1996, Germany

Qualifying for the UEFA Euro 1996 final tournament, took place throughout 1994 and 1995. Forty-seven teams were divided into eight groups. The winner of each group along with the six best runners-up automatically qualified, while the two worst runners-up were involved in a play-off at a neutral venue. England qualified automatically as hosts of the event. This was the first European Championship to introduce the current system of 16 countries competing in the final tournament. Among the teams that failed to qualify were 1994 FIFA World Cup third place finishers Sweden, four time World Cup participants Belgium, and Euro '88 participants Republic of Ireland.

England won the right to host the European Championship for the first time, ahead of bids from Austria, Portugal and the Netherlands. 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 remembered the event fondly even though the home team failed to make it to the finals.

Russia, Germany, Portugal, Czech Republic, Croatia, Switzerland, Spain and Romania topped their individual groups to advance to the next round of the tournament. Italy, Bulgaria, Turkey, Scotland, Denmark, France and Netherlands were the runners-up who went throught to the qualifying round. England as the hosts joined the 15 teams. The teams were then divided into groups of four.

There were a couple of surprises as Czech Republic and Croatia, whose national teams had just recently come into existence, qualified for the knock-out stages of the tournament. England, Netherlands, France, Spain, Germany and Portugal, all of whom were tipped to reach the quarters, did so without much trouble.

The knockout stages had the stamp of negativity all over them. A total of only 9 goals in 7 games and 4 matches going into the penalties, saw defensive play rule the roost in the Euro '96. 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. But it is more remembered for Stuart Pearce's reaction when he scored the penalty after his miss at the 1990 World Cup semis. France and the Netherlands also lumbered to a dull 0-0 draw with France winning the penalty shootout 5-4. Jurgen Klinsmann opened the scoring for Germany in their match against Croatia. A goal from Davor Šuker brought the game on level terms before Matthias Sammer scored for Germany eight minutes later and took them into the semis. The Czech Republic shocked Portugal to win 1-0.

The first semi-final saw the hosts take on Germany in a hope to reach the finals. England had the 1990 semi-final etched in their memories and wanted to go all out to erase or atleast subdue those moments. But it was not to be for the hosts as their juggernaut at the '96 games was halted by the German side. Although Alan Shearer instilled some confidence scoring in the third minute of the game, Stefan Kuntz restored parity just after 15 minutes. Both sides came close during the game with England coming agonisingly close a few times but eventually another shootout was required to decide the fate. Gareth Southgate was the man who suffered the most this time as he missed the first effort of sudden death and Germany entered the finals the second year running.

Czech Republic were devastated by suspensions as they took on France in the second semi-final. The Czechs had enjoyed an unexpectedly trouble-free passage through to the last four but found their route to the showpiece beset by the absence of Jan Suchoparek, Radoslav Latal, Pavel Kuka and Radek Bejbl. There never seemed any urgency from either side during the game. Five successful spot kicks apiece followed in the shoot-out before Petr Kouba denied Reynald Pedros and Czech captain Miroslav Kadlec set aside his reluctance to step up with a clinical finish which extended his team's unlikely adventure into the Wembley showpiece.

The final was a chance for Germany to redeem its loss at the hands of Denmark four years earlier. Twenty years earlier Germany had lost to Czechoslovakia, underdogs then as now, in the UEFA European Championship final. And all was not well when Patrik Berger's penalty just before the hour sent shockwaves throughout Germany. Would it be another unfancied side defeating them again? The omens did not seem too uplifting for a German fan. The German side, already troubled by injuries, had a tough ask. That is when Oliver Bierhoff was introduced, 21 minutes from time. Bierhoff headed in a Christian Ziege freekick to level the score. The match then went into extra time and for the first time in the tournament history a golden goal was scored as Bierhoff struck from the left-foot and somehow Petr Kouba missed the ricocheting ball.