Scottish Football Forums

The countdown is on for this years European Championship, and to get you in the mood we are going back 28 years to relive Euro '96. In the final instalment of this four-part series, fittingly John B looks at the two sides who reached the Euro ‘96 Final at Wembley - Czech Republic and Germany. To help provide an insight, John spoke to Czech sports journalist Jiri Hosek and Co-Host of Yellow Wall Pod Matthias Suuck. It was the Czech Republic’s first campaign since the separation of Czechoslovakia in 1993 and they won a tight qualification group ahead of Netherlands and Norway to reach the Finals. Their fighting spirit saw them recover from an opening match defeat to Germany to progress ahead of Italy and Russia, before Karel Poborsky’s improvised lob saw off Portugal in the last eight then a dramatic penalty shootout win over France saw them unexpectedly reach the Final. The Germans, meanwhile, were expected to bring the trophy back to their homeland and qualified with minimum fuss, dropping just five point