Our selection includes a nine-goal semi, English humiliation, Danish Dynamite – and the best international of the last 25 years
1) France 4-5 Yugoslavia (Euro 60, semi-final)
Like the World Cup before it, the European Nations Cup was fathered by a Frenchman. Not long after Jules Rimet got the wheels in motion for his global shebang in the 1920s, his pal at the French Football Federation, Henri Delaunay, drew up plans for a pan-European international tournament. After all, the South Americans had been contesting versions of the Copa América since 1913. But the political brouhaha brewing across the continent during the 1930s, culminating in the second world war, put paid to any chances of Delaunay realising his dream.
The idea was back on the table by the mid-1950s, by which time Uefa had been formed. Delaunay was its first general secretary, though would not live to see the first staging of his cup. He died in 1955; the tournament was not rubberstamped at a Uefa congress until 1957. Needless to report, all four British associations turned their noses up at the tournament, abstaining when the vote was put to the floor, fearing a jiggering of the Home Internationals. In fairness, at least they hadn't gone on the offensive: West Germany, Italy and Holland all voted against it. No matter: a majority of Uefa members carried the motion, with the first finals – specifically just the two semis and the final – to be held in France in 1960. The teams would compete for the Henri Delaunay Trophy.
The first qualification match was played between the USSR and Hungary in September 1958. Anatoly Ilyin of Spartak Moscow scored the competition's first ever goal after just four minutes, the Soviets winning the two-legged tie 4-1 on aggregate. It was an apt beginning to the tournament, with the Red Army marching all the way to the final, where they lifted the cup after a 2-1 win over Yugoslavia. (More on this – and Franco's refusal to let the team play their quarter-final in Spain – in a future JOS.) But it was not the match of the tournament.
That was the semi-final between hosts France – who had qualified for the semis after two-legged skelpings of Greece (8-2 on aggregate) and Austria (9-4) – and Yugoslavia. Both countries had strong recent pedigrees. The Yugoslav side had been runners up at the 1956 Olympics, their third silver medal in a row, and had made the quarter-finals of the 1958 World Cup. France, meanwhile, were placed third at that World Cup, and could even have possibly won it had Brazil's Vava not broken captain Robert Jonquet's leg in the semi.
It looked too close to call, given that Yugoslavia had beaten France 3-2 in the group stage at the 1958 World Cup, and France were missing the goal-crazy Just Fontaine through injury, and their star man Raymond Kopa, who had declined to play in the tournament citing "overstrain" due to his packed schedule with Reims (who at one point had played 10 games in less than three weeks). And so it proved. France went 3-1 and then 4-2 up, François Heutte scoring his second, and France's fourth, just after the hour. The score stayed the same until 15 minutes from time, whereupon the French – and specifically their keeper Georges Lamia – capitulated completely.
He spilled a long-range Zanetic shot, allowing Knez to make it 4-3. Three minutes later, he fumbled again, allowing Drazen Jerkovic to equalise. He then repeated the trick 60 seconds later, putting the winner on the plate for the same player. The French had, more than anyone else, gone to great lengths to put on European international football's first big party – but they would not be there at the end. Instead Yugoslavia made the first final, though they would lose to the USSR in extra time. The country would have to make do, a month or so later, with gold – finally – at the Olympics. France had another 24 years to wait for their first prize. SM
2) Yugoslavia 1-0 England (Euro 68, semi-final)
England's form took a slight downturn after their World Cup win of 1966. Only a slight one, mind you. In 1967, they famously lost 3-2 at Wembley to Jim Baxter's Scotland, although it's often forgotten they were effectively down to 10 men, Jack Charlton limping throughout most of the match. Then in 1968, they were beaten by West Germany for the first time in history. Still, England had nevertheless managed to pip the Scots to qualification for the quarter-finals of Euro 68, while the West German defeat was only a friendly, played out as the team were preparing for more serious business: the semi-finals of the Euros, having earlier in 1968 beaten Spain home and away in the quarters.
"This must end some time," smiled Sir Alf Ramsey after England's 2-1 quarter-final win in Madrid, "but where? And who is good enough to do it?" Sure enough, the old black dog of hubris pricked up its ears, and decided to sink its teeth into Ramsey's pants. The subsequent defeat by the Germans was deemed acceptable: all runs come to an end, and Ramsey's England had not lost abroad for four years. Meanwhile the side had been without Bobby Charlton, Martin Peters, Alan Mullery and Roger Hunt. An England side without these players, wrote Albert Barham in this paper, "are like mutton without salt – insipid."
Yet England were still expected to make the final in Rome. Their opponents in the Florence semi-final, Yugoslavia, were expected to "cause England some anguished moments", according to Barham, on the morning of the match, "though the general feeling of the committed and the uncommitted is that England will win 2-0." Barham was only three goals out.
The hard-tackling Yugoslavs limited the world champions to a couple of chances, Alan Ball heading against the bar from an offside position, and later ballooning a disappointing shot wildly over the bar after Bobby Moore, Peters, Ball himself, and Mullery had tiki-taka-ed their opponents into a trance. With three minutes to go, Dragan Dzajic evaded Moore to chest down a cross from the left and blooter the ball past Gordon Banks. In the dying seconds, Mullery responded to the latest in a series of robust challenges from Dobrivoje Trivic by punting his opponent straight in the swingers. The Spurs man became the first ever England international to be sent off, though his manager was not too cross. "If you hadn't done it, I would have," Sir Alf reportedly told the distraught player straight after the game. "It would appear that you can kick a player in front of the referee and get away with it," he later told the press, "but if you kick in retaliation and the referee doesn't see it, you get sent off."
In the final against hosts Italy, Dzajic was 10 minutes from becoming Yugoslavia's tournament-winning hero, but his goal was cancelled out by Angelo Domenghini. Gigi Riva and Pietro Anastasi landed the title for the Italians in a replay two days later. SM
3) England 1-3 West Germany (Euro 72, quarter-final, first leg)
On the face of it, England's progress to the quarter-finals of the 1972 European Championships was serene: five wins and a draw in an easy group containing Switzerland, Greece and Malta. But the last two games had raised a few concerns: a 1-1 draw at home against the Swiss, and a workaday 2-0 victory in Athens, Sir Alf happy with neither performance.
England would have to raise their game for the visit to Wembley of West Germany in the quarters. "This is the sixth meeting of the two countries in six seasons," began the Guardian's preview, "and only two matches need to be remembered. The 4-2 victory in the World Cup at Wembley in 1966, and the 3-2 defeat at Leon in the 1970 World Cup quarter-finals. This is the decider – and the most important match played at Wembley by England since the final of 1966."
Ramsey toyed with the idea of mixing up his team with a few fresh faces – Malcolm McDonald of Newcastle, David Nish of Leicester and Mick Channon of Southampton were all in the frame – but all were sent back to their clubs, the manager opting to go with the old boys for one last hurrah.
It proved the end of a golden era. "Not for 20 years have England been so thoroughly chastened in their own backyard," reported Albert Barham, after the home side had been flattered by a 3-1 defeat, Günter Netzer the star performer. "England were in a word terrible … Defeat of this magnitude always has been on the cards since the World Cup winning style of 1966 was copied and improved upon, while England remained content – workrate being the great god to which the rest had been subservient."
England were faced with an almost impossible job in the return leg in Berlin. In fairness, they travelled to Germany having talked a good game. In the Daily Mirror, Rodney Marsh, Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Martin Chivers, all resplendent in bowler hats, right legs cocked in a jaunty style, umbrellas in hand, posed in the style of Patrick McNee's character from The Avengers. "Today a group of dedicated young men will jet out from London Airport on a mission labelled impossible by the intelligensia of the trade," ran the paper's piece. "Destination: Berlin. Purpose of visit: to avenge a rather severe good hiding handed out by a West German football team to an Engtlish football team at Wembley Stadium 11 days ago. Messers Marsh, Moore, Peters and Chivers may lack the absolute sophistication of Steed, but it is believed that they can outshoot him."
That, sadly for England, was the sum total of their showbiz sass. Ramsey sent his team out to kick and harry the Germans. The purpose of visit: damage limitation, to avoid further humiliation. England settled for a 0-0 draw, crashing out with zero style, their aura as one of the world's top teams vanished. West Germany – and specifically Gerd Müller – went on to trundle over Belgium and then the Soviet Union in the final stages. SM
4) Czechoslovakia 3-1 Holland (Euro 76, semi-final)
Czechoslovakia's victory at Euro 76 is defined, pretty much, by Antonin Panenka's winning penalty in the final against West Germany. Which on the one hand is fair enough: the reigning world and European champions, one of the greatest international sides of all time, put to the sword by an exquisite act of heartless art. A shame, though, that its heady mix of grace, arrogance and nervelessness has obscured one of the great campaigns.
The Czechs started out, at the tail end of 1974, at Wembley. It was England's first competitive match, the Home Internationals apart, for just over a year, the previous being that World Cup qualifier against Poland. It was also their first match under Don Revie. And their first match with two coloured bands running down the sides of their shirts and socks, in the trademark Admiral style. "Revie brings Leeds spirit to England," trumpeted a headline in the Guardian, after a second-half onslaught brought the English a 3-0 victory over a "neat albeit passive" Czech side that had held out for 71 minutes until Mick Channon broke the deadlock and Colin Bell added two more to prettify the scoreline.
But England would only win two more matches in qualification, both against the minnows of Cyprus, the only worthwhile memory of those games being Malcolm McDonald's five-goal haul at Wembley. England followed up their win over the Czechs with a dour 0-0 draw at home against Portugal. The Czechs, meanwhile, stuck four past Cyprus – Panenka scoring a hat-trick – then five against the Portuguese. They effectively sealed their passage into the quarters with a 2-1 win over England in Bratislava. "England beaten on skill," sighed a Guardian headline, as Revie's England lost for the first time, Marian Masny running wild down the right.
The Czechs easily saw off the USSR in the quarter-finals, booking their place in what would arguably become the greatest international tournament of all time. Certainly statistically, anyway, because all four games – the two semi-finals, third-place play-off, and final – were mini classics. Perhaps the best of the lot was the semi between the Czechs and Holland, who were the media darlings of the era, the second-best team at the previous World Cup, and hot favourites to win.
Torrential rain cooled Holland's boots. Along with a dousing of Czech brilliance. Anton Ondrus opened the scoring by guiding a firm header into the top-left corner on 19 minutes, but undid his good work with 13 minutes to go, spectacularly turning Ruud Geels' right-wing cross into his own net with an outrageously hopeless flick. By then, the Czechs had been reduced to 10 men, Jaroslav Pollak refusing to retreat at a free-kick, then hacking down Johan Neeskens as the Dutchman skedaddled down the left. But Neeskens himself went almost immediately after the equaliser for an appalling crunch on Zdenek Nehoda. Soon after, Johan Cruyff, who had spent most of the 1974 World Cup final crying like a toddler who had just fallen off his trike, began arguing with the referee. That referee being Clive Thomas, he needed no excuse to get his yellow card out. If the Dutch went through to the final, Cruyff would miss the match.
That wouldn't be an issue. The match went to extra-time, and with six minutes left, Frantisek Vesely meandered down the right and stood one up for Nehoda, who planted a header into the net. Wim van Hanegem, infamously overwrought in the World Cup final two years earlier, once again lost the place, preposterously bitching at Thomas over the award of the goal, and arguing his way to a red card. With two minutes left, Vesely was sent clear, rounded Piet Schrijvers, and set the seal on a 3-1 win.
In the other semi, West Germany came back from two goals down against Yugoslavia, Dieter Müller coming off the bench to score a hat-trick – on his international debut, scoring his first with his first touch. The Germans won 4-2, and came back from two down against the Czechs in the final, too. But this time there was no escape, Czechoslovakia winning on penalty kicks. For the record, David Lacey's description of Panenka's defining moment: "A remarkably cool double shuffle as he ran up before scoring with a cheeky little chip." SM
5) Denmark 3-2 Belgium (Euro 84, Group A)
There has never been a game quite like this, a fusion of nawtiness and romance to be savoured equally by Danny Dyer and Kevin Keegan. A surfeit of fouls usually interrupt the flow of a game, yet this ebbed thrillingly, with Denmark coming from 2-0 down to reach the knockout stages of a major tournament for the first time.
This was a knockout game in nature if not name. France had already qualified from Group A, so it was between Denmark, who needed a draw, and Belgium, who had to win, for the final place. The match put a new spin on the notion of a club v country row: there were nine Anderlecht players on the field, three from Denmark and six from Belgium. (This was particularly unusual back then, but Denmark had a jump start on globalisation. Fourteen of their 20-man squad played overseas; the other seven teams had only five overseas-based players out of 140.) The Anderlecht players were at war throughout, with René Vandereycken in a particularly feisty mood.
At 2-2, just after the hour, he committed a nasty foul on his Anderlecht room-mate Frank Arnesen, an especially callous act given that Arnesen had only just recovered from two knee operations. Another Anderlecht player, the Denmark sweeper Morten Olsen, shoved Vandereycken over and started waving his hands around with confused disgust. The fact Olsen, one of the game's true gentlemen, lost it so spectacularly is a reflection of the intensity of the game. "Vandereycken is a great guy," said Olsen in the film Og Det Var Danmark. "We all forgot we were club mates. We played for our countries. Now, my own reaction surprises me. If I had a gun, I'd have shot him."
By modern standards there would probably have been at least five red cards. The section on this match in Og Det Var Danmark is soundtracked by Duran Duran's Wild Boys. The first foul was after 13 seconds, and although the players couldn't quite keep up that ratio throughout the match, they tried their best. It was all so heated that, at one stage, the referee pushed Klaus Bergreen over. This famous contretemps between Preben Elkjaer and Leo Clijsters was one of many.
Amid all the fighting, as the cliche goes, a football match broke out. Belgium had gone 2-0 up through Jan Ceulemans, who willed an awkward ball into the corner, and a spectacular driven lob from Franky Vercauteren. Crucially, however, that lead did not have chance to marinate. Straight from the kick off, Michael Laudrup freed Elkjaer, who won a soft penalty. Elkjaer had a much clearer penalty appeal turned down earlier in the game. Denmark didn't care. Arnesen scored emphatically.
As is so often the way with stories like these, Belgium had their 'what if?'. They missed a great chance to go 3-1 ahead just after half-time, when Erwin Vandenbergh went through on goal and the underrated Ole Qvist charged right to the edge of his area to make an exceptional save. A typically aggressive substitution from Sepp Piontek precipitated Denmark's equaliser after an hour. He brought on a forward, Kenneth Brylle, for a defender, Ole Rasmussen. Four minutes later, Brylle headed in after sumptuous wingplay from Arnesen.
Belgium inevitably dominated possession thereafter, but Olsen, back in his familiar zone of serenity, controlled the defence masterfully, at one stage putting a full stop to a Belgian attack with a nerveless backheel in his own area Although a draw would have put Denmark through, Elkjaer spared them a nervous denouement with a glorious solo effort after 84 minutes. He scored smoother goals – not to mention a World Cup hat-trick – but this was his finest moment in a Denmark shirt, because of the significance and manner of the goal.
It was Elkjaer in excelsis: he simply ran through the brick wall of the Belgian defence before dinking the ball cleverly over Jean-Marie Pfaff. As with his iconic club goal, scored without his right boot for Verona against Juventus during their title-winning season, nothing in the world was going to stop him. Few players, if any, have personified determination like Elkjaer. "Unbelievable!" said Svend Gehrs, the Danish John Motson, as the ball drifted into the net. "That man is fantastic!". Elkjaer's celebration, a clumsy cartwheel before he was buried under team-mates, reflected the gawky, everyman charm and humble joy of a team the football world had fallen in love with.
At the final whistle, Gehrs nailed it by describing them as "this unconquerable team of optimists". They were no angels, and played their part in the more deviant elements of this match, but you'd have to have a pretty hard heart not to love this side. Not least because of what they did after. Even though the semi-final was less than five days away, Piontek gave them a 5am curfew so that they could properly celebrate such a defining achievement. Half the team didn't make it. Breakfast was put back to lunch, and lunch to 5pm. RS
6) Holland 2-3 Czech Republic (Euro 2004, Group D)
The greatest international match of the 21st century: classier than Yugoslavia 3-4 Spain, more exciting than Germany 0-2 Italy. The best of both worlds. If it had been at a more advanced stage of the tournament it might make the shortlist for greatest international match of all. There is so much to remember. Ruud van Nistelrooy's unusual goal, which sent the old-school offside brigade into apoplexy; the Czechs' fearless comeback from 2-0 down, aided by Karel Brückner's inspired substitution of a midfielder for a full-back after 24 minutes; the mouths of west London watering collectively at the performances of Arjen Robben and Petr Cech, who had signed deals to join Chelsea that summer; the emphatic majesty of Milan Baros's equaliser after a lovely build-up; the magnificent Pavel Nedved swooshing an outrageous 35-yard shot against the crossbar; and then, finally, the quick wit, selflessness and class with which Karel Poborsky created Vladimir Smicer's late winner, a glorious microcosm of the Czechs' telepathy and team ethos. If we ever do a Joy of Six of greatest teams never to win the European Championship, the 2004 Czech side will be in the top one. RS Read More
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