S13E47 Euro ’96 Throwback: England and France

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 first of this four-part series, John B looks at the fortunes of England and France by speaking to Chief Sportswriter at The Times Henry Winter and L’Equippe Sports journalist Pierre-Etienne Minonzio.

Hosts England went into their finals under intense media scrutiny following unsavoury drinking incidents in Hong Kong and the flight back to London, but they rallied round after a slow start to reach the Semi Finals before falling to Germany in a penalty shootout, just like they did in Italia ’90. France went through an indifferent qualification campaign, drawing half of their matches, but picked themselves up to also reach the last four, and were also denied a Final berth by losing on penalties to the Czech Republic. Henry and Pierre-Etienne give a good insight into their respective journeys and also give a combined Euro 96 & 2024 XI for each nation, which throws some interesting selections.

Footnote – John is also doing this series as a build-up to the launch of his second book, We’re Going To Wembley: Scotland’s Euro ’96 journey by Pitch Publishing, which he has co-written with Neil Doherty. Full details on where you can pre-order the book can be found on Pitch’s website or by contacting John or Neil directly.

Intro Music – Glasgow to Berlin by PG Ciarletta

Outro Music – Whatever it Takes by Scott McGill

Intro Voiceover – Rory Hamilton

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