Euro 2021: The inside story of England's 1996 European championship heartbreak

it's impossible to look at these euros without reflecting on that amazing time 25 years ago euro 96 [Music] in the build-up to these euros i kind of gone back 25 years with two guys who are really strong memories and great insight in what it meant to them and the team and the build up and during the tournament and afterwards so i mean you were a bit of a light starter for england weren't you what what took him what took him so long you were 27. yeah good question i had um i was probably in better form when i was around 24 25 and thought the the chance might come to be picked for england uh and then just when my form was dipping a little bit i got picked uh for a international poland away we were playing uh where i made my debut and it was kind of out the blue i wasn't doing so well at the time and um and got the chance when when i was least expecting it it's interesting because you were born just before england won the world cup and then euro 96 came just after your 30th birthday i think didn't it i mean what were your feelings about england in your first 30 years i mean can you remember 1990 i mean where did you watch that semi-final there yeah um i can remember i mean all the excitement was about gaza then when it he just came on the scene and it was so exciting i could remember being in a pub i think i was down in south end and uh just getting carried away with everyone then obviously i was a professional footballer by then but um what would have been 24 something like that and uh just enjoying being part of the crowd watching it and the excitement that it brought to so many people watching gaza um turn it on and and england becoming so close to to being in the final i mean it's i'm trying to remember how little expectation there was of england going into 96 um well we'd had a tough time we didn't qualify for 94 world cup so it was it was um terry venables had taken over and i know from working with terry or i knew from working with terry that things could be very optimistic and i was very excited about about that and once he got involved and the team changed its shape and and the way we played football the way we took the game to the opposition i think everybody picked up on it very very quickly and the optimism uh generated very very quickly and then by the time of the start of the tournament i mean you say that there wasn't much pressure on us to win it but there always is when you're playing for england especially on home soil so what was it about terry then the players i've spoken to have said he just talked in language you can understand as simple as don't come in with your shorts dirty you know because you know you know it means you've been on your backside and you're no good to anybody there yeah i mean stop that simple not quite like that but um he he had a way of making you feel good obviously you're playing at the top level but he had a way of making you understand that what was expected easy layman terms for us to understand for everybody for the whole unit i always remember him saying to me personally you know when you when you speak to a group it's no good the best two players understanding what i want you've got to have 19 20 of the 20 players understanding exactly what you want and that's what that's what he had about him that he made everybody understand exactly you know he might go to that point in the room and that point in the room and say you know you got it yeah yes boss and then you move on from there it sounds very easy doesn't it but you know so many managers that i've played with played under make it hard work and you come out and you have the meeting and you're like what so what what is it and you can see other players thinking that you know there was none of that with terry you know it was clear-cut this is what we're going to do and if they do that that's going to be the issue in terms of pre-tournament preparation i don't mean to be critical but going off to hong kong on a night nights out supervised by brian robson doesn't doesn't seem to cleverly something it all worked out in the end but what are your thoughts on that how did that sort of come about yeah that's a little bit blase of how it was set up i mean you know we was there to play a couple of games to to to get our team ethic right for the competition um and on top of that we was allowed out for a night i don't think he envisaged that we would end up in that position that the way it was we know it didn't look right it didn't look very good um to the public and and he wasn't best pleased about it but and he he he let us know in uncertain terms but the fact of the matter with what he did afterwards to the press was was pure genius for us that he just said to the pressler i i allowed them out it's on my shoulders you know it doesn't look great uh but it's my fault for letting him out and he protected the players we we could have got even more uh ambush for that for you know we could have we could have got castigated even more so but he defended us and you look at him and go love that i'm not accepting anything if you've got any proof have you you take oh you take their word but you don't take ours is that what it is but there was a fair amount of criticism and piety but i mean i for one and millions of others looked at the pictures and thought what a night out that must have been i mean like now what was it a cracking night act i mean was it just unforgettable it was a great night out yeah great fun i mean you're out with 20 of your mates that that you've been allowed out for a night out you know you've got four weeks of staying in you know you've had a few couple of weeks of staying in you know we're allowed one night out again it's not great pictures that you end up the way we did but you know you want to enjoy yourself for that one night and we certainly did what i don't understand is i want all the clothes the ripping of the clothes is the bit i didn't understand i mean who knows when you i i don't know how it got like that but um it just seemed like a fun stupid thing to do at the time but um obviously the pictures don't look great okay so you all got i mean you all got carried away you know just and i think that carried on the plane home and then i don't know whether that brought you together because you were being criticized as a group terry was sort of shielding you from that i just wondered whether it contributed to all right well we'll show them kind of i think i think that what is exactly how it brought us together now it brought us together with the management you know again i obviously knew about terry from playing for him but the players that only got get to see him for three days and then go and disappear to their clubs and then when someone defends you like that you know it gives you a sturdiness in your group and a unity that um that perhaps you wouldn't have got if we would have stayed at home and stayed at burnham beaches and all been on the quiet front so in the immediate build-up you were didn't where were you burning beaches then immediately and what um what was that like um yeah it was good yeah we had we had lots of uh stuff to to play you know the golf course was just down the road uh table tennis in the room snooker and darts or whatever you know there was plenty for a tennis that we could go and have a game of if we wanted to do if we were getting bored and then plus you got gaza to look after you as well so yeah so that was that was the uh the focal point i would say i mean did you i'm not supposed to certainly he must have been entertained at first and join in with him and eggy mom but after a while surely he thought hang on we just got to calm him down here you know just um a bit of everything i mean you would think that he would drive you mad but when someone is so funny in the manner that he was always up to something that um it made it fun and buzzy i mean it's a long time to spend with a group of lads sitting in there you train you have breakfast you train you have lunch you're all sitting together you know you need that breakup of of the of the boredom and such so who was big in that group as i mean apart from terry obviously and i think terry did say at one stage he had nine club captains i think in there but was there any one i don't know is there anyone you think you sort of glued it together who maybe doesn't get mentioned dispatches that much well someone else did something for euro 96 and they said to me that tony adams didn't really want to be involved in it and i said well you tell him for me that you tell him for me that he's got to be involved because he was our main man he was our captain he was our leader he had that way of bringing people in you know if someone was sitting over there come over here come over here come and join in no don't be over there this is our team you know and he had that way so anything that around euro 96 and tony adams isn't involved in doesn't work right for me doesn't sit right because he was our leader and that that's how i think everyone looked up to him so switzerland came around and he sort of we labored a bit didn't we um what are your thoughts on that game you know it was a quiet start yeah hot uh hot sunny saturday afternoon ball very sticky uh grass not not no water on it so the ball didn't zip around so you could play one touch football it was tough uh switzerland made it very hard for us and i think in the end we were probably pleased that we got a draw so you know it doesn't knock you out the tournament and you're not you're not flying got flying colours around you but um we were happy to get a draw because we didn't play the best that we could have done but um but we're still off and running in the tournament so we get to scotland then in the first half was wasn't great was it there was i think rednap came on at half time didn't it was there a tactical switch that changed things yeah yeah there was i you know when when you analyze it when when you look back at euro 96 it wasn't all such plain sailing when everyone says oh it was fantastic times and all that you know things weren't as swimmingly great as what as what you know you forget those things yeah the picture is painted but you know sometimes you've got to dig in and and this will be exactly the same with the scottish game in in euros 2020 that you know if you don't compete against the scots you're gonna get you're gonna get turned over so i mean then we had as you said one of the greatest goals ever what was your view on that what how do you remember we won't we've seen it on the telly you were i i remember it very very clearly uh david seaman hitting a long ball up from a from a goal kick i laid it off to darren anderton and darren and played a beautiful floating ball over the top and the rest is just pure genius from the way i see it gaza making out to eat it with his left foot flicking it over the top of colin andrew's head and hitting it on the volley superbly past andy gorham it was just we'd seen it a million times you know throughout training we knew gaza had the capabilities to do this um very very special player and for him to do it on that stage was was quite fitting against the two players that uh he did it as well but the celebration it is almost as famous as the genius of the goal i i'm always astonished at the level of organization that goes into that and it looks spontaneous were you party to the planning of that uh i think we're all party to it and i think we said you know i'm not sure probably gaza said if if we score today let's make that celebration you know so that we can have a little bit of fun with it and as i said i i was part of the makeup of the goal so by the time the goal went in i was probably still coming over the halfway line so the celebration was there but because i was in some of the pictures that were in the papers by the time i got there not the quickest as well so trotting up to be part of the celebrations i wanted to do a celebration again so i've got gaza back down on the floor and i've got some pictures of me um yeah squirting squirting more in there as well okay but it wasn't was it what was organized you say if you'd scored well you would be would you have been receiving sort of speaker of course yeah yeah yeah because we was all in the dentist chair at some stage yeah you know there was lots of different pictures that people had taken i think robbie fowler had pictures of taken in there i can't remember who else had pictures in there but there was a few of us so you know it was a case of whoever scores today let's have a bit of fun okay so we move on to holland right and by now everyone's getting sort of super excited and stuff but holland are brilliant i mean how much confidence did you have going to that game if somebody told you like you're going to beat this slot 4-1 would you have said yeah i don't believe that or come on no no definitely not definitely not this was our big test you know obviously switz the swiss game was was a tough one scottish one was tougher but you've got four points out of that and you still know that you need to get some sort of result to go through to the next stage i think we needed a draw to go through but the whole the whole night was so different as i say the two previous games were three o'clock in the afternoon very sticky very hot this was a night game bit of dew on the grass so the ball was zipping off we had a lot of one-touch players that that could could play the game uh at players that could run with the ball as well and a lot easier when there's a bit of dew on the grass and it we just took off um scored an early goal and just even looking back the dutch had a you know dennis berg had three or four very very good chances so it could have been a very high high goal scoring game but we converted our chances they didn't and it and it looks like a route it looks like a one-sided game but even that game was a a very very even game amongst two very good teams but we took our chances and they didn't once we beat the dutch the way we did not just the scoreline but the way we played football that night i think the whole nation was was bubbling you know it was generating so much excitement and optimism and i think you know there was a real sense that we could go on and win the tournament you know you could feel that we was in burnham beach's hotel but you could feel it on the way two games on the way to training that you know everybody well wishing yeah you know you could the the public were very very excitable uh so going into the spain game that that's exactly our how we work really you know you you read a lot the press that we're on national tv every day and the news is on and everybody's speculating about what's going to happen uh it was exciting times and the whole the whole nation was as i say it was throwing at the mouth for us to continue you know you you're you're bubbling you you're feeling great about things because we're we're we're topping out our little league in that way and we're into the quarterfinals and we're feeling good about ourselves so uh you you know as a footballer you try and bring yourself down when when you get kicked in the teeth you try and bring yourself up when you're bubbling too high you try and bring yourself down so you keep on an even keel because the next game brings another challenge and the spanish game was a a very tough challenge i suppose as a player the one thing you can't experience is what's going on elsewhere in the country and i'm telling you it was just incredible the motorways were empty i was at lords watching a test match and during the penalty shooter it went completely quiet and then everybody went berserk i mean dickie bird was the umpire a wrong thing you know what's all this going on yeah and i just you know you can't experience that you know and the famous song three lions the whole country was singing it were you singing it was it something you were aware of as players no doubt you know it's a very catchy tune in it so uh the fact that that catchy tune had come about and we were doing so well yeah without a doubt i'm sure i'm sure we were having a little hum to it okay so spain's out the way right then germany and i mean ahead of the game did you believe you could beat them i think our our manager made us believe that we could beat them um we had a we had a feeling that we could beat them and we went into that game not expecting but hoping to beat them and we you know we're we were playing as a team it was a it was a lovely way to feel you know when you look around the changer and beforehand you go you do for me i'm glad he's in my team i want him in my team you know i'm glad i'm not playing against him today i'm glad he's on my side and you look around at the whole changing room and you've got so many players there and you're thinking i like the look of this team so we we was in a very comfortable place do you think it's possible we scored too early i mean i felt oh it's going to be a bit boring nights in the back i mean i trust you weren't feeling like that but no you maybe sometimes you do feel like that how easy was that it was a set piece that we'd we tried many times and sometimes they come off sometimes they don't when it does come off it does look so easy how easy was that but uh perfect corner uh lovely flick on and alan getting across his man in the box and you know scores an easy goal but um i can assure you it had been worked on many many times so uh it was lovely to see it come off and then it turned into a a right old battle you know the i mean how emotionally exhausting was it to be part of you know as it went into extra time and so on um i don't think you get i don't think you get wrapped up in the emotionally exhausting side of it that's for everybody else watching we we can do something about it so you you keep you keep you calm keep you cool um i think probably watching the game is the worst worst position for family and friends that are that are there and on your side i mean i i didn't realize until i was just preparing to see you that you took our fifth penalty so you think of the years of hurt that gareth's had since i mean that could have been you yeah you know i mean were your legs going wibbly wobbly without a doubt it's the most nervous i've ever been on a football pitch taking a taking a penalty for your country especially the fifth penalty suddenly you know yeah effectively you know if you miss you're gonna get ridiculed for the rest of your life you know so many players have been remembered for missing a penalty for england that that knocks you out of a major competition so adding that pressure to this penalty it was just immense as i say the worst worst pressure i've ever felt but sometimes you put the ball on the spot and you think to yourself jesus that goalkeeper looks massive how am i going to score but this particular time i put the ball on the spot looked up and saw the goalkeeper and he looked quite small it was uh kopka the goalkeeper's name and he wasn't the biggest goalkeeper but he might have been in a little crouching position at the time and i just thought wow he looks tiny if i put this penalty exactly where i want it to go and the pace that i want it to go out there's no way you can save it even though if a goalkeeper goes early they can save even the penalty right in the top corner so but i just the confidence came over to me that i'd taken a million penalties if i put this penalty exactly where i want it to go with the pace i want on it it will go in the back of the net so i step back up run up to the ball made out to hit it hard and put my side foot right foot into exactly where i wanted it to go high to the keepers left and when it hit the back of the net that relief and buzz of excitement that we're still in the competition you know just the it drained and then you know exploded that that you know i'd scored and then the relief to to score a penalty for england and then poor gareth as you saw him walking up what do you think do you get a feeling about these things um i think i was probably quite surprised that it was gareth next i don't know what the conversations were about who was taking the next penalties but someone probably said to him right if we have the the first five are you are you okay to take one yeah yeah of course you know thinking well we're all going to take one of them at some stage i doubt that he would have said knowing gareth i don't think he would have said yeah i'll have the sith one you know i don't think he would have put himself up for that kind of uh position but you know wasn't to be but he walked away this consulate i mean a lot of players just stick their chin out but you know gareth looked broken yeah i know i don't think i'm speaking out of term when i say it still weighs heavily on it yeah whatever happened to him you know no idea he bounced back i think he's involved this time backroom stuff empty but what did you say to him after i mean is there anything you can say do you order a footballer savage and immediately start the mickey take it uh no i i don't know i don't think it's the time for mickey taking it it's just a case of you try and put yourself in someone else's shoes and um console them uh he probably won't have remembered anything that anyone said to him that night but uh i'm sure everyone would have been around him at some stage to to say you know don't worry about it life goes on you know it could have happened to any one of us and it could have without a doubt so what do you remember your feelings after my initial feeling is you know from all the excitement all the euphoria all the bubbling the atmosphere just generating for the last two weeks that that this is it we you know we're going all the way cut and it's like that's it it's all over you've got to go home wow oh that's it you know and it is that is that surreal that it's like oh end off yeah and that is where you know fans and players are very different and don't really get each other i don't think but at that moment the fans are thinking exactly that what you just described not right oh no hmm very very surreal feeling after the way you'd felt for the last two weeks you know you haven't got a third fourth place play-off place to play yeah yeah you know it's just that's it but you know everyone has that feeling at some stage in the in the i suppose it's even worse when you go out on penalties like that because that is it cut and tried there in that moment so look you won a champions league three premier leagues and an fa cup so where can finishing as a losing semi-finalist rate in terms of your life's experience in football how does euro 96 rates and uh all the others i loved every minute of it i mean it's a it was a it was a long couple of weeks it was fantastic to be involved in but but at the end of the day you're in football to to win stuff that's what people remember obviously i still speak about euro 96 a lot with people but it ends in ifs and buts you know when you talk about winning the triple with manchester united you know there's a there's an end product and you know the medals are there the trophies are there the pictures are there for for all to see so it's easier to explain but to be involved in euro 96 with the players that i was involved in it was a real pleasure uh to to be involved in it and so excited and so pleased that i did but you know we were close so looking at this year what are you what are you what are your thoughts um i'm excited i'm excited with what uh gareth is is doing um i like the fact that he's worked under terry vulnerables as well and he will take a lot from what he did in euro 96 the way he tried to build that that team spirit uh that unity that club feel i think it's very very important for them for them all to come together you know all the top teams have all got players in there and it's you know you play against each other week in week out you've got to forget all that you've got to come together as a real unit because any little splits in the camp will will get shown up at some stage in the in the in the competition so get into it stick together fight like hell at times show your skill at times but you know make sure you give your all because i'm here now 25 years later and wear ifs and butts give it your best and come back as heroes you

Channel: The Sun

Views: 13,754

Keywords: The Sun, news, breaking news, Covid-19, Sport, football, euros, ENgland, european championships 2021, england football, england squad, england euro 2020, euros 1996 final, england euros 1996, teddy sheringham, teddy sheringham interview, football's coming home, england fans, england euro 2020 squad, gareth southgate, england euros, sport documentary films, sport documentary full, football news, euro 2021, england team, gascoigne goal v scotland, paul gascoigne vs scotland

Id: jWUsnzQM7X8

Length: 25min 44sec (1544 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 07 2021