Charleroi was very attractive to me as I had visited the town many times with work without ever having managed to take in a match there.
England v Romania was the final Group game in a four team Group A that also included Germany and Portugal. England had lost to Portugal 3-2 (having been two goals ahead) in their opening game but beat the Germans 1-0 in game two and were now in a position to qualify for the knockout phase with a victory against the Romanians. Portugal had already won the Group but any of the remaining three sides could advance with a win.
England, under the management of Kevin Keegan, were strong favourites to win the game. In my view, the press, media and indeed the general English public's view of the team's chances wasn't based on any great science and was more along the lines of "we should be beating the likes of these" without any real knowledge of the strengths of the opponents. On the day, Romania proved to be extremely lively and they took the lead after 22 minutes through Chivu following an attempted cross which drifted in at the far post. This was by no means Romania's first attempt and all the warning signs were there for a difficult evening.
The remainder of the first half proved to be a big surprise for me at least as England did something that they don't normally seem to manage and turned around the deficit going in at half time 2-1 ahead thanks to an Alan Shearer penalty on 41 minutes and a Michael Owen effort on the stroke of halftime. It was a huge turnaround in England's fortunes.
The Romanians continued to look very dangerous and, shortly after the break they had their equaliser through Munteanu. The rest of the game ebbed and flowed with neither team being dominant. With the clock ticking down and the result of the other game in the Group going the way of Portugal, a point would have been enough to take England through. Then disaster struck. If one incident encapsulates a player's international career then I am afraid that this one was it for Phil Neville. Moldovan bustled past Neville rather too easily and Neville's attempted tackle brought down the Romanian. It was a clear penalty and Ganea stepped up to score and send the Romanians through at the expense of England. It was hugely disappointing but somehow not very surprising. Keegan's rah rah, which had been key to the popular clamour leading to his appointment, was found wanting when the chips were down and clear heads were required in the cauldron of competition. Keegan hung on as England boss until October but resigned immediately following the last ever competitive game at the old Wembley and defeat against the Germans saying that he "wasn't up to the job". Who was I to disagree?
CRB Match No. 1188
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