Euro 96 re-run on ITV4

[VillaChris]

England were pretty awful I thought. Venables for all the acclaim made some odd subs in that game. Barmby coming on who hardly touched the ball for McMananam who was really good and also Steve Stone who got about but lacked technical quality as we saw when he played for us, did chuckle when age 25 came up for him when he came on!

Pretty clear handball I though especially nowadays when you see them given for brushing an arm.

Enjoyed the pre match coverage and Fergie in punditry role, young Kasper Schmiechel was in opening ceremony.

[VillaChris]

2 hours ago, Zatman said:

Euro 96, along with Italia 90 are 2 tournaments with a lot of understandable nostalgia but were actually among the worst quality tournaments along with probably the World Cup 2010. Euro 96 actually has the lowest goals per game than any group stage in a World Cup or European tournament though introducing the Golden Goal made teams rarely attack in the cagey knock out games

My main memory of seeing highlights is outside of Wembley and Villa Park all the empty seats at grounds. You had City ground with 30k capacity which looked half empty. Spain v France at Elland road attracted under 30k I think. Even the Germany-Croatia semi final at Old trafford had loads of empty seats and that was only 55k at the time.

Obviously would be different nowadays but surprised me given that was a period when premier league attendances were starting to rise with more modern stadiums. Think VP was helped by Scotland playing twice here.

How easy was it to get tickets for the tournament if anyone off here went to the VP games? I assume there wasn't things like ballots with all the empty seats and you could just ring up Villa to get some tickets?

There was also a terrorist attack on Manchester day of England-Scotland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Manchester_bombing

 

Edited May 11, 2020 by VillaChris

[VillaChris]

2 hours ago, Xela said:

Maybe it was rose tinted spectacles but it was a good time to be growing up in the UK. Not just football, but the general mood of the country was great. There seemed to have been an explosion of optimism and culture. Britpop, Euro 96, the early years of the Premier League and TV shows like TFI Friday just encapsulated that. A year away from New Labour and everything just seemed on the up. There was no Brexit, no virus, no ISIS, no arguments about immigration, no toxic social media or vacuous reality TV. Happier and simpler times IMO

Got this book at xmas and loved it, might be worth a read in lockdown mate as it basically covers all you've described!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Look-Anger-Daniel-Rachel/dp/1409180719

[VillaChris]

2 hours ago, Xela said:

Always baffled he was ahead of Ehiogu 

Think Ugo and Alan Wright were on standby weren't they (Sol Campbell was the other back up defender).

Man. United won the double that year and their only players in the squad were Neville brothers.

Much better spread of players from clubs in those days, likes of Boro, Forest and Blackburn all had players in.

Also incredible the pool of forwards available. Shearer and Sheringham the established front two and then you had Fowler and Ferdinand who'd both scored 25 goals that season and Fowler only made one sub appearance out of the two (really both should've come on to take penalty v Germany). Ian Wright and Collymore didn't make the squad and then Owen came through a year later.

[Wainy316]

2 hours ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

I remember it well, living in Scotland was especially powerful. Glad we put them to the sword, although they were delighted when the Germans beat us!

 

I still find it highly amusing that the Patrick Kluivert consolation goal in England’s demolition of Holland is what put Scotland out.

[Demitri_C]

Shit i missed this ffs.

Was watching the documentary about my trust on bbc

[sne]

They did a similar thing on Swedish telly during the last 2 weeks with the 94 WC , best summer ever.

Such a massive fiasco that Sweden didn't manage to qualify for the 96 Euro's after reaching the semi finals at home in 92 and winning the Bronze at the 94 WC.

Biggest memories from the 96 Euro's are Holland imploding with internal racism from AJAX bleeding over into the squad and Edgar Davids even sent home, and some cracking goals from especially Suker and Poborsky. Love me a good lob.

[The Fun Factory]

Things often not remembered about Euro 96- lots of empty seats outside of Wembley and England played well in only 2 of the 5 games. 

[PaulC]

Don’t really remember much about Euro’s 1996. The Holland game was great but missed most of it due to parents evening. The Gascogne goal against Scotland and the Southgate penalty miss. 

It’s a pity for England that Venables wasn’t able to continue as England manager. Great tactician and astute manager 

[VillaChris]

2 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

Things often not remembered about Euro 96- lots of empty seats outside of Wembley and England played well in only 2 of the 5 games. 

Villa Park had 10k empty seats for Portugal-Czech rep. QF (Poborsky goal). Was only 39k capacity at the time.

[mottaloo]

I worked it as a blazer boy on corporate suites, mainly the north stand banqueting room. Great memories, including the zany, colourful dutch fans and their PROPER band, scots fans singing "u can stick ur toblerone up yer arse !" to the swiss fans who applauded it ! Chatting to the very flirtatious but bored wife of the Portuguese FA chairman who sat outside the old VP reception on the step as her countrymen played the czech republic. Dave Prowse's corporate trolley dollies who took over the waitressing duties in the suite including one who slapped the face of a slimy punter who pinched her arse. He honestly believed cos he bought a table of 20 for his company and guests that she too was thrown in. She was more pissed off that she broke a nail with her slap. He got escorted out sharpish.....aaah the memories !!

Edited May 12, 2020 by mottaloo

[Stevo985]

16 hours ago, Xela said:

Maybe it was rose tinted spectacles but it was a good time to be growing up in the UK. Not just football, but the general mood of the country was great. There seemed to have been an explosion of optimism and culture. Britpop, Euro 96, the early years of the Premier League and TV shows like TFI Friday just encapsulated that. A year away from New Labour and everything just seemed on the up. There was no Brexit, no virus, no ISIS, no arguments about immigration, no toxic social media or vacuous reality TV. Happier and simpler times IMO

I've consistently said 1996 was my favourite year of my life. Nostalgia has probably made that more true than it actually is, but looking back everything seems great. Football is amazing, music was great, TV was great.

[Stevo985]

I'd strongly recommend the "Quickly Kevin Will He Score?" podcast for anyone enjoying this rerun of Euro96

It's a very funny podcast anyway (based around 90s football), but there are a number of interviews with 90's footballers who were part of this squad and they talk about the tournament and the Hong Kong stuff a lot.

Paul Merson is one of the funniest, Darren Anderton, Stuart Pearce. Frank Skinner is another good one for Euro 96 stories.

Edited May 12, 2020 by Stevo985

[The Fun Factory]

Personally it was the first proper football tournament I remember watching regularly. Before the tournament Shearer had not scored for England for ages and was under pressure to perform.  I remember I was at a summer fate in the tent for Gazza's goal, good times. And being shocked that England could look good versus Holland.  I think England used their luck up versus Spain who had a good goal disallowed.  Pearce penalty became iconic. It was the tournament that showed the  returning class of Portugal and the emergence of Croatia and the Czech team  had a great run to the final.   Germany were fairly lucky to win it.  In the semi final and final they never led either game until the golden goal in the final.

But it was low scoring tournament. There was a definitive positive summer vibe as England progressed but  in hindsight some of it tainted  with a bit of xenophobia thrown in (the mirror headline for example). 

96 was a bit of a turning point in football in that money was coming into the game but was still old fashioned enough for the players who looked like ordinary blokes.

Edited May 12, 2020 by The Fun Factory

[Zatman]

It was the end for that great German side, they were a shadow in the next couple of tournaments with the downfall completed im the 5-1 game though they were actually worse in Euro 2000. Matthaus I don't think played in 96. 

I remember reading about Pizzi having a great season in Spain, convincing somebody to bet on him to be top scorer. Red Card in the opening game . Wont be the last failed topscorer bet

[The Fun Factory]

26 minutes ago, Zatman said:

It was the end for that great German side, they were a shadow in the next couple of tournaments with the downfall completed im the 5-1 game though they were actually worse in Euro 2000. Matthaus I don't think played in 96. 

I remember reading about Pizzi having a great season in Spain, convincing somebody to bet on him to be top scorer. Red Card in the opening game . Wont be the last failed topscorer bet

Yes but they still somehow  managed to get  to the 2002 World Cup Final. Ballack basically carried that side.

Edited May 12, 2020 by The Fun Factory

[Zatman]

1 hour ago, The Fun Factory said:

Yes but they still somehow  managed to get  to the 2002 World Cup Final. Ballack basically carried that side.

He was good but was no Kahn 2002 was actually a decent squad not just them 2 with Klose, Neuville, Metzelder, Frings and the terribly underrated Schneider. Few others as well

 

[Xela]

18 hours ago, Kuwabatake Sanjuro said:

The forwards who didn't make that squad were fairly good too, Andy Cole, Ian Wright, Le Tissier, Collymore, Dublin, Sutton and probably one or two others.

I looked at the Germany semi final a few weeks back too, a cracking game and absolutely filthy too, in modern days there would have been multiple red cards for both teams.

Embarrassment of riches up front. Could probably add Merson, Beardsley (albeit getting on a bit), Chris Armstrong, David Hirst and Dean Holdsworth to that list. In other times they would have had more caps. 

[The Fun Factory]

4 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Villa Park had 10k empty seats for Portugal-Czech rep. QF (Poborsky goal). Was only 39k capacity at the time.

Its quite funny to see what ground they used, only 1 south of Birmingham (Wembley). The City Ground, Elland road and Hillsborough would not be classified as elite stadiums now. Villa Park has increased by 3,000 capacity in a quarter of a century compared to about 20,000 at Old Trafford, 15,000 at St James'  Park and 10,000 at Anfield. 

[Xela]

17 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Think Ugo and Alan Wright were on standby weren't they (Sol Campbell was the other back up defender).

Man. United won the double that year and their only players in the squad were Neville brothers.

Much better spread of players from clubs in those days, likes of Boro, Forest and Blackburn all had players in.

It was quite an inexperienced team, despite the big names. 

Seaman only had 24 caps at 32 years old. G Neville (10 caps), Southgate (4), Sol Campbell (1), Phil Neville (1), Howey (4), Anderton (11), McManaman (10), Barmby (6), Stone (6), Redknapp (4), Fowler (3), Ferdinand (10), Ince (19), Sheringham (15) and Shearer (23).