First time in 1/4ers in euro outside England..?

[saafend_seagull]

incredible- never knew that, and we had only won 5 euro games- at the tourno itself, and 3 of those being in england before Euro 04!

 

[saltash seagull]

that really is unbelivable!!!

i knew that euro 96 was the only time it had happened in my football life which is from euro 84 but didnt realise that we were no better before

 

[sully]

We really are overdue some success at this tournament, aren't we?

Can't believe that Alf Ramsay's team did nothing in the Euros either - were they in existence then? My first recollection was the "Turin was a gas" tournament, but I've no idea what year that was!

 

[saafend_seagull]

dunno when euro started around 70s, i was born in 84 so not too sure.

 

[saltash seagull]

on sky they list all the winners and im sure it was sometime in the 60's

 

[SussexSpur]

The 68, 72 and 76 tournaments were semi-final only affairs, I think - that is, "quarter-finals" were two-leg ties in both countries, ahead of the finals themselves. . . Italy reached the 68 final after beating Russia on. . . a toss of a coin. How dramatic! (You know we'd never win a coin-toss! I like the story of Bill Shankly's tantrum, though, when Liverpool lost a European game on the toss of a disc - the ref produced a disc which was red on one side, white on the other - Liverpool were obviously the red side, but lost - Shankly argued that his captain may not have chosen red if given the choice, was a scandalous assumptions, and therefore there should be a re-, er, -toss. . . Didn't succeed, sadly. . .)

 

[sully]

Just checked Michael Wray's spreadsheet and it says the first competition was in 1960, hosted by France. 17 teams entered and Russia (USSR) won, beating Yugoslavia in the final.

 

[Gwylan]

I remember England losing in the semi-final in 1968. Alan Mullery became the first English player to be sent off for having a kick at an opponent shortly after Dragan Dzajic had scored for Yugoslavia.

Those finals were held in Italy, England having beaten Spain in the two-leg quarter finals.

I was really shocked when England lost. I got into football during the 1966 World Cup and thought they were invincible and it was the natural order of things that England won ....oh, how little I knew.

 

[Brovion]

It is only since 1980 (I think) that it's been played on a 'World Cup' basis, that is qualifiers and then a 'Finals' tournament in a specific country. This accounts for England's appalling record as we can't include matches played before World War One as part of our overall record. You youngsters don't remember just how poor we were through all the 70s, most of the 80s and even most of the 90s.