26 June 1996, Wembley. Germany 1–1 England, after extra time. Germany win 6–5 on penalties.
By Hamish McTavish
Wembley on a Wednesday, seventy-five thousand in, and a country that had already printed the ending on Monday. The Daily Mirror, two days before, had gone with ACHTUNG! SURRENDER. For you Fritz, ze Euro 96 Championship is over. It was an eve-of-semi page, not a match report, which is worse. Peak English certainty, later an apology, later a German win. Three Lions was back in the charts. Football’s coming home had been sung at the Dutch and at Spain and was now being sung at the side that had done this to them in Turin. Terry Venables had a team that had just put four past the Netherlands. Alan Shearer had the goals. The week was a carnival that had decided the hosts were due.
Germany had Berti Vogts and the habit. They had been here in 1990. They had Andreas Möller with the armband and Stefan Kuntz, who would do the unglamorous damage. England had David Seaman, Tony Adams, Stuart Pearce back in the side, Paul Gascoigne in the middle, Shearer and Teddy Sheringham up the pitch. Gareth Southgate was the third centre-back, a sensible name, not yet a national noun. The Mirror had already told Fritz it was over. The child who had learned Three Lions that month had already learned the ending.
The song was already in the ground before the teams were. Football's coming home, sung at the Dutch after 4-1, sung at Spain in the shoot-out they had survived, now being aimed at the one side that had a reply ready. Venables had the waistcoat and a side that, for a fortnight, had looked like a host with a right to the evening. Adams had the armband. Pearce had come back from the wilderness Turin had sent him to. Ince sat in front of the three. McManaman and Anderton had the wide grass. Southgate, the sensible one, had the shirt that would become a noun. Germany had done this in 1990 and had not come to read the Mirror.
They kicked off anyway.
Three minutes. Pearce hung one, Gascoigne flicked, Shearer headed. One-nil, and Wembley making the sound it had been practising since the Dutch game. For thirteen minutes the Monday paper looked like reporting. Then Möller found Thomas Helmer, Helmer crossed, and Kuntz forced it past Seaman. One-one, and the night that had started as a coronation became a game. Sheringham had a chance. The sides went in level. The second half was England coming close enough to touch it and not taking it. Extra time — golden goal, the new cruelty — and the night became the two pictures they still show.
Darren Anderton hit a post. Gascoigne, a stud’s length from Shearer’s cross, poked at an empty net and missed it by the width of a boot. Kuntz had one disallowed for a push. Southgate, in the English box, underhit a pass that nearly let Kuntz through. Neither side could find the second. The extra half-hour was a host coming close enough to smell the final and a visiting side that knows how these evenings end. Seaman launched one last one. It went to penalties, which England had already survived against Spain, and which Germany treat as weather. Sudden death only after five each, the new arithmetic of a night that had refused a golden goal.
Shearer, high to Köpke’s left. Thomas Häßler, bottom corner. David Platt. Thomas Strunz. Pearce, left-footed, the one he had missed in Turin, this time in. Stefan Reuter, off Seaman’s hand and in. Gascoigne, top corner. Christian Ziege. Sheringham. Kuntz, high, the one that made it sudden death. Five each. The first five had all scored. England, Kuntz said later, usually don’t reach the fifth set. When they did, his heart was in his pants. Then Southgate, who had not been on the regular list, placed it, ran, and hit a low one that Andreas Köpke did not have to stretch for. Saved. Möller, down the middle, into the roof, and a strut that is still in the film. Six-five. Venables went straight to Southgate. Jürgen Klinsmann limped over. Adams dragged him onto a lap that was not a lap of honour so much as a refusal to leave him in the circle.
The Mirror had told Fritz it was over. For you, Fritz. Two days later Fritz was in the final and Southgate was the name. The paper had to find a smaller type for the apology. Three Lions kept playing. Coming home stayed in the mouth as a habit. Pearce had done the thing Turin had denied him and it was not enough, which is the English penalty story in one sentence. Gascoigne had the miss that was not a penalty, the stud, the empty net, and it is the one that still sits in the room when they talk about almost. Anderton had the post. Shearer had the header that should have been the night. Kuntz had the equaliser and the fifth kick. Möller had the sixth and the walk. Southgate had a penalty that was not bad luck. It was a poor kick after five perfect ones, and a country that had printed the surrender on the wrong shirt.
They said achtung. They said surrender. They said it was coming home. They said the championship was over. If you still think it was only the sixth one, a funeral is only a Tuesday. The sixth one was a low ball to the keeper’s right. The Monday paper had already spent the ending. Germany collected it on Wednesday.
The film is up. UEFA still keep the night and the shoot-out: Shearer’s header, the post, the stud, Southgate, Möller’s strut. Do not review it. Watch the Monday headline die on the Wednesday kick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIkDl3DyQJg
Related reading
- Finally foiled — Turin 1990, the same visitors, the same room, Pearce’s miss before the remake
- Football's not coming home — Moscow 2018, the hymn still outrunning the legs
If the nights sit right, the shirts and the wall are at /shop.
FAQ
What was the score when Germany beat England at Euro 96?
Germany 1–1 England after extra time; Germany won 6–5 on penalties, on 26 June 1996 at Wembley. Shearer and Kuntz scored in open play; Southgate’s kick was saved; Möller scored the sixth.
Why “For you, Fritz”?
The Daily Mirror’s eve-of-semi headline ACHTUNG! SURRENDER included the line “For you Fritz, ze Euro 96 Championship is over” — two days before Germany won the shoot-out.
Who missed the decisive penalty?
Gareth Southgate. After five each had scored, his low kick was saved by Andreas Köpke; Andreas Möller put the sixth down the middle.