England 4-1 Holland
European Championship finals group phase, June 18, 1996
Football came home as England hosted the 1996 European Championship finals and, although England started their qualifying group slowly with a dull 1-1 draw against Switzerland, a 2-0 win over Scotland set things up nicely for the final match of Group A against Holland, the team that had prompted England’s failure to qualify for the 1994 World Cup. Revenge was in the air with a place in the quarter-finals up for grabs. What followed was truly extraordinary...
Alan Shearer (23, 57)
Teddy Sheringham (51, 62)
Patrick Kluivert (78)
European Championships, Group Phase,
June 18, 1996
Wembley,
Referee: Gerd Grabher,
Att: 76,798
Much to the amazement of even the most ardent England fans Venables’ team really turned on the style at Wembley and handed out a footballing lesson to one of the game’s supposed aristocrats.
Alan Shearer opened the scoring with a 23rd minute penalty to send England in with their noses in front at the break. But the second period saw England score almost with every attempt. Teddy Sheringham powered home a header six minutes after the restart, then Shearer unleashed the goal of the night, a thunderous shot on 57 minutes. And the classy Sheringham added England’s fourth before substitute Patrick Kluivert pulled back a single goal for the Dutch 12 minutes from time.
No matter, England had produced a superb attacking display and had marched convincingly into the quarter-finals and a meeting with Spain.
Key Figures
Alan Shearer
The Blackburn Rovers striker ended a 20-month international drought when he scored England’s solitary goal in the opening game draw with Switzerland. But the floodgates opened as he scored again against Scotland and then bagged a fine brace against the Dutch. Shearer had found his scoring boots and England had one of the most feared men of the tournament in their line-up.
Teddy Sheringham
30-year-old Sheringham was a particular favourite of England manager Terry Venables and repaid his coach’s faith by not only scoring two goals against Holland, but by providing the creative spark for the entire team thanks to his intelligent and subtle forward play.
Paul Ince
The Inter Milan man put in a command midfield performance of assured belligerence to keep Holland on the back foot and nullify any chance of the Dutch posing any real attacking threat. Ince fully lived up to his tag of ‘The Guv’nor’ and even found time to maraud forward and win England’s first half penalty after being downed by Danny Blind. Sadly, though, a booking put Ince out of the quarter-final meeting with Spain.
Did You Know...?
The 4-1 victory was England’s biggest win over Holland in almost 50 years. England had triumphed 8-2 at Huddersfield back in November of 1946.
Holland’s consolation goal meant heartbreak for Scotland, who failed to qualify for the knockout stages of Euro ’96 on goals scored because of Patrick Kluivert’s strike.
Alan Shearer’s two strikes against Holland helped him end Euro ’96 as the tournament’s top scorer with five goals.
What Happened Next
England went on to meet the tournament’s form side Spain in the quarter-finals. The match provoked football fever throughout the host nation, but the game proved to be a nail-biting, if not dull, affair. With the scores at 0-0 at the end of normal time the ‘Golden Goal’ rule produced an even more sterile extra time period – and so it was down to penalties.
England came out on top by four goals to two as Stuart Pearce scored to bury the memory of missing in the World Cup semi-final six years previously. England were into the semi-final and another meeting with Germany. And yes, we went out on penalties!
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