June 18 - Football Comes Home

ALL too often here at OTFD it’s our job to tell you about a losing England performance, whether it’s a heroic failure or embarrassing capitulation. Occasionally though, the Three Lions are capable of redressing the balance, as they did today in 1996 when they produced one of the their best results in recent years, downing the Netherlands 4-1 in Euro ‘96.

With England hosting it’s first major tournament for 30 years the country had got itself rather wound up. You couldn’t go five minutes without hearing Baddiel and Skinner wailing out of tune to ‘Three Lions’, the red-tops were promoting ‘football war’ and St Georges’ flag-salesmen were being kept all-too busy.

England had started the tournament slowly, drawing with the Swiss before Gazza and Geller put paid to the Scots hopes. Next up was the pre-tournament favourite Dutch side, lead by Guus Hiddink, who has since proved he’s figured out how to beat the English.

What went down on the sun-kissed night at Wembley has gone into English legend. Lead by the talismanic SAS partnership of Shearer and Sheringham up-front England put four past the talented Dutch squad and made fans across the country believe that the 30 years of hurt would soon be over.

The catalyst for this new found confidence was an 11-minute spell in the second half that saw Teddy Sheringham score twice, either side of Alan Shearer’s second after his first half penalty. England fans were even cheering Patrick Kluivert’s late consolation goal, as it meant that the Scots were going out on goal difference. All-in-all it was one the great England nights. Or where they just lucky?

You might want to whisper it, but England were actually quite flattered by the 4-1 scoreline. In the first-half Holland had chance after chance, with Aron Winter missing two headers from inside the six-yard box and Bergkamp fluffing three clear-cut chances. Even the veritable Barry Davis admitted ‘England really need half-time here’ as they clung on to their first-half lead with the Dutch streets ahead in terms of possession, corners and shots.

Holland had entered the tournament with their usual bout of in-fighting and racial tensions. Hiddink had been accused of not listening to the views of his squad’s black players, who also complained that no Surinamese food was provided for them in the camp. When Edgar Davids suggested that Hiddink should take his head out the white player’s behinds in a radio interview the coach was quick to boot him out of the squad, but this would only lead to more bickering.

The Dutch disappointment was compounded in the next round when they went out to France on penalties, with Clarence Seedorf missing the vital spot-kick. This came after Kluivert, Winston Bogarde and Michael Reiziger had hinted that they wanted to play in an all-black national team, although they later said that they had been misquoted.

We all know what happened with England - a semi-final with the Germans and a new poster boy for Pizza Hut. See the action below and make your mind up if it was the dominant England performance that you probably remember or not and come back tomorrow for a even more high pressure match for the Italians than last night’s clash with the French.

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