Euro 2016: Don't let Euro 96 fool you, England are generally terrible at the European Championships
England have been in the Brexit camp for over 40 years when it comes to the European Championships, explains Mark Ogden
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Your support makes all the difference.It is only a brief 45-minute flight from Luton Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle, but as Roy Hodgson’s 23-man squad flew to France on Monday morning to get down to the serious business of Euro 2016, there would have been ample time to watch a film of England’s European Championships highlights.
If there is a positive to be drawn from England’s previous European adventures, it is that the bar has been set embarrassingly low by the current squad’s predecessors.
Twenty years on from Euro 96, the near miss of a semi-final penalty shoot-out defeat against Germany at Wembley remains the high watermark and that was recorded on home turf.
Once England cross the water into mainland Europe, the players succumb to travel sickness and usually head home at the earliest possible stage.
England have been in the Brexit camp for over 40 years when it comes to the European Championships.
Remain? They are rarely away long enough to unpack their suitcases, never mind planting a flag in European soil alongside those of Denmark, Holland, Greece and the Czechs – all of whom have inscribed their name onto the Henri Delaunay trophy alongside the traditional heavyweights of Germany, Italy, France and Spain.
Can Euro 2016 be any different and a provide a change of narrative?
Hodgson’s squad are an emerging force, with the youthful talents of Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Raheem Sterling and Marcu Rashford giving England a freshness they have lacked at recent tournaments.
But England have sent stronger, more experienced squads to the European Championships in the past and returned home humiliated.
Having failed to qualify for Euro 84 in France, Bobby Robson’s squad arrived in West Germany four years later as one of the pre-tournament favourites.
Bryan Robson was fit, for once not cursed by the injury problems that ruined two World Cups, Gary Lineker a key figure having become a star at Barcelona and the likes of John Barnes and Peter Beardsley in the form of their lives having inspired Liverpool to the First Division title.
But after less than two weeks away, England were back home – beaten three times by the Republic of Ireland, Holland and the Soviet Union, with Robson fortunate to cling onto his job.
The fact that the Dutch and Soviets went on to face other in the final did little to soften the blow of a hugely disappointing tournament for England.
It was another tale of woe four years later. Two years after changing the face of domestic football by reaching the semi-finals of Italia 90, England – now under Graham Taylor – bombed out of Euro 92 in Sweden having failed to win a single game.
This was the squad of Carlton Palmer, Keith Curle and Tony Dorigo, and the tournament which saw Lineker’s England career come to a shuddering halt when substituted during the decisive defeat against the hosts in the final group game.
Euro 96? That almost changed the record – Three Lions certainly changed the mood – but, in the end, it was the same old story.
Terry Venables’s grey shirted players crashed out in the semis, to the Germans, after winning just two of their previous four games.
It could have been different, perhaps should have been different, but as Teddy Sheringham expressed perfectly during the recent BBC documentary about the tournament, once you are out, you go home – even when it is your own party.
Little changed four years later, although under Kevin Keegan, England managed the rare feat of defeating Germany in a major tournament, yet still suffered group stage elimination.
A humbling defeat against Portugal and a final game loss against Romania, when Phil Neville was vilified for conceding a crucial late penalty, ensured a swift end to Euro 2000.
Had Wayne Rooney not suffered a broken metatarsal during the quarter-final against Portugal in Lisbon four years later, maybe, just maybe, Euro 2004 would have been the turning point.
Rooney, an 18-year-old sensation, took the tournament by storm, scoring four goals and providing the so-called ‘golden generation’ of Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Owen and co. with the cutting edge required to win the competition.
But once Rooney had fallen victim to the curse of the metatarsal, England became the sick man of Europe once again, losing to Portugal on penalties and watching from their sunbeds as Greece stunned the world by lifting the trophy.
Steve McClaren paid with his job after failing to guide England to Euro 2008, becoming the ‘Wally with the Brolly’ in the process, but when Hodgson was parachuted in four years later following Fabio Capello’s resignation, English hopes were thin on the ground.
This was the tournament in which England were based in Poland, yet played all of their games in Ukraine, so they had already failed in their preparation before a ball had been kicked.
England may have progressed to the quarter-finals before losing on penalties to Italy – Andrea Pirlo’s ‘Panenka’ chip over a gurning Joe Hart remains a defining image –but it was hard to watch, even prior to that elimination in Kiev.
So it is a fairly grim tale of the tape for England as they look ahead to France 2016.
Yet Hodgson’s squad are in a negotiable group and the route to the latter stages is without the perilous obstacles of a Germany or Spain.
It is time for England to write a positive page in their European Championships story – twenty years is a long time to wait for a sequel.
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