12 June 2000, Philips Stadion, Eindhoven. Portugal 3–2 England.
By Hamish McTavish
A Monday night in Eindhoven, the Philips a steep bowl under lights that make a group game look like a final, and a manager who had come as national cheerleader. Kevin Keegan had needed Scotland over two legs to get here — a play-off the English week still treated as a formality after the second night at Wembley. Hopes, the same week wrote, were typically unrealistic. Lineker had gone. Shearer had stayed. Beckham had the right foot the country had decided would be enough. Portugal had Figo, Rui Costa, João Pinto, a midfield Keegan could have stifled with Dennis Wise and chose not to. He wanted the carnival, not the carnage. He wanted England to attack because the championship, he said, would give no prizes for stalemate. Then, for eighteen minutes, the hopes looked like a plan. Paul Scholes, three minutes in, from a David Beckham cross, a finish that made the Dutch ground sound English. Steve McManaman, on eighteen, half-volley from another Beckham ball, deceptively simple, two-nil, and Henry Winter, who would have the morning, said it was tempting to describe it as a dream start, except that no Englishman in his wildest dreams, not even the manager, could have imagined so sensational a beginning. The Mail called it a farce later. It was not a farce yet. It was two-nil and a favourite touching silver. Everything Keegan touched, for a quarter of an hour, looked as if it might turn that colour by the end of the month.
Eindhoven in June is a bowl that remembers who paid for the lights. England had come as the side that had survived Scotland and expected the group to be kinder. Portugal had come as the side with Figo and Costa and a midfield that does not care what you scored in the first eighteen minutes. The English end treated two-nil as a plan. The Portuguese treated it as a beginning they had not agreed to. Group A still had Germany and Romania left. A flying start here still looked like a life. A three-two here, and the rest of the fortnight would be a side chasing a beginning.
They kicked off anyway. The first eighteen minutes were the kick-off. The rest was Portugal remembering who they were.
Luís Figo picked up a loose ball in midfield, walked into the space Keegan had left by scorning Dennis Wise, and hit one that came off Tony Adams and into the top corner. Seaman stood. Winter called Figo and Rui Costa endless fonts of invention. Twenty-two minutes, or thereabouts, and the two-goal lead was already a lead they were going to have to defend with the same midfield that had just watched Figo walk. Eight minutes before half-time João Pinto sent a flying header in off the far post from another Costa cross. Two-two at the interval, and Michael Owen was already coming off injured, Emile Heskey on, McManaman due a knock of his own. The dream start had lasted as long as a first pint.
The turn is the fifty-ninth minute, and it is not a bounce, it is a pass. Costa split them. Nuno Gomes killed it, Adams slid, and the shot went into the roof. Three-two. England had a spell after that, because they always have a spell. Heskey, Scholes, Shearer, half-chances. Scholes hit Shearer with a shot that was going in. Gomes had a header disallowed. Phil Neville threw one long. Adams missed it. The last five minutes were Portugal in a shell and England looking for the spark that had been the first eighteen minutes, as if a match were something you could start again. Keegan had given football a gift, the Mail said, by going for broke. The gift was a three-two. Winter, in the Telegraph, filed the line the night still wears: England floored after flying start. The falsest of starts. Flying out of the blocks and tripping in the teeth of the superior passing.
They would beat Germany in Charleroi and then need a draw with Romania and not get it. That night is already filed. This is the Monday that set the tone. Two-nil in eighteen. Three-two by the hour. A manager who had read the mood of the championship and forgotten to mark Figo.
Figo had the walk and the shot and the space Wise was not in. Costa had the crosses and the split. Pinto had the header. Gomes had the roof. Scholes and McManaman had the first eighteen minutes. Beckham had the two balls in. Owen had the injury that took the point of the attack away before the comeback was finished. Seaman had the one he watched. Adams had the deflection and the slide and the missed header. Keegan had Special K, gung-ho, the carnival instead of the carnage, and a side that could not live with a midfield once the start had been flown. Four months later he would quit in the toilets at Wembley after Germany, the last match before they knocked the towers down. That is October. This is June. This is the night the tournament told the truth and the papers still called it a lovely farce. The Telegraph had floored. The Mail had the farce and the gift.
They said dream start. They said silver. They said go for broke. They said a gift to football. If you still think it was only an opening game, a funeral is only a Tuesday. They were two up before the first pint had settled. Then Figo walked, and the rest of the tournament was a side chasing a beginning.
The film is up. UEFA kept the crosses, the walk, Pinto's jump, Gomes in the roof. Do not review it. Watch eighteen minutes, then the trip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMn7I3rImWk
Related reading
- A draw would have done — Charleroi 2000, Romania, the night a point would have saved the group
- At least there's no more Sven — Gelsenkirchen 2006, Portugal again, another night that ended in tears
If the nights sit right, the shirts and the wall are at /shop.
FAQ
What was the score when Portugal beat England at Euro 2000?
Portugal 3–2 England, on 12 June 2000 at Philips Stadion, Eindhoven. Scholes and McManaman scored; Figo, Pinto and Gomes replied.
Why “Floored after flying”?
Henry Winter’s Daily Telegraph line — England floored after flying start — after a two-nil lead in eighteen minutes became a three-two.
Did England still go through?
No. They beat Germany in Charleroi, then needed a draw with Romania and did not get it. This Monday set the tone.