Germany 1-1 England, Germany won 6-5 on pens
(Kuntz 16; Shearer 3)
1996 semi-finals, London
The hosts’ bandwagon finally came to a juddering halt as Germany once again got the better of England to reach a second successive UEFA European Championship final.
England’s campaign had been carried by a wave of passion and patriotism ever since their splendid display in defeating the Netherlands 4-1 in the group stage. That optimism was checked, however, when Germany, England’s vanquishers in an epic 1990 FIFA World Cup semi-final, once again stood between them and a major showpiece.
Watch the game in full on UEFA.tv
Confidence was renewed when Alan Shearer headed Terry Venables’ side into a third-minute lead, but Stefan Kuntz levelled the scores just after the quarter-hour.
Though England came agonisingly close going in front once more, there was no separating the sides and another penalty shoot-out was required. Gareth Southgate was this time the fall guy, spurning the first effort of sudden death to hand captain Andreas Möller the duty of sending his country through.
“England usually don’t reach the fifth set of penalties,” said Kuntz. “When they did, my heart was in my pants. I wanted to shoot it low but it went in high.”
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Sweden 0-0 Netherlands, Netherlands won 5-4 on pens
2004 quarter-finals, Faro/Loulé
After a dramatic penalty shoot-out in the Algarve, the Netherlands advanced to a UEFA EURO 2004 semi-final against Portugal.
A desperately tight, fiercely contested encounter saw both teams foiled by the woodwork in extra time – Arjen Robben striking the post for the Oranje with Fredrik Ljungberg doing likewise for Sweden.
Zlatan Ibrahimović’s failure in the shoot-out was cancelled out by Phillip Cocu but Edwin van der Sar’s save from Olof Mellberg proved decisive, Robben nervelessly converting the winning spot kick.
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Other EURO fixtures on 26 June
1992 final: Denmark 2-0 Germany
1996 semi-finals: Czech Republic 0-0 France, Czechs won 6-5 on pens
2008 semi-finals: Russia 0-3 Spain
2016 round of 16: France 2-1 Republic of Ireland
2016 round of 16: Germany 3-0 Slovakia
2016 round of 16: Hungary 0-4 Belgium
