- NO RESERVE -0.60
04.06.1996 Sport: European Football Championship, UK 1996 - s/s
1996 UEFA European Football Championship
The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 96) was hosted by England. It was the tenth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The tournament´s final stages took place between June 8 and June 30, 1996. The slogan of the tournament was "Football Comes Home", as it was the first time the tournament took place in England, the land where the game was born. English football and popular culture has since referenced the competition fondly even though the team did not reach the final. The national impact of the competition can be measured by the fact that the song "Three Lions", which became the song the England fans sang when their team played was re-released for the 1998 world cup containing lyrics referencing Euro 96, such as "Psycho (Stuart Pearce) screaming" replacing "Nobby (Nobby stiles, member of the 1966 World Cup winning team) dancing".
This was the first European Championship to introduce the current format of 16 countries competing in the final tournament. Fifteen teams had to go through a qualifying round to reach the final stage. England qualified automatically as hosts of the event.
The qualifying round was played throughout 1994 and 1995. There were eight qualifying groups of six teams each, with the exception of group 3, which only had 5. The matches were played in a home-and-away basis.
The winner and the runner-up of each group qualified automatically, with the exception of the two worst runners-up. These two teams had to play an additional playoff between them (single match in neutral ground), to determine the 16th team to join all others in the final tournament. This was between Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands at Anfield Stadium, Liverpool which the Dutch won 2-0.
The first round group stage went mainly as most observers would have expected, with almost all the major teams qualifying for the quarter-finals. The only exceptions to this were the failures of Italy (from the "Group of Death" which also had Germany and the Czech Republic in it) and defending champions Denmark. The hosts England, after a slow start against Switzerland, defeated arch rivals Scotland and then defeated the Netherlands 4-1 with a superb performance to qualify.
However, the knock-out stages were marked for their generally uninspiring play. Only 9 goals were scored in the 7 matches, with four of the games decided by penalty shoot-outs. The semi-final between England and Germany ultimately ended in disappointment for the home side, as Germany beat England on penalties.
The final of the tournament was between Germany and the surprise of the tournament - the Czech Republic. In the end, it was a triumph for German striker Oliver Bierhoff, who scored Germany´s equaliser in the 2nd half after Patrik Berger´s penalty had given the Czechs the lead. As the game went into extra time, it was Bierhoff who scored the Golden Goal (after a mistake from the Czech goalkeeper, and the first Golden Goal in the history of international football.) to give Germany another major tournament success.
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Mi.No. 4225 - 4226 (Block 230) Bulgarien
1996, 4. Juni. Blockausgabe: Fussball-Europameisterschaft, England. Odr.; gez. K 13:13.
fux-fuy) Spielszenen
Block 230 (71/86 mm) fuz