19 years ago this very day, England's dreams of winning Euro 96 were ended from the spot as they suffered a semi-final defeat to Germany at Wembley. The FA's Historian, David Barber, looks back to a pulsating evening...
All being well I should be going to my 7,000th football match in a few months’ time, having been to my first at Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park as a nine-year-old. For pure heart-stopping excitement I can’t think of a match that compares to England’s Euro 96 semi-final with Germany, played at the old Wembley 19 years ago today.
I went with Dad again – my enthusiasm for football came from him – and we were in our seats early after taking the tube as usual from Baker Street to Wembley Park. I really thought we had a chance of winning the tournament and I was pretty much shaking with nerves that night. It turned out to be a match that lived up to its billing and I’m sure that no-one who was there will ever forget it.
Alan Shearer celebrates his opener against Germany
England had a brilliant start, Tony Adams touching on Gazza’s corner from the left for Alan Shearer to burst through and head us in front. The crowd’s reaction was measured at 128 decibels – louder than Concorde taking off.
Kuntz equalised from Germany’s first dangerous attack on 16 minutes and it was 1-1 at the end of normal time. The extra half-hour was almost unbearably tense and, when a stretching Gazza missed Shearer’s cross-shot inches from the line, I jumped out of my seat for the first and only time in more than 50 years of watching football.
A dejected Gazza after the defeat
After a gruelling 30 minutes of extra-time, during which both teams came within a whisker of snatching a match-winning ‘golden goal’, nearly 76,000 fans in the stadium and the millions watching on television were probably feeling as drained as the players.
We all know what happened in the shootout. The tube back to Baker Street was packed – but there was complete silence.
