Reliving Euro 96: How England nearly brought football home

Everyone seems to know the score, they've seen it all before. They just know, they're so sure.

England 1-1 Switzerland

Expected Goals (xG): ENG 1.32 - 1.85 SWI

The feelgood factor ushered in by Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds had been washed down the drain by the 'Dentist's Chair' saga by the time England took to the Wembley turf for their Euro '96 opener against Switzerland.

When do England ever play well in a tournament opener? Hardly ever. And certainly not in 1996.

They did start well against the Swiss, in fairness, as Alan Shearer ended a 12-game goal drought for his country, but from there England were lucky to escape with a point as Marco Grassi missed a sitter and Kubilay Turkyilmaz levelled from the spot.

The second half hadn't quite been one-way traffic, but the Three Lions had barely threatened, creating chances equating to just 0.12 expected goals (xG), and any pre-tournament optimism had suffered a hefty dent.

That England's gonna throw it away, gonna blow it away.

England 2-0 Scotland

Expected Goals (xG): ENG 1.55 - 0.98 SCO

They tried to throw it away again against the Scots, another silly penalty - this time a Tony Adams foul on Gordon Durie to blame after Stuart Pearce's handball in the opener - threatening to dissolve another Shearer-earned lead.

However, David Seaman would be the hero, thwarting Gary McAllister's spot-kick with a superb save. Well, he'd be the hero for a minute. That baton would then pass to Paul Gascoigne.

Little else needs to be written about one of the iconic, all-time great England goals - Geoff Hurst in 1966, Michael Owen in 1998 perhaps rivalling it - but when Gazza did Colin Hendry up like a kipper and volleyed past Andy Goram, belief flooded back.

Even then, though, few would have foreseen what was to come a few days later...

But I know they can play, cos I remember...

England 4-1 Netherlands

Expected Goals (xG): ENG 2.58 - 2.96 NED

It's easy to forget Aron Winter missing a heck of a chance with a close-range header for the Dutch given the craziness of what was to come but, hey, everyone needs a little bit of luck, right?

In fairness, Shearer had already seen a shot cleared off the line by that stage and it was he who blasted England ahead from the spot - finally a penalty at the right end - after Paul Ince had produced the best ever Cruyff turn by someone not named Cruyff to lure in Danny Blind's foul.

Again, lost in the annals of time are the chances missed by Winter and Dennis Bergkamp at 1-0 down but the Dutch were punished, and how, by a simply scintillating second-half performance by Terry Venables' troops.

Teddy Sheringham scored their second with a header from a corner and teed up Shearer to rifle home England's unforgettable third before the Tottenham man made it 4-0.

Patrick Kluivert rescued the Dutch from elimination with a consolation goal that sent the Scots packing as the Netherlands somehow ended up winning the xG battle despite being thumped.

I know that was then but it could be again.

England 0-0 Spain (4-2 on pens)

Expected Goals (xG): ENG 1.63 - 0.76 ESP AET

For a generation of England supporters, this was it - the solitary penalty shoot-out triumph amid almost 30 years of spot-kick sorrows.

Penalties weren't quite the scary thought back then that they would become - we only had the scars of losing to West Germany at Italia '90. Much, much worse was to come.

And speaking of that tournament six years earlier, this quarter-final was memorable for pretty much one thing - the redemption of Stuart Pearce, one of the players who failed in that shoot-out defeat by the Germans.

In a tournament littered with iconic England images - the dentist's chair comedy celebration, the Shearer and Sheringham SAS partnership, Seaman's penalty save and Gareth Southgate's tears - it is perhaps Pearce's visceral purging that lingers most.

England were winning. The were winning when they played well, against the Netherlands, winning when they played okay against Scotland and even winning when they played poorly, against Spain, who had been unfortunate to see a normal-time goal wrongly ruled out for offside.

But all those "oh so nears" wear you down, through the years.

England 1-1 Germany (5-6 on pens)

Expected Goals (xG): ENG 2.12 - 1.23 GER AET

At the time, relatively spoiled by a major semi-final at Italia '90 just six years earlier, who would have believed that it would be more than 20 years until England would grace the final four of an international tournament again?

It's ironic, looking back, how eerily similar the semi-final exits to Germany in 1996 and Croatia in 2018 are - an early England lead, a failure to press home that advantage, a tendency to sit back too much and a couple of 'what could have been' moments.

Did England score too early? There were only three minutes on the clock when Shearer nodded home a corner but only 13 more had elapsed when Stefan Kuntz steered Germany level.

A Sheringham shot cleared off the line was the closest either side came to regaining the lead in 90 minutes before the game burst into life in extra time.

Chances abounded for both teams - a Kuntz 'Golden Goal' header disallowed for a foul, Darren Anderton hitting the post for England and that Gazza moment.

The five nominated penalty takers for each nation all rattled home from the spot before Southgate's weak penalty was saved and Andreas Moller won it for Germany, who would go on to beat rank outsiders the Czech Republic in the final.

What might have been. Still, Thirty years of hurt, never stopped me dreaming.dd

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