MATTHIAS SAMMER GERMANY 1996
A
s reigning world champions, France entered the EUROs, hosted by Holland and Belgium, as hot
favourites. But their hopes of becoming the first country to have the two titles at once looked slim as they were losing 1-0 to Italy going into the last minute of the final. But Sylvain Wiltord levelled with almost the last kick of the game and remarkably David Trezeguet then broke Italian hearts with the winning Golden Goal in extra-time. The striker recalled: “It
started with a great move by Robert Pirès on our left. He dribbled past Fabio Cannavaro and got to the byline. Then he put in a cross that was fairly difficult but I was on the penalty spot and I hit the ball as it dropped. It went in and we became the first team to win
DAVID TREZEGUET FRANCE 2000
the European Championship after winning the World Cup. It was a great thing for our country.
David Trezeguet recalls: “All my force was in that shot – it had been a difficult championship for me because I had hoped to play a greater part. At first I was happy for my team-mates; then I was happy for my family; and then I was happy for me. We had dreamed of being champions of the world and Europe. It gave me enormous satisfaction at the time and it’s a satisfaction I still feel.”
earlier after Patrik Berger converted a penalty. However, Oliver Bierhoff came off the substitutes’ bench and levelled with 17 minutes left and the striker proceeded to score the winning goal early in extra-time. It was the first time a major tournament had been decided by a Golden Goal and secured the country’s third European Championship title – a feat no other nation has managed. There were several key players in the Germany team such as Bierhoff, Jürgen Klinsmann, Andreas Möller, Christian Ziege and Thomas Hässler, but Matthias Sammer was the star for Germany and played every minute of the triumphant campaign, scoring winning goals against Russia and Croatia. That year he was crowned European Footballer of the Year.
T
Matthias Sammer on Oliver Bierhoff: “He was a typical centre-forward: not the best player technically, but he was an incredibly nice guy and he deserved it so much. We all gained from it, but he deserved it.”
www.itv.com/sport/football ITV GUIDE | EURO 2012
he Germans had conceded just two goals in five games en route to the EURO 1996 final at Wembley against the Czech Republic, but their opponents looked on course to repeat history from 20 years
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