Today I'm going back 26 years to 1996 and the Group B match-up between Eastern European rivals Bulgaria and Romania played at St James' Park, Newcastle as part of the European Championships held in England that year. The attendance was just 19,107 so please don't tell me that the North-East is a "hotbed of football"! That attendance was the lowest of the tournament but, to be fair, UEFA did come in for some criticism for their ticket pricing policy and the 4:30PM kick-off time on a Thursday night surely can't have helped school age children and working people to get there in time either.
I was lucky enough to secure tickets to 14 matches in the Euro96 tournament including all of England's games and I went to a game on every day that there was a game. It was a hugely memorable tournament as well as being a wonderful summer!
Bulgaria came into the tournament after their best-ever showing at a tournament following their attainment of the Semi-Finals at the World Cup at USA94. That performance was something of a surprise however and the Bulgarians weren't fancied to do as well this time around given their ageing squad. Principal amongst their number was Hristo Stoichkov, generally regarded as the greatest Bulgarian footballer of all time. Stoichkov was the joint-winner of the Golden Boot at USA94 and scored ten goals in qualification for Euro96. He would go on to score in every Bulgaria match (three goals) during Euro96 but, sadly for such a prodigious talent, he was surrounded by lesser mortals and his team ended up being eliminated at the Group Stage. Overall in his International career, Stoichcov won 83 caps and scored 37 times for Bulgaria.
Romania became the first team to be eliminated from Euro96 following their second defeat in two games with this defeat. Stoichkov scored after a magnificent run through the heart of the Romanian defence with just three minutes on the clock. Romania could count themselves extremely unlucky not to have equalised however when Dorinel Munteanu's long-range drive hit the bar and bounced down but was adjudged not to have crossed the line.
Bulgaria and Romania had been paired in Group B with two behemoths of the European scene in Group winners, France and second-placed Spain who both advanced to the knockout stage. France beat Holland in the Round of 16 on penalties before surprisingly losing to the Czech Republic, again on penalties, in the Semi-Final. Spain, obligingly and perhaps unluckily, went out to hosts England in the Round of 16. Germany won the Final thanks to their Golden Goal against the Czechs.
CRB Match No. 1041
Comments
Post a Comment