UEFA Euro 96

England '96
160px UEFA Euro 1996 official logo
Tournament details
Host country	England
Dates	8 June – 30 June
Teams	16
Venue(s)	8 (in 8 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Germany (3rd title)
Runners-up	Czech Republic
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	64 (2.06 per match)
Attendance	1,276,137 (41,166 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Alan Shearer (5 goals)
Best player	Matthias Sammer[1]
← 1992 2000 →

The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 96) was the tenth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. It was the first to use the "Euro" name, and the first where 16 nations competed. The tournament's final stages took place between 8 and 30 June 1996 and were hosted by England, in eight cities.

Germany won the tournament, beating Czech Republic 2–1 in golden goal extra time. Although not all games were sold out, Euro 96 had the highest aggregate attendance in championship history (1,276,000) and the highest average per game (41,158) for the revised 16-team format.^[2]

Qualification[link]

UEFA Euro 1996 finalists.

Fifteen teams had to go through a qualifying round to reach the final stage. England qualified automatically as hosts of the event. This was the first European Championship to introduce the current format of 16 countries competing in the final tournament. UEFA had made the decision to expand the tournament as in the late 1980s and early 1990s it was far easier for European nations to qualify for the World Cup than their own continental championship; 14 of the 24 teams at the 1982, 1986 and 1990 World Cups had been European, whereas the European Championship finals still involved only eight teams. The number of UEFA members wishing to participate had also drastically increased after the recent break up of the Soviet Union and of Yugoslavia, from 33 teams in 1988 to 48 teams in 1996.

The qualifying round was played throughout 1994 and 1995. There were eight qualifying groups of six teams each, with the exception of group 3, which only had five. The matches were played in a home-and-away basis.

The winner and the runner-up of each group qualified automatically, with the exception of the two worst runners-up. These two teams had to play an additional playoff between them (single match in neutral ground), to determine the 16th team to join all others in the final tournament. This was between Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands at Anfield Stadium, Liverpool which the Dutch won 2–0. Among the teams that failed to qualify were 1994 FIFA World Cup third place finishers Sweden, recent four time World Cup participants Belgium, and Euro 88 participants Republic of Ireland.

Red and yellow cards leading to suspensions in qualifying also applied to the final tournament and were not wiped off a player's record, which resulted in Jürgen Klinsmann missing the first game in England due to two yellow cards in the qualifiers, with the second one in the final qualifier against Bulgaria. Only England as host country was not in danger of missing a player due to suspension, because bookings in friendly preparation games had no effect on the tournament.

The following teams participated in the final tournament:

* Since the break-up of Czechoslovakia. ** Since the break-up of the USSR. *** Since the break-up of Yugoslavia.

Host and stadia[link]

England won the right to host the European Championship for the first time, ahead of bids from Austria, Portugal and the Netherlands.^[3] The slogan of the tournament was "Football Comes Home", as the sport's rules were first standardised in England. English football and popular culture has since referenced the competition fondly^[4][5] even though the home team did not reach the final.

Since the Taylor Report in January 1990, England now boasted enough all-seater stadia of sufficient capacity to hold an expanded tournament due to the necessary stadium refurbishment by its leading clubs. Although no such stadiums were used as Euro 96 venues, the tournament was held at a time when relocation to new stadiums was becoming a trend in English football.

Euro 96 had the highest aggregate attendance in championship history (1,276,000) and the highest average per game of 41,158 for the revised 16 team format with 31 games. Euro 1988 in Germany had had a higher average attendance (56,656) but only staged 15 games with 8 teams.

Terrorism[link]

The initial phase of the tournament was overshadowed by a terrorist attack in Manchester on June 15, one day before the group stage match between Germany and Russia at Old Trafford. The detonation of a van bomb in the city centre injured two hundred and twelve people and caused an estimated damage of £700 million. Five days after the blast, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) issued a statement in which it claimed responsibility, but regretted causing injury to civilians.

The Manchester bombing was the first and so far only major terrorist attack in the host city of an ongoing European Football Championship. The scheduled match between Russia and Germany on the day following the bombing went ahead as planned after the stadium had been heavily guarded overnight and carefully searched; the game, which Germany won 3–0, was watched by a capacity crowd of 50,700.

Venues[link]

London	Manchester	Liverpool	Birmingham
Wembley Stadium	Old Trafford	Anfield	Villa Park
51°33′20″N 0°16′47″W / 51.55556°N 0.27972°W / 51.55556; -0.27972 (Wembley Stadium)	53°27′47″N 2°17′29″W / 53.46306°N 2.29139°W / 53.46306; -2.29139 (Old Trafford)	53°25′50.95″N 2°57′38.98″W / 53.4308194°N 2.9608278°W / 53.4308194; -2.9608278 (Anfield)	52°30′33″N 1°53′5″W / 52.50917°N 1.88472°W / 52.50917; -1.88472 (Villa Park)
Capacity: 76,567	Capacity:55,000	Capacity: 42,730	Capacity: 40,310
Leeds	Wembley Stadium Old Trafford Anfield St. James' Park City Ground Villa Park Hillsborough Elland Road		Sheffield
Elland Road			Hillsborough
53°46′40″N 1°34′20″W / 53.77778°N 1.57222°W / 53.77778; -1.57222 (Elland Road)			53°24′41″N 1°30′2″W / 53.41139°N 1.50056°W / 53.41139; -1.50056 (Hillsborough)
Planned capacity: 40,204			Capacity: 39,859
Newcastle			Nottingham
St James' Park			City Ground
54°58′32″N 1°37′18″W / 54.97556°N 1.62167°W / 54.97556; -1.62167 (St James' Park)			52°56′24″N 1°7′58″W / 52.94°N 1.13278°W / 52.94; -1.13278 (City Ground)
Capacity: 36,649			Capacity: 30,539

All of the stadium capacities were correct at the time of the tournament.

Match officials[link]

Seeding[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Squads[link]

For a list of all squads that played in the final tournament, see 1996 UEFA European Football Championship squads.

Summary[link]

First round[link]

Group A game Scotland v Netherlands at Villa Park

Group B game Bulgaria v Romania at St James' Park

The hosts, England, drew 1–1 with the Swiss in the opening match of Group A when Alan Shearer's 23rd minute goal was equalled by a late penalty kick. England defeated rival Scotland 2–0 in their next game and then produced one of their finest performances ever with a 4–1 win over the Netherlands. Patrick Kluivert's late goal for the Netherlands secured his team second place in the group and ensured that Scotland would exit another major competition on goal difference.

Group B witnessed two sets of neighbours in one group. Western European powerhouses France and Spain along with Balkan World Cup participants Romania and Bulgaria. France and Spain dominated the group with France avenging Bulgaria for the 1994 qualification debacle and World Cup quarter-finalists Romania going home with no points and only one goal scored.

Groups C and D saw some surprising results as the Czech Republic and Croatia, whose national teams had only recently come into existence, qualified for the knockout stages. The Czechs lost to Germany, the eventual group winners, in their opener but then defeated Italy and drew with Russia. Italy's defeat meant they had to beat Germany in their final game to progress but the World Cup finalists could only manage a 0–0 draw and were eliminated. In Group D, Croatia qualified for the quarter-finals with wins over Turkey (1–0) and Denmark (3–0). The loss to the Croats ultimately sent the Danes, the surprise champions of 1992, home. Turkey became the first team since the introduction of a group stage to be eliminated without gaining a point or scoring a goal.

The other three quarter-finalists were Portugal (whose "Golden Generation" was competing at its first major tournament), Spain, and a France team featuring a young Zinedine Zidane.

Quarter-finals and semi-finals[link]

View of Wembley Stadium from Wembley Way before the Germany v England semi-final

The knockout stages were characterised by negative, defensive play; as a result only 9 goals were scored in the seven games and four of the matches were decided on penalties. The first quarter-final between the hosts and Spain ended goalless, although England had several major calls go their way as the Spanish had two goals disallowed and two claims for a penalty denied.^[6] The English progressed 4–2 on spot kicks. The shootout is still remembered for the emphatic reaction of Stuart Pearce after he scored England's third penalty, after his miss in the 1990 World Cup semi-final. France and the Netherlands also played out a drab 0–0 draw with France winning the penalty shootout 5–4. Jürgen Klinsmann opened the scoring for Germany in their match against Croatia. A goal from Davor Šuker evened the score after 51 minutes before Matthias Sammer of Germany scored eight minutes later and the game ended 2–1 to Germany. The Czech Republic progressed after beating Portugal 1–0.

The first semi-final, featuring France and the Czech Republic, resulted in yet another 0–0 draw and penalties were required again. Reynald Pedros was the lone player to miss in the shootout as the Czech Republic won 6–5. The other semi-final was a repeat of the 1990 World Cup semi-final between Germany and England. Alan Shearer headed in after 3 minutes to give his side the lead but Stefan Kuntz evened the score less than 15 minutes later and the score remained 1–1 after 90 minutes. In extra-time, Paul Gascoigne came very close to scoring a Golden Goal but missed a cross from Shearer by mere inches, Darren Anderton hit the post and Kuntz had a goal disallowed for pushing. Neither team was able to find a second goal and another knockout game in this competition required penalties. Both sides scored their first five kicks but in the sixth round, Gareth Southgate had his penalty saved, allowing Andreas Möller to score the winning goal.

Final[link]

The final saw the Czech Republic hoping to repeat the dramatics of Euro 76 when Czechoslovakia defeated West Germany; the Germans were aiming to secure their third European Championship. A repeat of 1976 looked possible when Patrick Berger scored from a penalty in 59th minute to put the Czechs ahead. German substitute Oliver Bierhoff then scored to make it 1–1. Five minutes into extra time, Bierhoff's shot was mishandled by Czech goalkeeper Kouba and the ball ended up in the back of the net for the first Golden Goal in the history of the competition. Germany were European champions once again, the first time as a unified country.

Results[link]

In the group stage, for the first time three points were awarded for a win, one for a draw.

First round[link]

Group A[link]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
England	3	2	1	0	7	2	+5	7
Netherlands	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1	4
Scotland	3	1	1	1	1	2	−1	4
Switzerland	3	0	1	2	1	4	−3	1

8 June 1996 (1996-06-08) 15:00 BST	England	1–1	Switzerland	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 76,567 Referee: Manuel Díaz Vega (Spain)
	Shearer  23'	Report	Türkyilmaz  83' (pen.)

10 June 1996 (1996-06-10) 16:30 BST	Netherlands	0–0	Scotland	Villa Park, Birmingham Attendance: 34,363 Referee: Leif Sundell (Sweden)
		Report

13 June 1996 (1996-06-13) 19:30 BST	Switzerland	0–2	Netherlands	Villa Park, Birmingham Attendance: 36,800 Referee: Atanas Uzunov (Bulgaria)
		Report	Cruyff  66' Bergkamp  79'

15 June 1996 (1996-06-15) 15:00 BST	Scotland	0–2	England	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 76,864 Referee: Pierluigi Pairetto (Italy)
		Report	Shearer  53' Gascoigne  79'

18 June 1996 (1996-06-18) 19:30 BST	Scotland	1–0	Switzerland	Villa Park, Birmingham Attendance: 34,946 Referee: Václav Krondl (Czech Republic)
	McCoist  36'	Report

18 June 1996 (1996-06-18) 19:30 BST	Netherlands	1–4	England	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 76,798 Referee: Gerd Grabher (Austria)
	Kluivert  78'	Report	Shearer  23' (pen.), 57' Sheringham  51', 62'

Group B[link]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
France	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3	7
Spain	3	1	2	0	4	3	+1	5
Bulgaria	3	1	1	1	3	4	–1	4
Romania	3	0	0	3	1	4	–3	0

9 June 1996 (1996-06-09) 14:30 BST	Spain	1–1	Bulgaria	Elland Road, Leeds Attendance: 26,000 Referee: Piero Ceccarini (Italy)
	Alfonso  74'	Report	Stoichkov  65' (pen.)

10 June 1996 (1996-06-10) 19:30 BST	Romania	0–1	France	St James' Park, Newcastle Attendance: 36,000 Referee: Hellmut Krug (Germany)
		Report	Dugarry  25'

13 June 1996 (1996-06-13) 16:30 BST	Bulgaria	1–0	Romania	St James' Park, Newcastle Attendance: 19,107 Referee: Peter Mikkelsen (Denmark)
	Stoichkov  3'	Report

15 June 1996 (1996-06-15) 18:00 BST	France	1–1	Spain	Elland Road, Leeds Attendance: 39,000 Referee: Vadim Zhuk (Belarus)
	Djorkaeff  49'	Report	Caminero  85'

18 June 1996 (1996-06-18) 16:30 BST	France	3–1	Bulgaria	St James' Park, Newcastle Attendance: 26,976 Referee: Dermot Gallagher (England)
	Blanc  21' Penev  63' (o.g.) Loko  90'	Report	Stoichkov  69'

18 June 1996 (1996-06-18) 16:30 BST	Romania	1–2	Spain	Elland Road, Leeds Attendance: 32,719 Referee: Ahmet Çakar (Turkey)
	Răducioiu  29'	Report	Manjarín  11' Amor  84'

Group C[link]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Germany	3	2	1	0	5	0	+5	7
Czech Republic	3	1	1	1	5	6	−1	4
Italy	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
Russia	3	0	1	2	4	8	−4	1

9 June 1996 (1996-06-09) 17:00 BST	Germany	2–0	Czech Republic	Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 37,300 Referee: David Elleray (England)
	Ziege  26' Möller  32'	Report

11 June 1996 (1996-06-11) 16:30 BST	Italy	2–1	Russia	Anfield, Liverpool Attendance: 35,120 Referee: Leslie Mottram (Scotland)
	Casiraghi  5', 52'	Report	Tsymbalar  21'

14 June 1996 (1996-06-14) 19:30 BST	Czech Republic	2–1	Italy	Anfield, Liverpool Attendance: 37,320 Referee: Antonio López Nieto (Spain)
	Nedvěd  5' Bejbl  35'	Report	Chiesa  18'

16 June 1996 (1996-06-16) 15:00 BST	Russia	0–3	Germany	Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 50,760 Referee: Kim Milton Nielsen (Denmark)
		Report	Sammer  56' Klinsmann  77', 90'

19 June 1996 (1996-06-19) 19:30 BST	Russia	3–3	Czech Republic	Anfield, Liverpool Attendance: 21,128 Referee: Anders Frisk (Sweden)
	Mostovoi  49' Tetradze  54' Beschastnykh  85'	Report	Suchopárek  5' Kuka  19' Šmicer  88'

19 June 1996 (1996-06-19) 19:30 BST	Italy	0–0	Germany	Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 53,740 Referee: Guy Goethals (Belgium)
		Report

Group D[link]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Portugal	3	2	1	0	5	1	+4	7
Croatia	3	2	0	1	4	3	+1	6
Denmark	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
Turkey	3	0	0	3	0	5	−5	0

9 June 1996 (1996-06-09) 19:30 BST	Denmark	1–1	Portugal	Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield Attendance: 34,993 Referee: Mario van der Ende (Netherlands)
	B. Laudrup  22'	Report	Sá Pinto  53'

11 June 1996 (1996-06-11) 19:30 BST	Turkey	0–1	Croatia	City Ground, Nottingham Attendance: 22,406 Referee: Serge Muhmenthaler (Switzerland)
		Report	Vlaović  86'

14 June 1996 (1996-06-14) 16:30 BST	Portugal	1–0	Turkey	City Ground, Nottingham Attendance: 22,670 Referee: Sándor Puhl (Hungary)
	Couto  66'	Report

16 June 1996 (1996-06-16) 18:00 BST	Croatia	3–0	Denmark	Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield Attendance: 33,671 Referee: Marc Batta (France)
	Šuker  54' (pen.), 90' Boban  81'	Report

19 June 1996 (1996-06-19) 16:30 BST	Croatia	0–3	Portugal	City Ground, Nottingham Attendance: 20,484 Referee: Bernd Heynemann (Germany)
		Report	Figo  4' Pinto  33' Domingos  82'

19 June 1996 (1996-06-19) 16:30 BST	Turkey	0–3	Denmark	Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield Attendance: 28,951 Referee: Nikolai Levnikov (Russia)
		Report	B. Laudrup  50', 84' Nielsen  69'

Knockout stage[link]

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	23 June – Manchester
	Germany	2
					26 June – London
	Croatia	1
					Germany (pen.)	1 (6)
	22 June – London
					England	1 (5)
	Spain	0 (2)
									30 June – London
	England (pen.)	0 (4)
									Germany (a.e.t.)	2
	23 June – Birmingham
									Czech Republic	1
	Czech Republic	1
					26 June – Manchester
	Portugal	0
					Czech Republic (pen.)	0 (6)
	22 June – Liverpool
					France	0 (5)
	France (pen.)	0 (5)
	Netherlands	0 (4)

Quarter-finals[link]

22 June 1996 (1996-06-22) 15:00 BST	Spain	0–0 (a.e.t.)	England	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 75,440 Referee: Marc Batta (France)
		Report
		Penalties
	Hierro Amor Belsué Nadal	2–4	Shearer Platt Pearce Gascoigne

22 June 1996 (1996-06-22) 18:30 BST	France	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Netherlands	Anfield, Liverpool Attendance: 37,465 Referee: Antonio López Nieto (Spain)
		Report
		Penalties
	Zidane Djorkaeff Lizarazu Guérin Blanc	5–4	de Kock R. de Boer Kluivert Seedorf Blind

23 June 1996 (1996-06-23) 15:00 BST	Germany	2–1	Croatia	Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 43,412 Referee: Leif Sundell (Sweden)
	Klinsmann  20' (pen.) Sammer  59'	Report	Šuker  51'

23 June 1996 (1996-06-23) 18:30 BST	Czech Republic	1–0	Portugal	Villa Park, Birmingham Attendance: 26,832 Referee: Hellmut Krug (Germany)
	Poborský  53'	Report

Semi-finals[link]

26 June 1996 (1996-06-26) 16:00 BST	France	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Czech Republic	Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 43,877 Referee: Leslie Mottram (Scotland)
		Report
		Penalties
	Zidane Djorkaeff Lizarazu Guérin Blanc Pedros	5–6	Kubík Nedvěd Berger Poborský Rada Kadlec

26 June 1996 (1996-06-26) 19:30 BST	Germany	1–1 (a.e.t.)	England	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 75,862 Referee: Sándor Puhl (Hungary)
	Kuntz  16'	Report	Shearer  3'
		Penalties
	Häßler Strunz Reuter Ziege Kuntz Möller	6–5	Shearer Platt Pearce Gascoigne Sheringham Southgate

Final[link]

30 June 1996 (1996-06-30) 19:00 BST	Czech Republic	1–2 (a.e.t.)	Germany	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 73,611 Referee: Pierluigi Pairetto (Italy)
	Berger  59' (pen.)	Report	Bierhoff  73'  95'

Statistics[link]

Goalscorers[link]

5 goals

• Alan Shearer

3 goals

• Hristo Stoichkov
• Jürgen Klinsmann
• Davor Šuker
• Brian Laudrup

2 goals

• Oliver Bierhoff
• Matthias Sammer
• Teddy Sheringham
• Pierluigi Casiraghi

UEFA Team of the Tournament[link]

UEFA Tournament Golden Boot Award

• Alan Shearer^[1]

UEFA Player of the Tournament

• Matthias Sammer^[1]

Fastest goal[link]

3 minutes: Alan Shearer (England vs Germany); Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria vs Romania)

Average goals[link]

2.06 goals per game

References[link]

This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (May 2012)