UEFA Euro 1996

The hosts, England, drew 1–1 with Switzerland in the opening match of Group A when Alan Shearer's 23rd-minute goal was cancelled out by a late Kubilay Türkyilmaz penalty kick.[6] England defeated rivals Scotland 2–0 in their next game, and then produced one of their finest performances ever with a 4–1 win over the Netherlands.[7] 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 tie-breaking criteria.[8]

A Group A game between Scotland and the Netherlands at Villa Park

Group B had Western European France and Spain, along with Balkan World Cup participants Romania and Bulgaria. France and Spain dominated the group,[9][10] with France avenging Bulgaria for the 1994 qualification debacle,[11] and World Cup quarter-finalists Romania going home,[12] with no points and only one goal scored.

Groups C and D saw the Czech Republic and Croatia, whose national teams had only recently come into existence, qualify for the knockout stage. The Czechs lost to Germany, the eventual group winners, in their opener, but then defeated Italy and drew with Russia.[13][14] 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.[15] In Group D, Croatia qualified for the quarter-finals, with wins over Turkey (1–0) and Denmark (3–0).[16] 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.

The knockout stage was characterised by negative, defensive play; as a result, only nine 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, after Spain had two goals disallowed and two claims for a penalty denied.[17] The English progressed 4–2 on spot kicks.[18] France and Netherlands also played out a 0–0 draw, with France winning the penalty shootout 5–4.[19] 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.[20] Czech Republic progressed after beating Portugal 1–0.[21][22]

The view of Wembley Stadium from Wembley Way before the semi-final between Germany and England

The first semi-final, featuring France and Czech Republic, resulted in another 0–0 draw and penalties. Reynald Pedros was the one player to miss in the shootout, as Czech Republic won the penalty shoot-out 6–5.[23] The other semi-final was a repeat of the 1990 World Cup semi-final between Germany and England. Alan Shearer headed in after three 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 fractionally missed a cross from Shearer in front of the empty goal, Darren Anderton hit the post, and Kuntz had a goal disallowed for pushing. Neither team was able to find a second goal. In 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.[24]

The final saw the Czech Republic hoping to repeat Euro 1976 when Czechoslovakia defeated West Germany; the Germans were aiming to win their third European Championship. Patrik Berger scored from a penalty in 59th minute to put the Czechs ahead. German substitute Oliver Bierhoff scored in the 73rd minute 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.[25] Germany were European champions again, but for the first time as a unified country.

With the extended format, three teams were able to qualify for their first European Championship: Bulgaria, Switzerland and Turkey. Croatia, the Czech Republic and Russia competed for the first time in their own right since the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union (though the Russian team is considered by FIFA to be the direct descendant of the Soviet Union and CIS teams that had appeared in six past tournaments and the Czech team is the descendant of the Czechoslovakia team). Seven of the eight participants at the previous tournament in 1992 were again present, with only Sweden – despite also having finished third in the World Cup two years earlier – missing out. Italy qualified after missing out Euro 1992 and Romania and Portugal after 12 years.

As of 2020, this was the last time that Sweden failed to qualify for the European Championship finals.

The following sixteen teams qualified for the finals:

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament[upper-alpha 1]
England	Host	5 May 1992	4 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1992)
Spain	Group 2 winner	11 October 1995	4 (1964, 1980, 1984, 1988)
Russia[upper-alpha 2]	Group 8 winner	11 October 1995	6 (1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1988, 1992)
Switzerland	Group 3 winner	15 November 1995	0 (debut)
Croatia	Group 4 winner	15 November 1995	0 (debut)
Scotland	4th best runner-up	15 November 1995	1 (1992)
Bulgaria	2nd best runner-up	15 November 1995	0 (debut)
Germany[upper-alpha 3]	Group 7 winner	15 November 1995	6 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992)
Romania	Group 1 winner	15 November 1995	1 (1984)
Turkey	3rd best runner-up	15 November 1995	0 (debut)
Denmark	5th best runner-up	15 November 1995	4 (1964, 1984, 1988, 1992)
Czech Republic[upper-alpha 4]	Group 5 winner	15 November 1995	3 (1960, 1976, 1980)
Italy	1st best runner-up	15 November 1995	3 (1968, 1980, 1988)
France	6th best runner-up	15 November 1995	3 (1960, 1984, 1992)
Portugal	Group 6 winner	15 November 1995	1 (1984)
Netherlands	Play-off winner	13 December 1995	4 (1976, 1980, 1988, 1992)

The draw for the final tournament took place on 17 December 1995 at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham.[30] Only four teams were seeded: England (as hosts), Denmark (as holders), Spain and Germany (as the two highest ranked teams). The remaining twelve teams were all unseeded and could be drawn in any group.[30]

Pot 1: Seeded teams	Pot 2: Unseeded teams
England (hosts)[lower-alpha 1]	Bulgaria	Italy	Russia
Denmark (holders)[lower-alpha 2]	Croatia	Netherlands	Scotland
Germany	Czech Republic	Portugal	Switzerland
Spain	France	Romania	Turkey

Draw procedure:[30]

1. The unseeded teams were first drawn one by one without being revealed from Pot 2, and placed consecutively into four group bowls labelled I to IV. The teams drawn first, fifth and ninth were put into the Group I bowl; second, sixth and tenth were put into the Group II bowl; third, seventh and eleventh were put into the Group III bowl; and fourth, eighth and twelfth were put into the Group IV bowl.
2. The team drawn first from each group bowl was placed into position 4 in their group; the team drawn second in position 3; and the team drawn third in position 2.
3. Finally, the four top-seeded teams were drawn from the separate Pot 1 bowl, and placed consecutively into position 1 of each group bowl.
4. While it was decreed in advance ahead of the draw, that England's group would be Group A (irrespective of their drawn group label), the remaining three groups then consecutively had the three remaining letters (B, C and D) drawn from yet another bowl to decide the letter name of their group, which also determined what venues they would play at.

The balls were drawn by UEFA figures Gerhard Aigner and Lennart Johansson.[30]

The draw resulted in the following groups:[31]

Group A Pos Team A1  England A2   Switzerland A3  Netherlands A4  Scotland Wembley and Villa Park

Group B Pos Team B1  Spain B2  Bulgaria B3  Romania B4  France Elland Road and St James Park

Group C Pos Team C1  Germany C2  Czech Republic C3  Italy C4  Russia Old Trafford and Anfield

Group D Pos Team D1  Denmark D2  Portugal D3  Turkey D4  Croatia Hillsborough and City Ground

For the first time in the history of the European Championship, the position of teams tied on points was decided by their head-to-head record, and not goal difference.[33] If two or more teams finished level on points after completion of the group matches, the following tie-breakers were used to determine the final ranking:

1. Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
2. Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question (if more than two teams finish equal on points);
3. Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question (if more than two teams finish equal on points);
4. If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3 to more than two teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine the final rankings of the two teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 apply in the order given;
5. Superior goal difference in all group matches;
6. Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
7. Position using UEFA's national team coefficient ranking system calculated using average points per game from: the Euro 1992 qualifying stage and final tournament, the 1994 World Cup qualifying stage and final tournament and the Euro 1996 qualifying stage.
8. Fair play conduct of the teams (final tournament);
9. Drawing of lots.

There were 64 goals scored in 31 matches, for an average of 2.06 goals per match.

5 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Team of the Tournament[35][36]

Goalkeepers	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
David Seaman Andreas Köpke	Radoslav Látal Laurent Blanc Marcel Desailly Matthias Sammer Paolo Maldini	Karel Poborský Paul Gascoigne Steve McManaman Didier Deschamps Dieter Eilts Rui Costa	Hristo Stoichkov Davor Šuker Pavel Kuka Alan Shearer Youri Djorkaeff

Golden Boot

Alan Shearer was awarded the Golden Boot award, after scoring five goals in the group stage and in the semi-finals against Germany.

• Alan Shearer (5 goals)[36]

UEFA Player of the Tournament

• Matthias Sammer[36]

The competition slogan was Football Comes Home reflecting that the sport's rules were first standardised in the United Kingdom. UEFA President Lennart Johansson had said that the organisation had felt it was time to bring the event "back to the motherland of football".[29]

The slogan was incorporated into the competition's most popular song: "Three Lions" recorded by comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner with Britpop band the Lightning Seeds. Baddiel and Skinner were then strongly connected with football owing to their BBC show Fantasy Football League.[37] Released as a single, the song topped the UK Singles Chart for a total of two weeks.[38] It was promoted by a video featuring the England squad.[37]

The song was prominently sung by England fans during all their games, and was also chanted by the German team upon parading the trophy in Berlin after the tournament. It was even referenced by future Prime Minister Tony Blair in an address at the 1996 Labour Party Conference with the line: "Seventeen years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming, Labour's coming home".[39]

"Three Lions" was the official song of the England team, and is the song most strongly connected with the tournament, however the official song of the tournament was "We're in This Together" by Simply Red. The song was performed at the tournament's opening ceremony.[40]

The British Royal Mint issued a commemorative £2 coin in 1996, which featured a representation of a football, "1996" in the centre, and 16 small rings representing the 16 competing teams. Further special coins were only issued in the Isle of Man and Gibraltar.[41]

The official mascot, 'Goaliath', was designed in a similar fashion to the original World Cup mascot from the 1966 World Cup. Goaliath comprised a lion, the image on the English team crest, dressed in an England football strip and football boots whilst holding a football under his right arm.[42]

A terrorist attack took place in Manchester on 15 June, one day before the group stage match between Germany and Russia was due to take place in the same city.[45] The detonation of a van bomb in the city centre injured 212 people and caused an estimated £700 million worth of damage. Four days after the blast, the Provisional Irish Republican Army issued a statement in which it claimed responsibility, but regretted causing injury to civilians.[46]

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

The aggregate attendance of 1,276,000 and average attendance of 41,158 per game were the highest for the European Championship (in its 16-team format) until the 2012 tournament.[2] However, these numbers were based on the number of tickets sold rather than the number of spectators in the ground, which was often significantly lower. The large number of empty seats in most of the games not involving England was blamed on a number of factors: a lack of travelling fans from most of the other nations concerned, a lack of interest among locals for games not involving England, kick-offs before 5:00 pm that made it hard for children at school and adults at work to attend, steep ticket prices, and UEFA's policy of only selling tickets in blocks (where each block consisted of a set from each of three price bands).[47]

After England's defeat to Germany in the semi-finals, a large-scale riot took place in Trafalgar Square and the surrounding area. Further outbreaks of trouble occurred in the streets of several other towns. The police and German-made cars were targeted, with damage also caused to various other properties.[48] A Russian student was stabbed in Brighton after attackers mistook him for being German.[49]

Despite this outbreak, the tournament overall was free of hooliganism, helping rehabilitate England's reputation after their fans' conduct during the previous decades.[48] UEFA's awarding of the tournament to England was in itself a further step in bringing the country back fully into the international fold, coming soon after their decision in 1990 to re-admit English clubs back into UEFA competitions after the indefinite ban issued to them following the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985.[50][51]