Today I'm going back 27 years to 1995 and England's Friendly International fixture against Sweden with 32,008 in attendance. The game was part of that season's Umbro Cup, another attempt to replace the old Home International Championships with a competition that the public would find attractive. This particular four team tournament comprised England, Brazil, Japan and Sweden and I attended all six matches. The competition was also something of a rehearsal for the staging of the following summer's Euro96 European Championships with matches being played at Wembley, Elland Road, the City Ground, Nottingham, Villa Park, Birmingham and Goodison Park in Liverpool.
The featured match was played at Elland Road and was England's first home game NOT to be played at Wembley Stadium in almost 30 years. It saw Sweden's goalkeeper Thomas Ravelli win his 126th International Cap thereby beating Peter Shilton's 125-cap world record at the time. Making his debut for England that night was Colin Cooper of Nottingham Forest who was winning his first of only two caps. Cooper played the majority of his career at Middlesbrough in two separate spells and joined Gareth Southgate's management team with the England Under-21s in 2016.
Sweden were nobody's pushovers and arrived in England fresh from a third place finish at the previous summer's USA94 World Cup. The Swedes soon showed England that they intended to make a real match of it that evening, taking the lead as early as the 11th minute with a rather fortuitous goal from Hakan Mild. Mild's second in the 37th minute also had some good fortune about it as Tim Flowers disappointingly spilled a shot from distance by Gary Sundgren and Mild was on hand to tuck the ball into the net for 0-2. Just before halftime however, England seemed to be right back in it following an opportunistic goal from their number 22 Teddy Sheringham. Although there was more than a hint of offside about it, the goal stood and was Sheringham's first ever goal for England. Sheringham would go on to score 11 in 51 International appearances for his country.
When Kennet Andersson chipped Flowers in the first minute of the second half for Sweden's third goal, we all thought that the game was up for England. Indeed, a subsequent fourth Swedish goal from Gudmundsson was disallowed for a very marginal offside, a goal which would probably stand these days. The score remained England 1 Sweden 3 going into the 89th minute and many spectators had already started heading for the exits when David Platt pulled back, what looked to be, a late consolation goal for England. It was the old 1990 World Cup combination of a free kick by Paul Gascoigne and a finish by David Platt. Ever the professional, England skipper Platt rushed to grab the ball from the back of the net and get back to the halfway line for the restart. Then, incredibly, England snatched a draw right at the death. The ball fell to Tottenham's Darren Anderton on the edge of the penalty area and he lashed it in on the half volley, the ball hitting both posts before crawling over the line for 3-3. England had escaped defeat at the last!
In the end there was something of a feel good factor about the game with England riding their luck for a change. Terry Venables, England's manager for only the 10th occasion had yet to taste defeat with a record of five wins and five draws. England were destined to finish second to World Champions Brazil in that summer's Umbro Cup however following a 3-1 defeat against Brazil at Wembley in the final game of the competition. But there was some promise in the England performances and they would go on to come mighty close to winning Euro96 the following summer under Venables.
CRB Match No. 975
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