#2 Euro 1996: Germany vs Czech Republic
Euro 1996 was a tournament where a few rules and changes were implemented for the first time. These included the expansion of the tournament format to 16 teams and the first major tournament where the golden goal rule was introduced. Held in England, Euro 1996 had a number of surprises and upsets throughout the tournament.
These included reigning champions Denmark and highly favoured Italy being eliminated in the group stages and instead Croatia and Czech Republic, both of whom were appearing in a major tournament for the first time (Czech Republic as an independent nation) proceeded to the knockout stages. Czech Republic turned out to be the biggest surprise package of the tournament as they beat the likes of Italy, Portugal and France to qualify for the final.Czech Republic’s opponents in the final were their group winner and tournament contenders Germany who had earlier beaten them in the tournament 2-0 when they met in the group stages. The final was held at the iconic Wembley stadium in front of a crowd of more than 73,000. The Czechs continued their dream run in the tournament when they were 1-0 up by the hour mark thanks to a successful penalty kick by Patrik Berger.
In the 69th minute, midfielder Mehmet Scholl was substituted off and in came Olivier Bierhoff. The substitution paid off just four minutes later as Bierhoff headed in the equaliser for Germany and the match headed towards extra time.
Just five minutes into extra time, Bierhoff scored his second goal of the match and the winner which crowned Germany the winners of Euro 1996. Bierhoff also scripted history by becoming the first footballer to score a golden goal in a major tournament.
