This is it – after 50 matches, 22 flights home and over 100 goals, we’ve reached the UEFA Euro 2016 final. The FIFA World Cup champions Germany are OUT! The two-time defending champions Spain – OUT! The surprise packages, Wales & Iceland – painfully knocked OUT! Just two teams have remained, the 2004 hosts Portugal and their 2016 successors, France. Cristiano Ronaldo vs Antoine Griezmann (like the UEFA Champions League); Paul Pogba vs Joao Moutinho; Ricardo Carvalho vs Laurent Koscielny. Both unfavoured, both resilient. They started slow but picked up form and now they’re 90 minutes away from glory – or maybe 120 minutes in this tournament of late goals! With both sides having so much to lose and so much to prove, we have no doubts it will be one of the fieriest, most memorable European finals in history. But before we start our predicitions, guesses and analyses, we’re going to take a trip back in time to remember predecessors to this titanic encounter. Here they are – the top five most remarkable moments in the history of the European Championship final matches!
5. Euro 2012 – Fernando Torres is the Punisher Reborn!
Just 4 years earlier, Liverpool’s ferocious Fernando Torres had downed the heavy favourites Germany with a typical striker’s finish in the first-half. As one of the planet’s most feared forwards, everybody had expected him to be Spain’s biggest weapon – and he proved them all right with the winner in a difficult final. The 2012 Chelsea version however, was widely regarded as £50 million flop after his well-documented struggles at the English capital. With only 12 goals 67 appearances, he was not exactly living up the billing – which is why Del Bosque may have selected him, but he wasn’t exactly close to the starting XI. So when Spain were beating Italy 2-0 with just 15 minutes to go, it looked more like a honourable appearance for the squad’s fringe members. Or so, thought the Italians.
With just 6 minutes on the clock and Spain not ceding possession at all (they had 57% in the 2nd half), Torres turned from harmless flop brought on to see out the game to El Matador reborn! Picking up the ball from a Xavi assist, he slotted home past Buffon to make it 3-0 – an embarrasment; or so it seemed. Just 4 minutes later he became even more cruel, unselfishly passing it to Chelsea teammate (who was one of the heroes of their 2012 FA Cup & Champions League success) Juan Mata to slot into an empty net. At 4-0, Fernando Torres made future Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli’s tears flow in the most one-sided European final in history. The Spanish ‘donkey’ became a bull in the final once again!
4. Euro 1988 – Van Basten Trademarks the Volley
Despite all their quality, all their flair and all their splendid football, Holland have come to wear the tag of runners-up far too often. It happened in 2010, it happened 1974, it happened in 1978 as well – all of them World Cups. In the Euros, they made 4 semi-final appearances, coming 3rd in 3 of them. This despite their teams being littered across the years with the likes of Arjen Robben, Patrick Kluivert, Rudi Voller and Johan Cruyff. Why? Nobody knows; they lack nothing apparent, but at the very end they always tend to fall. Except in 1988, when one man made sure his nation would take home a major tournament for the first and last time since.
Marco Van Basten, one of the greatest footballers to have ever lived, was a joy to watch when he was fit. A top-notch dribbler, pacy runner and a brilliant footballing brain all melded into a frail, precocious body that would give out by the age of 28. Even then, he’d scored 300 goals by then, his undoubtedly greatest one coming in the 1988 final against the Soviet Union. He had downed their bitter German rivals in the semi-final for his 4th tournament goal, driving his side to a meeting with the mighty Soviets, who they’d lost 1-0 in the group stage. Ruud Gullit’s opener in the first half had put the Dutch in the ascendancy this time, and on 54 minutes, he received a sweet cross from Arnold Muhren from the left. Such was it’s angle, he could nicely take it down and go forward to score – but that’s not the kind of man Van Basten was.
With one of history’s most gilded touches, he smashed a volley in with all of his elegance and grace to score of the the greatest goals anyone has ever seen. The Netherlands won 2-0, and they have not had anyone who could affect a final like that ever since, or ever before.
3. Euro 1996 – Olivier Bierhoff Pioneers the Golden Goal!
The Czech Republic & Germany had met 20 years before, with the Czechs famously defeating them (as Czechoslovakia). This time, the Germans were baying for Czech blood. When they were both drawn in Group C, the Germans displayed their superiority with a clear 2-0 victory. The unfancied Czechs however, were not to be stopped, beating Italy, Russia, and 2016 finalist Portugal and France on their way to the final – to meet who? The Germans, as destiny dictated.
In a long, tense hour of football, the injury-hit Germans were stunned as Sammer conceded a penalty that looked offside anyway. His Borussia Dortmund teammate Patrik Berger made him pay; they were not German champions for nothing. 1-0 to the Czechs, and it seemed like the nightmare was repeating itself. With just 20 minutes to go, Udinese striker Olivier Bierhoff was thrown on to cement his name in European history. Just 4 minutes later, the striker whose side had finished 20th in the Italian league scored the equalizer from a long free-kick, prompting a furious Sammer to remonstrate ferociously with the linesman. It wasn’t the last part he’d play in the final! As the game wore on into extra-time, the specter of the newly-introduced golden goal came into play. Would it be a factor here? We’d have to wait and see!
5 minutes after the restart Olivier Bierhoff answered everyone with a resounding yes, his powerful strike just spilling past the Czech keeper’s hands and into the goal, sending the German supporters into raptures whilst the very same linesman held up his flag. The referee didn’t buy it however, and the game finished with the first golden goal to decide a major tournament!
2. Euro 2000 – France’s Final Flourish
If that wasn’t enough, the golden goal made another dramatic appearance in the very next tournament. Current France manager Didier Deschamps and his teammates had just won the World Cup on home soil in 1998 – could they repeat the trick on the continental stage? Again, a goal moments prior to the hour mark suggested they couldn’t. Marco Delvecchio smashed a goal past Barthez on the 55th minute to put the world champions in serious trouble. When the referee indicated that just 3 minutes of added time were to be played, the Italians must have almost tasted victory.
However, it wasn’t to be . Sylvain Wiltord scored in the 3rd minute on injury time, snatching 30 minutes from the dying few seconds with a desperate goal! When all had seemed impossible, the world champions had shown once again why they deserved to wear that tag. As the second half of extra-time beckoned, Arsenal hero Robert Pires sent a cut-back rolling towards David Trezeguet, who made no mistake with an 81kmph cannonball to win the match just seconds before the end of the 1st half of extra-time. The hosts of the Euro 2000 were crowned world champions to give hope to all future French generations – the 2016 one included!
1. Euro 1976 – The First Panenka Penalty
The final, most remarkable moment in our books features another set of world champions in the European final – West Germany. Bayern Munich legend Franz Beckenbauer had captained his team to a European victory in 1972 against one of history’s most praised side; Johan Cruyff’s “Total Football” Netherlands. 2 years later, the Soviet Union were demolished 3-0 in the World Cup finals. Yugoslavia had been demolished 4-2 in extra-time with a show of Germany’s efficiency and resilience as Dieter Muller’s hat-trick broke their hearts. Who stood between them and glory now? Debutants Czechoslovakia.
Beginners they may have been but they showed they weren’t minnows, racing into a 2-goal lead by the 25th minute. However, the lethal Dieter Muller struck back 3 minutes later to halve the deficit. The Czechoslovakian side defended well, keeping the Germans frustrated until they forced extra-time with only a minute to go through a desperate Holzenbein goal. If they thought they’d been spared a humiliation, they were very wrong.
A tense 30 minutes of extra-time followed as both sides strove for supremacy before it was brought to the spot-kick gods to decide. Both sides kept their nerves immaculately, firing in all 3 of their penalties. On the 4th, Jurkemik stepped up and beat Sepp Maier. Bayern Munich’s Ulrich Hoeneß stepped up and blasted his penalty over the bar under the immense pressure. Come forth Mr. Antonin Panenka, the man of the hour. If Hoeneß had been under pressure, what did Antonin feel, knowing this was the kick that would win his team their first major trophy? Only he knows, as he unveiled the secret weapon which would come to bear his name.
With a dismissive, beautiful touch, he chipped the ball down the middle as Sepp Maier dove to the left, flabbergasted by the man’s sheer confidence. The legend of the Panenka was born, to be recreated a million times later.
