Today I'm going back 26 years to 1996 once again and another match from Euro96. This match pitted Portugal against Turkey in Group D at the City Ground, Nottingham and attracted a crowd of 22,670.
This game came exactly 24 hours after yesterday's featured game between Bulgaria and Romania at St James' Park and was part of a run of four Euro96 games in four days for me and my travelling buddy Les Howells. It was the second of two Euro96 matches that I took in at the City Ground and I had already seen Turkey play Croatia there on June 11th. On that occasion, it was Turkey's opening Group game which they lost 1-0 to a Croatian goal scored in the last five minutes. It was therefore imperative for Turkey to get their campaign up and running with a win in this, their second game. Portugal meanwhile had opened up with a 1-1 draw against Denmark in a game played at Hillsborough, Sheffield. The programme covered all six matches in Group D and was on sale at both the venues used for the Group D games. I guess the joint issue saved me £8 because I only needed to buy a single issue covering the three matches in the Group that I attended but I have to say that I'd rather have had a unique issue for each game. Still, as I find myself saying more and more often these days, at least there was a programme!
Portugal's line-up included one of the superstars of world football in Luis Figo. Figo began his career at Sporting CP (Clube de Portugal), often wrongly referred to in Britain as Sporting Lisbon. The club is certainly based in Lisbon but does not carry the name of that city as part of their name. In 1995, Figo was transferred to Barcelona and, indeed, at the time of Euro96 he was a Barcelona player. when he left Barcelona in 2000 he had played 249 games for the club scoring 45 goals and had won La Liga twice, the Copa del Rey twice plus the European Cup Winners Cup. His transfer in 2000 was sensational however because he moved from Barcelona to arch rivals Real Madrid for a new world record fee and, at a stroke, made himself a hate figure for all Barcelona followers. When he returned to Barcelona in the white shirt of Madrid he was the focus of incredible vitriol from the Barcelona supporters. As an illustration, Madrid team mate Michael Salgado said the following regarding the possibility of short corners at Camp Nou: "By the second or third corner I turned to Luís Figo and said: 'Forget it, mate. You’re on your own'. I used to offer Luís the chance to take the short corner, drawing up close to him near the touchline, but not this time. Missiles were raining down from the stands: coins, a knife, a glass whiskey bottle. Johnnie Walker, I think. Or J&B. Best to keep away. Short corners? No thanks". Figo won the Ballon D'Or in 2000 largely off the back of what he had done that year at Barcelona but he was unarguably the best player in the world at the time. Whilst at Real Madrid he made 245 appearances scoring 58 goals before moving on to Inter Milan in 2005 where he finished his career. At International level, Figo earned 127 caps scoring 32 times for his country.
Portugal won the featured game by a single goal to condemn Turkey to an early exit from the competition. Defender Fernando Couto scored the all important goal with a low, hard volley through a crowd of players in the 66th minute.
Portugal went on to win Group D following a 3-0 victory against a Croatian side who were already through in the third of their Group games. Turkey ended up bottom of the Group with no points from their three matches and no goals scored . Both Portugal and Croatia were then eliminated in the Round of 16, Portugal by eventual Finalists the Czech Republic and Croatia by eventual winners Germany.
CRB Match No. 1042
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