All To Play For: The Home Nations' Football Adventures

[QTXAdsy]

Chapter 107: Scouse Scots
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Just a couple of hours after England and Wales' thrilling game at Wembley, another Quarter final was to take place that late afternoon in Merseyside and it would be another British team to play in that game, Scotland would take on France and unbeknown to the many Scots that had invaded Liverpool that day, the organising were privately happy that the Scots had got this far for good reason. One of the lesser liked memories of Euro '96 was the image of half empty stadiums that didn't included any of the home nations in them, something of which that didn't create a good image for viewers watching from the continent, wherever it was because of difficultly of getting tickets or maybe the reputation of England's hooligan problem had put fans off from traveling was hard to tell. Even with it being a Quarter final, there was not many French supporters in Anfield while the Scots had no trouble in filling the place up, though it was thanks to the Scots that the stadium was being packed out.

There had been many Scots that had managed to get tickets almost soon after their victory over Switzerland but yet oddly not that much to fill the place out, however many more thousands had made the trip south of the border without tickets hoping to find luck in getting tickets and to their surprise, they got more than they bargained for. When many ticketless Tartan Army supporters had gathered at the ticket turnstiles hoping to get in with a traditional 'pay at the entrance' idea, the organises had absolutely no trouble at all of letting many of them in to fill up the last remaining seats at Anfield which all helped to fill out the stadium. In the end, the Scottish support outnumbered the French 3 to 1 and the atmosphere was absolutely buzzing, just what the relief Euro 96 organisers had wanted, also in secret, they hoped the Scots could progress from here.

For many in the know, Anfield was no stranger to Scots with for starters the great Bill Shankly as Liverpool manager for many years and there was the players that had become household names for the followers of the Reds such as Kenny Dalglish, Alan Hansen and Graeme Souness just to name a few. Even the national side and it's supporters were no strangers to area as for those older locals in the area would remember back in 1977 when Scotland played here against Wales when it was used as the latter's home ground in which the Scots won and qualified for the World Cup in Argentina the following year. Even that it wasn't the last time the team had played in the city as they had also played up the road at Everton's Goodison Park in that Semi final against West Germany in 1966 in which they won 2-1 in a nail biting game.

It would seem that Scotland enjoyed a good record playing in Liverpool and now here was to be yet another game in the city and one they hoped to win once again. Speaking of Dalglish, he had been doing his part in encouraging the Scouse population to get behind the Scots, well, mostly the red half of the city, but nonetheless those who did were more than happy to cheer on the Scots. When it came round for the teams to emerge from the famous Anfield tunnel, both sides were greeted by a deafening roar as looking round the Tartan cladded Anfield, it was clear that the Scots had already won on the supporters being here but yet as the game started, it seem that it was going to be France's night.

Karembeu during the early moments of the game with Scotland, note France playing in their away kit
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The early 5 minutes of the game were with the French as they pushed the Scots back into their own half and some cynics would think that the Scots looked well out of their depth in the knockout stage and that the victory over Switzerland seemed liked a mere fluke. It wouldn't be until the 7th minute in which the Scots did a run on the counter thanks to Durie, but who was brought down the French captain Deschamps who was quickly booked by the Spanish referee, Nieto. Nonetheless seeing Scotland trying to get something early in this game was one of great relief for the Tartan Army that it wasn't all going to be one way traffic in this game.

From the Scotland bench, Craig Brown had been rubbing his chin in thought as he watched his side struggling to find their footing in the game. He looked up towards McCoist up in the French half who had sadly done pretty much nothing in this game due to his teammates trying hard to keep the ball out of their own half as then in the 10th minute, Zidane fired a shot that Goram had to knock over the bar and give the French a corner, one that Karembeu nearly headered home but Goram managed to dive the right way to prevent the ball from going in.

That attempt from Karembeu was however to the moment in which Scotland started to play more out off their half, helped by the backing of their large support trying to cheer them on to go for an attack as in the 13th minute, McCall launched the ball clear up towards McCoist down on the left French flank and the Scottish player made a mad dash with the ball in which he managed to find himself getting past Guerin and Lizarazu, a run that had most of the Scotland fans rising to their feet thinking that something might be on for something here. He would cross the ball into the French penalty box in which John Collins found himself running to try and connect the ball as it was flying right past the French goal. He tried to get his foot on it for what looked to be an easy shot, instead he must've missed it by a fraction of a inch and the ball flew out for a French corner while Collins and his teammates could only realise in despair at how close they had come to scoring, and the groan from the Tartan Army showed. What a chance to take the lead.

Scott Booth acting as a shadow striker in a rare 5-3-2 formation for Scotland
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It is interesting to think that after how well the classic 4-4-2 system had worked for Scotland in their last game with Switzerland, Brown felt that the formation he had been determined to use would likely get mashed up by the French so instead it was a surprise by many to see Brown deciding to go for a more continental 5-3-2 formation which some in the Scottish press had suggested would help Scotland do better. But as the old saying went, if it isn't broke, don't fix it, and that was happening with Scotland who had looked unsure and disjointed as this new formation and what to do with it, in some ways it was a miracle that they hadn't gone a goal down with how much the French had been mauling at them.

Thankfully after the 17th minute of the game, Scotland eventually seemed to settle into a routine that while they might've not been going forward as much as they would've hoped for, they were starting to reduce the amount of chances the French were trying to get on the Scots. The previously mostly nervous Tartan Army began making a lot more noise to the point that the French supporters seemed to be drowned out by the constant singing and chanting by the Scottish crowd. In the 23rd minute, McCoist fired an impressive volley from 25 yards out from the box that was flying into the top left of the French goal, but their keeper Lama managed to get his hand on the ball to knock it away and Scotland's first corner kick of the game.

Durie tried to header it home but instead sent the ball flying way over the crossbar, Brown would've been happy to see his side trying their hardest to create chances which was what they were doing, but sadly they weren't really taking them and he feared that they might be punished for such misses. In the 27th minute and to Brown's horror, that fear seemed to come true as France managed to break out on the counter down on Scotland's left flank thanks to Zidane and he was only managed to be stopped by Tom Boyd with a brilliant sliding tackle in which the French players cried for a foul, but the referee seemed determined to keep the game flowing and waved his hands for Scotland to play on. The game was now starting to become quite a surprisingly open game in which perhaps no one though might be possible with everyone thinking the French might pull it off.

Karembeu in action during the final moments of the first half
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As the first half headed towards the final ten minutes, it was like both sides were trying to see if the other would dare the other to come forward as chances were coming from both sides looking to find that opening goal to end this first half on a high. It felt that all 22 players were all going out for it and even though it was still 0-0, it was anything but a dull affair. However in the 37th minute, Scotland would win a free corner down on the left side of the French box which looked very tempting for the Scots to try and nick a goal here with McCoist going up to take it while he watched blue and white shirted players all moving about inside the box to try and be in the right position to collect the ball.

McCoist would take it and the ball would end up being headed away by Blanc who sent the ball over towards Loko who immediately ran with the ball towards the Scottish half and it was then seen to the horror of all the Scots, it became apparent that nearly all of them had been placed within the French half and now their defence had been left woefully left open and there for the taking. Perhaps in that moment most of the Tartan Army couldn't bare watch as Loko ran with, other than Colin Hendry hot on his tail, virtually nobody around him to try and stop the French player.

He would make a long shot volley from just over the half way line inside the Scottish half and it was now down to Goram to act as a hero and try and help his country again. The ball was curling down into the bottom right of the Scottish goal and Goram dived into that direction when it must've felt like it had all gone in slow motion as the ball neared the goal. By the skin of his teeth, Goram would just get his hands onto the ball and held it close to him fearing like as if it were to suddenly try to wriggle from his grasp. He couldn't quite tell how long he lay on the ground for, but when he did stand up again, he was greeted with a rapturous applause from the Scotland fans in Anfield and even though he breathed a sigh of relief, TV footage showing close up shots of him would then show him angrily shouting at his teammates for such a calamitous bit of defending that it was only thanks to him that it didn't get worse for his country.

A rather annoyed Goram performs the goal kick for Scotland after saving Loko's shot
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Into the last 5 minutes and now the French were showing determination to try and find the opening goal in the closing minutes and once again, much to the dismay of the Tartan Army, the Scottish players were stuck back into their own half as they now tried to defend and keep the game score less, though from the Scotland bench, Brown was standing on the touchline yelling orders and motioning for his players to try and get out of that area and pump the ball forward, surely they could do better than this? In the 41st minute, a frustrated captain Gary McAllister found himself clattering into the French captain, Deschamps, right on the edge of the Scottish box with the French crying out for a penalty, instead the referee pointed for a free kick right on the edge with the Scottish captain getting a yellow card for what had happened.

For what felt like the millionth time that day, the Tartan Army and Scotland fans everyone all held their breath as they waited for Zidane to take the free kick. He would run up and it seemed like it was going in with Goram looking like he was going to miss the ball, but instead the ball clattered on the crossbar to go out for a Scottish goal kick and Zidane turned away in disgust for his failure of missing what could've been a wonderful way for his country to take the lead in these closing minutes. Ironically, the miss would see Scotland start pushing forward following the goal kick, but further controversy was to follow.

Into the 2nd minute of 3 minutes of added time prior before the end of the first half, McCall would weave the ball through the legs off Djorkaeff and sent it on towards Booth who made chase on the left flank on the counter for Scotland to try and make an opening of their own. The crowd roared him on and he would fire a shot towards the left side of the French goal in which he somehow managed to weave it's way through as the ball went off the side of Lama and saw the ball bulging the side of the net. Scotland had scored and Booth wheeled around to celebrate with his teammates, but then he notice that the referee wasn't pointing to the centre circle and instead was pointing for a French goal kick.

Zidane in the game with Scotland​

Confusion became apparent on the Scots who looked over to the linesman wondering at first if Booth had been offside, but yet no one, not even the French players, could understand what had just happened, but whatever the strange reason why the goal had been chalked off sent tempers to boil over. Half time would be blown following Lama's goal kick, but as soon as the referee blew to end the first half, he found himself surrounded by angry Scottish players demanding to know what had just happened to not include the goal with TV footage of the moment becoming quite remembered from the game, though perhaps of the wrong reasons.

The booing the stadium from the equally frustrated Scottish fans was heard all around with it very likely might've though in the stadium to push aside their good nature they had built up over the years and start a riot inside the stadium to vent out their frustrations, though it was thought that many watching the game in pubs in Scotland would've all thrown their glasses of beer at the TV screen in anger over the disallowed goal. The poor referee wasn't helped that round the player's tunnel, several Scottish fans were surrounding it and beginning to swear and insult the referee by either giving him the finger or even throw coins at him.

In conclusion, the first half ended on a rather sorry state of affairs which was a great shame considering how exciting the game had been despite the score suggesting otherwise. Nonetheless as Craig Brown followed the players down the tunnel, he knew their supporters deserved better than this and had to build up his players in the hope of getting a lucky break here. But what was a Scotland manager to do? Another 45 minutes would lie in wait for both sides to try and break the deadlock, question was who would managed to do it?

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By the time the second half started, as well as the tempers of the angry Tartan Army (having all ranted to each other about how they felt they'd been cheated), the game started off at quite a gentle affair in which both sides seemed like they didn't want to go out all guns blazing from the moment of kick off. Craig Brown's advice for his team was simply to keep plugging away and take a risk of going out and making attempts to open the scoring. Some would've felt that Brown would've reverted back to 4-4-2 after how much the 5-3-2 formation hadn't really helped Scotland that much, but it was a surprise to see nothing was changed as Scotland would keep that formation.

Indeed, it would seem that Brown's choice to keep faith in this unlikely formation was now starting to work as Scotland get the first clear cut chance of the second half in which Booth raced forward with Durie and McCoist following him nearby in the 50th minute. Booth would cross the ball over inside the box in which McCoist got his head on the ball and just as the Tartan Army were about to roar in celebration, Lama managed to somehow pull off an super human save to save his side from going down. How he managed to pull of such a save was anyone's guess, not that the French supporters cared for keeping themselves in the game.

France would respond in the 54th minute with a free kick due to Collins bringing down Zidane and he would send the ball crossing towards the box in which Goram one again saved the ball for what must felt like his billionth save of the game, he was getting rather to know that ball very well. As much as it was great to see Scotland making inroads inside the French half, some fans must've felt that of a consequence were leaving their defence wide open for a French attack and Deschamps would be the one to try and ask Scotland questions in the 59th minute as he would let fly a volley towards the goal, though it would be a wasted shot for France that went way over the bar and into the gloating Scotland fans behind the goal. Just who was going to open the scoring?

The Tartan Army during the second half at Anfield
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In the 68th minute, after a rather long lull in the game in which the tempo and flair from earlier seemed to dry up for both sides, all seemed to suddenly come back to life again in which Durie ran near the box French box after a blazing run forward in which all the Scotland fans in that stadium must've all been screaming out for him to shoot as he got right on the edge of the penalty box, but he was taking down by Blanc and by the cry of disapproval from the Scotland fans, many expected a booking for the French defender and for Scotland to be rewarded with a penalty. What happened next perhaps left much in disbelieve as instead, the referee thrusted a yellow card into the face of a flabbergasted Durie for what the referee said was due to a dive, even though many nearby where it happened and watching the replays on TV could all clearly see that it was indeed a penalty, the referee just had the rotten luck of being situated in a area that didn't give him a clear view.

The Scotland players once again surrounded the Spanish referee who just couldn't believe at their bad luck for this all to happen to them again, surely their was any cheating going on here, right? The crowd voice their disapproval as they chanted the referee as a blatant cheat who they thought clearly had it in for the French to do well in the game. Brown himself was starting to wonder just what did they have to do in order to win this game when it felt like the whole world was against them and to make matters worse, Scotland nearly allowed France to take advantage of them during their argument with the referee that Hendry had to act to defend a counter run by Djorkaeff by knocking the ball off the French player's feet and out for a throw in for the men in white.

Once the referee had managed to force the Scottish players back to play the game again, the game became more a stuffy affair in the mid field as neither side were barging to let a goal in, this rather mind numbingly boring style of play from both side would go on for a further 12 minutes with pretty much nothing happening, other than the French manager, Jacquet, bringing on Pedros to replace Loko in the hope of using fresh legs. By the time the game wheezed along into the 72nd minute, it looked clear that both sets of fans seemed aware that this game was going into extra time and the thought a more of this restricted play must've been a dreadful thought for all concerned.

Even Pedros can't stand the thought of the game going into extra time during the closing 90 minutes of the game with Scotland
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In the 76th minute however, Pedros tried his best to break the deadlock as he found himself running circles round the likes of Calderwood and McKinlay, neither of which could stop him, and with him right on the left side of the Scottish penalty box and sent the ball curling towards the top left corner of the goal with Goram making a dive into that direction. Instead the ball clattered on the corner post and bounced out for a goal kick for the Scots, with the French player placing his hands on his head in annoyance that his brilliant little run had all come to nothing in the end.

The Scots tried their absolute best to find the opening goal too with McCoist trying out a similar attack to Pedros not long later in the 82nd minute, but unlike the Frenchman, McCoist's ball went flying over the bar and didn't seem to trouble Lama at all. The players looked exhausted and frustrated for seemily getting nowhere in this second half and this feeling was shared by the Tartan hordes in Anfield as well as the small number of French supporters who must've felt that they should've flattered the Scots by now with the talent they had in that side.

Frustration would come to a head once again in the 89th minute when McCoist and Thuram came together near the corner flag on the French half and although it was a Scottish throw in due to coming off the French's defender's foot, it was hard to tell just by how close the two players had been and the two of them ended up getting into a playground fight trying to blame the other who was at fault. Even when the referee came over to point for a Scottish throw in, he had to defuse the situation between McCoist and Thuram who had began shoving each other over just showing how angry this game had made both players. The referee would instead book both players as a way to try and bring the point to them of trying to calm down.

It would be the last act of the 90 minutes as the game would now start extra time and both managers went onto the field to get their respected sides ready for another 30 minutes to play for, but there was one way the game could end sooner that expected, Golden goal. The rules of that were simple, whoever was to score within the 30 minutes from now, would end the match and win the game outright, it seemed like a good plan for Brown to use to their advantage and began to tell the players of what to do...

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By the time extra time started, it was starting to get dark and the floodlights were starting to go on. The difference now with Scotland was they had finally ditched the 5-3-2 system and had reverted back to 4-4-2 and with the more encouraging attacking play that Scotland were starting to show in the early stages of extra time, it seemed that the players were happy to go back to a system that they knew worked for them. The game would suddenly be turned on it's head when in the 94th minute, Thuram would strike Booth on the counter when he made a sliding tackle that sent the Scot flying and landing awkwardly on his side which looked like he was in great pain.

It seemed as if Thuram had forgotten he was already booked and the Scottish audience roared out for action to be taking and the referee ran straight up to the French player and showed him a straight red card for such a challenge. All hell seemed to break loose and both sets of players ran to surround the referee expressing their view on the matter with the Scots keeping a close on their fallen teammate, now looking clearly needing medical attention while the French tried to make their point that it was a harsh choice for the referee to make. Nonetheless, both Booth and Thuram went off the pitch, though it would be the Scot that would leave on a stretcher while the Frenchman made his way down the tunnel while be goaded by the delighted Scottish fans around the tunnel.

It would then fall for John Spencer to take Booth's place in the team, though many wonder that even if Scotland were to go through, would that be the last they'd see of Booth at this tournament? Scotland now played with determination as if they were getting revenge for their fallen teammate and the 10 man French team looked rattled and seemed short of ideas, now was the chance for Scotland to get something here Brown thought as he motioned the players forward for a last final push. In the 96th minute, Spencer would win a corner for Scotland in which many players got round in the box ready to get on the ball. The ball first was headered backwards by McAllister looking like it was going nowhere, before then it just so happened to head in the direction of Durie who headed the ball to his left and ball went right past the hands of Lama and finally hit the back of the netting, GOOOALLLL!!!!

Durie, in the middle of the huddle celebrates with his teammates of getting the golden goal.
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Anfield erupted and anyone outside the stadium must've thought that a bomb must've gone off giving the noise that the Tartan Army made as they celebrated widely. Images of those celebrations are remembered fondly by many who watched it on TV, Durie racing to the corner flag and sliding on his chest before being piled up by his delighted teammates before giving him further congratulations, the Tartan Army trying to start a pitch invasion and the look of utter heartbreak on all the French players there who all lay on the ground in despair at what had just happened.

It was hard to tell if Scotland deserved the victory or not, but given some of the controversial choices that they had been the subject of in this game, they would've felt that justice had been earned here. Scotland were through the Semi finals of a tournament for the first time since 1968 and throughout that night in Liverpool, the Tartan Army celebrated widely into the night while the celebrations were also replicated north of the border. Now the Scots would made a short journey east over to Manchester where they were to play in the last four, surely it was possible, right?

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Scotland are there! But yeah, this was a fun update to do and just in time to due to the fact I'll be catching a flight tomorrow so I'll be away for a week. So here is how the last four looks like now:

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Scotland vs Czech Republic

Germany vs England

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So how do you think things will be different and will we see the final we all think might happen...? Next update will be with the Scots and for some fun 'In character' moments, how would've you reacted to the game and where would you have been when Scotland defeated France in dramatic circumstances? Until then, catch you guys later.

 

[Ruperto Pesto]

Brillant!

 

[HesitatedEye]

IC: "I remember Scotland vs France game my dad wasn't the warmest parent he didn't really want to do things with me and he never really seemed to get into anything except complaining about life but Euro 96 that seemed to change things I remember him watching all the Scotland games but then the whole country was into it Scotland at that time was going through so many changes Braveheart had come out the year before and kids like me were believing in Scotland again and so optimistic about the future of the country anyway one night my dad gets home from work and my grandfather turns up a little later and before I go to bed they ask me if I want to go on a trip this weekend and with school finishing up that week it was really nicely timed so I said sure even though I didn't have any clue where we were going so we jumped into the car and started driving naturally I passed out about 2 hours later and I remember waking up at 8am with both my dad and grandfather looking exhausted but excited and I could hear all these weird accents but a lot of Scottish ones too and I assumed I was in Glasgow or Edinburgh nope 10 year old me was in Liverpool at that point my life the furthest away from home I'd been was Dundee so this was so cool when I figured out WHY we were there but then I got kind of upset cause I knew we didn't have tickets. Anyway, we get breakfast and my dad sits three in front of me and I jumped around so much I broke my grandfather's glasses I'm pretty sure I could have powered the car back to Scotland at that point. Anyway, we get to Anfield and get the seats right next to the tunnel it was great I got to see everyone up close Zidane even said Bonjour when he walked past it was cool. but being in those 25 thousand belting out Flower of Scotland was so moving the entire place was shaking it felt like we were the real-life Braveheart the French fans were stunned they couldn't believe how passionate every Scot was. After the first 15 minutes we really got into it really and we were willing the team on for goal it was great but I saw my dad looking worried he knew something was coming after all he'd been in Argentina in 77 turns out he was right I've never heard so many people screaming than when Loko was bearing down on Goram being a Celtic fan I always had a small measure of dislike for him but that night I was hoping against hope he'd be the same bastard and save everything like he did against Celtic and he made that save I think the entire stand I was in sucked in air at the same time then immediately started screaming at the lads for being so stupid in the first place I did pick up a few new words at that moment but nothing like what happened just before half time with McCall trying to channel Archie Gemmill and that pass the Booth and boom 1-0 but then I have no clue what happened no one did the Ref said the goal wasn't a goal 10 year old me didn't understand that I mean a goal is a goal unless there is a foul or offside. The whistle went and the ref walked past my grandfather who I've never seen angry in his life started screaming at the Ref in Spanish which I didn't know he learned (years later my dad told me he said something about the ref, his mother and a sheep) anyway we were mad I'm pretty sure if someone had said to Scotland at that point "We want you to invade Spain" we'd have done it and not stopped until we got to Gibraltar. So the second half starts and the whole stadium is banging out Scotland the Brave and Flower of Scotland trying to motivate us the French were trying La Marseillaise trying to match us but every time they started we just got louder but on the pitch it was really kind of give and take my grandfather and dad both muttering about the defence and my dad screaming at them to "stop being lazy bastards and get back" Goram kept us in that game he really did with save after save and McCoist didn't look 34 that day I'm telling you he was playing like a man of 20 he wanted to be the hero to Scotland, Then when the full time whistle went I just knew we were going to get a goal the French looked done they couldn't understand how they hadn't put us away at that point and turns out I was right when Gordon Durie banged in that goal I jumped and screamed so loud I nearly fell over the side of the gate. My Dad knew what was coming next and kept me out the way when everyone jumped the fence to try and get on the pitch and as much as he might have wanted to himself he knew that he should be setting me a good example. Overall that day is one of the great ticks in my life box for three reasons: One I had the best day of my life with the two men I wanted to be like, It brought me and my dad closer than we had been which over the years I'm more thankful for than anything else and the third was when McCoist came off he gave me his jersey and I told him "I may hate Rangers but I love you" he just grinned and rubbed my head We went home the next morning and of course none of my friends believe me when I told them what happened but I had the last laugh when a year later on a school trip to Inverclyde the Scotland Squad were training at the National Sports Centre when we were there and one morning during breakfast they came down and McCoist spots me and grins and says “Alright wee man still love me although I play for the Rangers?” and grins which got me mega cool points."

 

[QTXAdsy]

Chapter 108: Czech-Mate​

Just four days after their dramatic victory over France in Liverpool, Scotland and their large traveling supported made the short journey eastwards to Manchester's Old Trafford Stadium for their Semi-final game with fellow surprise package, Czech Republic. It must be noted that many of thousands of Scottish fans who'd made the trip to Liverpool had decided to stay put and head over to Manchester, scenes of the Tartan Army selling out every hotel there was in the area, camping roughly or even going as far as sleeping under bushes or in bus stops would become remembered scenes for many in Euro 96 and there is more than a likely chance that anyone who was part of this great adventure would remember how they stayed down there and all the shenanigans involved. Once again, the organisers had been happy to see that Scotland had done well to go on as supporters wise, the Czechs had only brought along a measly 500 supporters with them to cheer on their side, didn't they know how such a big game it was for them to see their side get that far for the first time since 1976?

With such low numbers and with most of the Manchester population not willing to watch such a game, the Scots had no trouble of packing out Old Trafford in which the 55,000 seater stadium was completely sold out, vastly overwhelming the woeful numbers of Czech fans in the stadium and in doing so made the ground feel like a home game for the Scots, which in some ways was true as they were granted the position of the 'home' team in this match. The game was massive in many ways for the Scots as it was for the Czechs as it was the first time Scotland had been in the last four of a major tournament since 1968 and the whole country had been gripped by football fever in which pretty much everybody in Scotland talked nothing but football, the thought of playing a final at Wembley and the feeling of it being 30 years since their only appearance at a World Cup final seemed to indicate that fate might smile on the Scots. The Braveheart feeling was there among any Scot.

While the many thousands of Scots inside Old Trafford and watching the game live on television (a recorded number of 3.78 million from Scotland alone were to watch) were getting ready for the teams to come out, down in the Old Trafford dressing room kitted out in their all dark blue shirt and shorts and sitting on the benches awaiting for the go ahead to make their way towards the tunnel, the tension among the players was there as the realisation of how big this game was only starting to dawn on each of them, something like this might never happen again and to throw it away would most likely see them unlikely to show face in Scotland ever again. There was a bit of sadness too for poor Scott Booth, who had been injured in the game with France. Despite the best efforts, it turned out that even if Scotland got to the final, his injury was that bad that he'd be unable to compete for any further games for Scotland and with a reluctant heavy heart, Craig Brown had to send Booth home.

There was a bit of change too for the line-up as the formation was to change yet again, this time to a 4-3-3 with an attacking forward three line up featuring McCoist, Durie and John Spencer in the hope of banging in much goals as possible. It was a format that seemed most comfortable with the players to try something different. There were however some players dropped for the game with perhaps the most notable one being Tom Boyd dropped to the bench in favour of Tosh McKinlay which shock many at why Brown would do that especially as Boyd had played well in the last game. However, when one thought about it, it made sense, Boyd was already on a yellow card and if Scotland were to get to the final and he was to get another card in this game, he'd be suspended for the final and Brown didn't want to lose any player now, especially after the sad affair with Booth being sent home.

For many minutes, the players were silent as they sat there waiting for orders. Even the likes of John Collins, Andy Goram and Ally McCoist who would often get the players excited for a game were also silent as if doing anything might ruin Scotland's chances out on the field. With about 10 minutes until kick off, the door opened and in stepped Craig Brown before going over towards the whiteboard (in which he'd gone over the game with the players earlier) and he didn't say anything for a while as the players waited to hear whatever he had to say to them. Finally, after a dramatic long silence, he spoke.

"Gentlemen, here we are about to play in a Semi-final for a chance to play at Wembley for the final...that's all you need to know from me."

The Scotland players gave each other confused looks at their manager's choice of words. A gleam in Brown's eyes followed as he paused again to take in their reactions before he spoke again, "I'm not going to say any last things before we go out, as I have someone here that you'll all possible know who I'm referring too and will know what to say..."

The Scotland manager then looked over towards the door as on cue, another person entered the room and the players were both stunned yet oddly not surprised at who entered the dressing room, Alex Fergusson. The current Manchester United manager and former manager for the national side seemed like a no brainer choice when the players thought about it as to who was to give them final words of encouragement. When the Scots arrived in Manchester, he'd been trying all he could to get the local Mancunian population to get behind the Scots, though he had little luck for some reasons. One was that he manged the red half of the city which the Man City fans weren't really that interested in, plus even the red half of the city was more lukewarm to him due to the fact that he had lost the title that season to Kevin Keegan's Newcastle side, and even without those problems, he was likely never going to get any luck due to the fact that pretty much everyone in Manchester was at this moment doing last minute shopping for drinks as later on that day in the other Semi-final, England were to take on Germany and one couldn't fault them for having their interests elsewhere.

Nonetheless, Fergusson was wanting to make the most of it and with the team awaiting to go out, the Manchester United manager decided to give the team an extra boost. "Results will always make or break a team," Fergusson began. "Here you stand 90 minutes away or more from a final...our first since 1968. There have been many sides that have failed to get this far since then, myself included I'll admit. But here you stand, you are the ones who broke the chain and are rewriting history as you go along, and you don't know just how you are making people feel about this. You hear that?"

He paused and pointed towards the ceiling where they all listened hearing the muffled sounds of the large Scottish support in the stadium in which they could be heard singing Loch Lomond that was being played on the stadium's PA system. Hearing the fans singing out of their hearts was enough to bring the hairs on the back of the players that really showed them what this game meant for the nation. Seeing their reaction, Fergusson carried on speaking. "Hear that...that's all being sung for you. Go out there, this is your time, not those Czechs, so go out and take it."

That was all that was needed. Grabbing the captain's armband and place it on his arm, Gary McAllister stood up and looked over to his teammates and gave them a nod. "Come on lads, let’s do this!"

The players all got up and now all finding their voices and looking fired up to make their way to the tunnel, as they left, both Brown and Fergusson gave each of the players a pat on the back as they left the dressing room. The players, led my their captain, would join the Czech players in the tunnel and waited with baited breathes for the moment it was time to walk out...and it would soon arrive...

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As the two teams walked out, they were greeted by a thunderous roar that seemed to hit them like a wall and as they looked around, apart from one corner of Old Trafford and a scattering of Czech supporters dotted around the stadium, the vast majority were there for the Scots as Saltire flags and Lion Rampant flags flew all around, plus even some had tried to throw ticker tape out onto the field like what they'd do in South America, though it did look rather poor in comparison. Nonetheless after the anthems were sung and the two managers shook hands, the game began with the Scots kicking off first and right from the get go, the Scots had started on the front foot with the new formation for the team looking like it was doing wonders for them compared to the ropey look they had in the game with the French.

Craig Brown felt that unlike in that last game in which his side were clear underdogs, here he felt both sides were more even with each other which he predicted in his pre-match press conference that it could be quite an open game with either side having a chance to win it. Just as he predicted, Scotland would get the first shot on target in the 4th minute when they won the first corner and McCoist nearly managed to header the ball in but was stopped by the Czech keeper, Kouba. Then just a mere 5 minutes later, Šmicer responded with a volley from 30 yards outside the box in which Goram had to knock over the bar and concede a corner kick for the Czechs, an attempt that proved to be an easy catch for the Scottish goalkeeper before he knocked it up the park for his side to try and get something out of it.

After 17th minutes, though goals had been scored, it had been one hell of a contest with either side trying everything to find the opening goal and this game was hardly a snooze fest that some might've thought, it was looking to be classic if things were to remain the way they were. However then in the 19th minute, a tackle from John Collins on Němec would see the Czechs be awarded with a free kick from 25 yards away from the Scottish penalty box and many began to gather round the box getting ready to get onto the ball as Drulák stood over the ball and awaited for his orders to start the free kick.

Drulák during the game
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The Czech player stared over at the goal with intestacy as he felt he could do something here, the whistle blew and with a great run up, he sent the ball flying over the wall of Scottish players and it curled downwards into to bottom right of the goal in which Goram failed to get his hand on it and all he could do as he hit the ground was watch the ball land into the side of the net before slamming his fist on the ground. The Czechs were a goal up and Old Trafford was silenced apart from the celebrating Czech supporters, to lose a goal by a free kick was a painful one for the dark blue shirted players and now they had to find a way back into this game.

The Czechs tried to press forward again, but this time the Scottish midfield and defence were doing more than enough to not only hold off any attacks but actually go in attack to try and make inroads inside the Czech half. In the 24th minute, Durie made a run down on the left flank of the Czechs before he rolled the ball over back towards Collins as a way to avoid being stopped by Nedvěd who had been coming at him before he lobbed the ball up and over towards Spencer who looked like he had a good shot on target as he found himself racing into a woefully defended box.

Pretty much every Scot in that stadium and watching on TV screamed at Spencer to shoot in which he let fly on for goal and in which Kouba went the wrong way. However the cries of agony were to be greeted next as although the keeper went the wrong way, Scotland had the bad luck of having the ball coming off the keeper's left boot and which sent the ball ballooning over and out for a Scottish corner kick. On the touchline as Brown watched the corner kick attempt getting easily cleared away and back into the middle of the park, he could feel the weight of history on his shoulders and knew just what it what it would mean for his fellow countrymen to get to the final. He just hoped that the 11 players playing in dark blue wouldn't throw it away.

Then in the 31st minute, after a period in which the Scots had started to play much better and were the ones in the ascendency, Scotland went on the counter yet again with Spencer this time running down on the right flank with him looking over to see McCoist nearby motioning him to give the ball to him. With Rada shadowing him and looking like he was going to make a sliding tackle on the Chelsea player, Spencer made a long cross over towards the box in which McCoist, running down the centre like a mad man, leapt forward almost if he was trying impersonate Superman (Or Christopher Reeve whoever you might've spoken to) before he manged to connect his head with the ball before slamming it forward into the left of Kouba who couldn't get his hands on it with such force that the ball looked like it might rip the net open.

For those who happened to be standing outside of the stadium, the roar around Old Trafford indicated to anyone as just who scored. The Scots had equalised that not only was much deserved but a goal a that was worthy of a Semi-final and as McCoist found himself being surrounded by his delighted teammates and the Scottish flags around Old Trafford all manged to unfurl themselves in celebration, Craig Brown saw over towards the Czech bench that their manager, Dušan Uhrin, was looking over his team sheet and was no doubt looking for ways to improve his side after losing their lead like that.

A delight McCoist and Durie celebrate over Scotland's equaliser
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By this point, the Tartan Army had found their voice again and the noise they made was not only deafening and completely drowned out the Czech supporters to the point were it made them look non existent, but drove on their side as they quickly became the 12th man here with it looking like they might have more goals to score as following McCoist's goal, the Czech Republic looked rattled and unsure just what to do here and looked like that they were there for the taking and the Scots looked liked they doubled their advantage in the 35th minute when Durie thought he'd managed to score after making a brilliant run, but his goal had been marked offside.

At this point during the final 10 minutes of the first half with the red shirted players looking disjointed, Scotland should've gone in for the kill and try and take the lead with how well they were playing, but instead and maybe much to the slight disappointment of the Tartan hordes up on the terraces, the Scots seemed more keen on drawing the game out as if they thought this was the right thing to do, but it did though was help give the Czechs time to get themselves back into the game and almost gave the Scots a heart attack in the 44th minute when Drulák nearly retook the lead for his side as he sent the ball just shooting past the post in which Goram failed to get on it in which had it been just a inch or too facing the other way, it would've gone in and all that hard work that Scotland had done to get back into this game would've been all for nothing.

The Tartan Army all kept a close eye on the clock or their watches as the first half closed out into the final moments, their voices suddenly become silent again as the Czechs looked like the ones more likely to score now in the dying moments. Thankfully after a bit of touch and go defending and some wasteful Czech shots, the first half came to an end and one that the Tartan Army could breath a sigh of relief that they hadn't lost a goal in those final moments of the game in which would've been an almighty sucker punch. Neither manager looked happy with Uhrin feeling that they had been wasteful to try and snatch a lead while Brown felt that they shouldn't have rested like that and should've scored another. Either way, another 45 minutes loomed for someone to become a hero or a villain...

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The Second half didn't start off in a blaze of glory but rather quite a gentle pace as both sides simply knocked the ball around as if neither wanted to try and blow their load this quickly. Šmicer at the start of the second half had been taking off and in his place saw Patrik Berger filling his place on the field and it would be the sub that nearly turned the game on it's head in the 49th minute when after a defence blunder from McAllister over a slip, the Czech player shot forward snatch the ball off the unfortunate Scot's feet and raced towards the Scottish penalty box.

Thankfully for the Scots, Berger's volley would just fly over the bar and McAllister's blushes were spared, though the look on his face afterwards seemed to indicate that it could've been all so different there. Almost if to try and make up for that blunder, John Collins would work alongside Stuart McCall on his right as they tried to work a shot to hand up towards the Scottish forward three and McCall would give the ball up towards McCoist he tried to volley the shot on target but Kouba again saved the ball, this time with his hands.

It would get rather heated in the 55th minute when McCall would manged to get Berger to divert him off the field and allow the Czechs to get a throw in, however Berger and McCall would get into a spat with each other with the Czech player accusing the Scot that he had been rough and looked over towards the Swedish referee, Leif Sundell, for him to act and give the Scottish player a yellow card, instead the referee would merely give the Scot a verbal warning any Czech watching must've felt that there were looking to not their day as they felt it was clearly a yellow card that should've been shown.

Berger on the move before his argument with McCall
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Despite the early part of the second half looking good for the Czechs, like what had happened with the Scots in the first half, they slowly let their good play go to waste as it would lead for the Scots to go forward and try and go in to find a second goal that would, depending on how tight this game was progressing, looking like whoever scored next would be the winning goal and that wasn't meaning golden goal. Brown didn't want to drag the game into extra time like they had done in the last game as even though they had managed to get the job done there, playing for more than 90 minutes he felt was always going to be physically demanding one for his side and that wasn't going to be good if they were going to make the final.

In the 58th minute, Scotland should've gone ahead when McCoist ran down the centre in which he threaded his shot over towards Durie who made a cheeky chip over the Czech keeper and looked worthy of it being a goal...if it was one however. In the middle of celebrations from the dark blue shirted players, confusion followed when the referee ruled off the goal and instead pointed over towards the Czech goals for a goal kick. Cheers quickly turned to jeers from the Tartan Army when they realised that Durie's goal had been chalked off with the Scottish players demanding an answer why. While it was clear that Durie's first goal was clearly offside in which nobody complained about, this ghost goal was baffling as there seemed like no way of explaining why it had been not included with it either being perhaps conspiracies to hamper the Scots or perhaps the most likely answer was that it was just a bad refereeing choice that he felt was offside even though it clearly wasn't.

The Czechs though didn't mind as on the contrary, they felt it was karma after McCall never got a yellow card from earlier. Then it would get worse for the Scots when, still in a foul mood after Durie's ghost goal, the 63rd minute would see the Czechs move forward to try and break into the Scottish penalty box thanks to a lightning run from Poborský in which Calderwood had to make a challenge to stop him, but in the heat of the moment, he hadn't realised that he had brought down the Czech player in the box and the referee pointed and blew his whistle for a penalty. Cue a mass outpouring of cries of disbelieve from the large Scottish support.

Durie before his goal was wrongly chalked off
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Calderwood was quickly shown a yellow card and his teammates all gave him looks of disbelieve and some of anger, especially for Goram who now had to save his country from going a goal down as Berger would step up to take the penalty, all around Old Trafford many Scots, who at club level didn't like Goram, now all prayed for him to save them and forgive him. With a blast on the Whistle, Berger made a run up and hit the ball into the upper part of the goal in which Goram was sent diving to the left and away from the ball, however the ball would instead slam against the crossbar, curled up into the air and landed on top of the net. The Scottish supporters roared in delight as poor Berger placed his hands over his head in shame of missing a penalty while a delight Goram would get up and slap his hand on the part of the crossbar in which the ball had hit.

This bad miss from the Czech Republic would be the moment in which the Scots needed to get back into the game and this time would not take any chances as the Czechs seemed to lose their nerve as they were pushed back with their captain Němeček in the 69th minute being booked for a tackle on McCoist that did look worrying at first for the Tartan Army with how forceful the challenge had been and had many with their hearts in their mouths at that point. Thankfully, he managed to get back on his feet after some quick medical attention and as applauded by the Scottish supporters for carrying on.

Scotland would come close to taking the lead in the 74th minute in which Collins would fire a shot to the right of the goal but instead saw his shot cannon off the post where Durie tried to run in on the rebound only to see his shot get saved by Kouba and poor Durie must've wonder just what did he have to do to score. Even if Scotland were to win this game, this wasn't going to be Durie's game. A change would then follow for Scotland in the 78th minute when Brown had noticed Calderwood looking unhappy since his booking and looked to be trying to make a another challenge that saw the very real danger of himself getting a second yellow and being sent off. As of a result that minute, Brown opted to take off Calderwood and in his place brought on Middlesbrough defender Derek Whyte in the hope of having more cool heads here needed for the final push that the Scots were going for.

Němeček looking on after that missed penalty
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Scotland were now starting to pile on the pressure in the final ten minutes of the game with the feeling swirling around Old Trafford among the Tartan Army being that Scotland were going to win this as the Czech Republic were now looking very ropey and holes in their defence line was only inviting not only Scotland's forward three to go in, but also the midfield too who felt they odd to have a go as McAllister at one point had a shot on the volley in the 82nd minute though it hit the post and out for a goal kick. Back in the Scottish technical area, Craig Brown stood on the edge shouting at his midfield to not break their shape and leave it to the attacking forward three to do the job.

Then after much pressing forward, and a booking in the 84th minute for Nedvěd for a shirt pull on McAllister, Scotland had managed to get themselves a corner kick in the 86th minute and the tension in Old Trafford was there, almost if a bomb was somewhere in the stadium and nobody knew where it was. Durie stood by the right corner flag awaiting to take it as he saw his teammates rubbing shoulders with the Czechs trying to find a decent area for them to try and get something on the ball. When the whistle blew, he crossed it into the box in which Celtic defender Tosh McKinlay would leap up into the air would put away the ball to his left in which the ball went heading towards the post and Kouba scrambled over to try and save the shot, but instead the ball went off the post and into the back of the net, GOAAALLLL!!!

For the Tartan Army, players and those on the Scottish bench, memories of what happened next are hazy, McKinlay would run over towards Brown with his teammates in hot pursuit to embrace the manager before being dogpiled by his teammates, the Tartan Army let out a deafening roar that seemed to shake Old Trafford to it's foundations with fans hugging random people next them, most being complete strangers but who were all in that moment united in celebrating the goal that surely was going to send the Scots back to Wembley for the final.

"We're going to Wembley!" The Scottish players and Craig Brown celebrating McKinlay's goal
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McKinlay had scored his first goal for his country and wasn't one that nobody would ever forget, even up in the VIP section, Alex Fergusson couldn't contain himself and punched his first in the air for that in few minutes time, Scotland were going back to Wembley, only this time...the final. After the delighted Scots stopped celebrating, the Czechs who were previously heartbroken at losing that goal were now fired up and began to charge at the Scottish defence to snatch a late equaliser to take the game into extra time, though the chanting and singing from the Tartan Army up in the terraces drowned out the sound as flags were flying all around the stadium and in some ways seemed to put off the Czechs from trying to concentrate on getting a goal as the noise made them make some foolish mistakes in losing the ball easily.

By this point, the Czechs looked like spent force who couldn't do nothing to help themselves and nobody noticed that towards the end saw many police officers starting filling in the gap between the stand and the field as if they felt a pitch invasion was likely to follow and giving some of the mental scenes up around Old Trafford, they must've felt they'd have good reason too with thoughts of the Tartan Army's pitch invasion at Wembley in 1977 in their minds. Despite the final, long closing minutes of the game, plus the addition of 3 added on minutes with many Scots biting into their fingernails or not baring to look amidst the rising sound of the Tartan Army, a shrill whistle was heard and with it came utter madness.

The Tartan Army tried to invade the field but where held back while the roar that followed the final whistle was insane, Brown embraced all those who had been with him on the bench while the players on the field couldn't believe what they had just done, McCoist and Durie both lay on the ground hugging each other for pulling off this historic victory and for Durie, all his misfortunes with him not getting a goal were quickly forgotten about. Craig Brown would eventually be carried on the shoulders of some of the players and giving a lap on honour around Old Trafford were the Tartan Army give the Scotland manager a standing ovation.

It took the Scots and hour after the final whistle to get out of Old Trafford as many wanted to stay and milk the moment and even when they did, most of Manchester had been taking over by the Scots who partied long and hard into the early hours of the morning, and that wasn't including the madcap scenes back home as the country celebrated reaching it's first final in 28 years and they would be joined soon after by their arch rivals over another result that evening...

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Wembley! We're the famous Tartan Army and we're off to Wembley! Oh yes, what about that?! Scotland are off to the final of Euro 96 and one thing is for sure is that this Semi final was perhaps a lot better than that boring semi we had IOTL. But what about England you might ask, how'd they get on with the Germans? Well, nothing much changed in that game other that this little moment...

Oh yes, Gazza got his foot on the ball and England make the final. Yes...we will have a rematch of the 1966 World Cup final here in a game that I think many of us would've all wanted to see happen here, will England bring football home or will the Scots get revenge for 1966? Find out next time in the rematch of the century and for some 'In character' time from you, where were you when Scotland and England won their games? Not just from the Scots or English wanting to tell of their 'experiences' during Euro 96, but also from our foreign readers wanting to tell their part of what happened with them, haha!

But anyway, who'd you think will win and see you next time for an epic match in the next update...catch you later!

 

[QTXAdsy]

Chapter 109: The Re-Match Of The Century
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A sense of occasion could be felt on that morning of the 30th June as everyone knew just how historic today was to be that day. As viewers in the UK tuned in on the BBC's coverage of the final of Euro '96, 34.7 million on them in fact if numbers from ITV were to be included, they were to be greeted after the title sequence with Match of the Day Presenter Des Lyman beginning the broadcast with a now famous set of words for the viewers. "Hello, it's June 30th, we're at Wembley for the 1996 European Championship Final, England against Scotland...and this time, it's not a dream." He had said a similar sentence prior to the opening game with a sense of hope and jokiness as he said it, now he had repeated again to act as something of a call back.

For anyone in the UK between the days of the 26th and 30th June, there was only one thing that was one thing on everyone's mind, football and bragging rights. The final being one featuring England and Scotland, their first meeting in a final since that legendary final in 1966, had undoubtedly sent the country into a craze about glory and nightmares about what might included in the following game. Interestingly, the odds of such a final at the start of the tournament were placed at 225 to 1 and any optimistic or daft minded person had gone out to place a bet on that then no doubt they in that moment would be feeling very pleased in their judgement at netting a healthy profit.

In the early hours of the moment, people from the likes as far as Aberdeen to Southampton were all heading to Wembley to witness such a final and well remembered would be scenes on the M6 Motorway in which Saltire and Lion Rampant cladded cars and buses carrying thousands of happy Scots down south that must've been quite a scene to watch in the flesh. With many going to Wembley, a sell out crowd of over 76 thousand no less, both English and Scottish supporters would inviably run into each other at various service stations and while sadly there were a minority of fights between supporters, thankfully the vast majority of which was all well behaved with fans on both sides joining in in many forms of banter and singing.

Hours before kick off, all good nature between rivals​

As the day wore on, it had gotten rather cloudy and giving the fact that the whole tournament had been blessed with sunshine all round was seen as something of a disappointment for some, but some would've joked that if this was going to be a British final at Wembley, then it would only be fitting that the weather would reflect this. Even though the game was to start at 7pm British summer time, many fans getting to game were delayed due to some horrendous tailbacks on the roads, especially on the approach to London from the north, with the organisers even considering to delay the kick off by 20 minutes if this was to continue, thankfully this was never carried out as with just 25 minutes before kick off, Wembley was filled up with there not being a single seat left in the stadium.

The thoughts of this being a repeat of 1966 were not lost on anyone as both sides had gotten a half of the stadium for their supporters with the remaining seats going for the sponsors, various FA members from other countries and random competition winners, as the same thing had happened then. To say the atmosphere inside that stadium was electric would be an understatement, both sets of fans tried to outdo each other on the Wembley terraces that nobody seemed to bother at the closing ceremony that was taking place. However that change when Baddiel and Skinner, along with Lightning Seed's Ian Broudie, would get the crowd on their feet, well, the English half, to join in with a mass singalong with their hit song Three Lions that had now hit No.1 in the charts following England getting to the final.

However not to be outdone, Rod Stewart would serenade the Tartan Army with his cover version of Purple Heather (Wild Mountain Thyme) which had been made the unlikely song for Scotland's Euro '96 campaign. As strange as it might've been for a football game, it was nonetheless a far greater improvement of a rather infamous song of his he'd done for the Scotland team back in 1977...

Speaking of the above mentioned performers, they weren't the only celebrities on show. If one was to look to various parts of the stadium and over at the VIP box, one could see that it was pretty much a 'Who's who' of the British celebrity circuit with the likes of the English side containing Michael Caine, John Cleese, Tom Baker, Joanna Lumley, Catherine Tate and all of the Spice Girls just to now a few while the Scottish celebrities there featured Billy Connolly, Ewan McGregor, Alan Cumming, Kelly Macdonald and the band Del Amitri were all there.

But even that wasn't the end of famous faces there as also in attendance were quite a number of the players who had taking part in that final of 1966 which included Bobby Charlton, Denis Law, Ray Wilson, Jim Baxter, Gordon Banks and Billy Bremner. (The latter being the last time he'd be at Wembley before his death a year later) Perhaps more remarkable was the appearance of the hattrick hero in that game, Duncan Edwards, being at that game for despite having suffered a stroke and being bed ridded during the start of last month, he had ignored doctor's orders and was determined to see England play in a final at Wembley, the sudden appearance of him there was enough to see him get a standing ovation by many for his sheer determination that everyone knew him by.

Last but not least was the appearance of the Royal Family that day in the royal box with the Queen Mother being granted the honour of presenting the trophy to the winning team. Apparently the press had been making rumours that Diana, Princess of Wales, was to be there too and was the original choice to present the trophy to the winning team, however during that time, her marriage to Prince Charles had broken down and a divorce was on the way so she turned down the offer of being there. However, she did give both teams well wishes and congratulations of getting this far and wishing the best team well.

The English side of Wembley in full cry prior to kick off.
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As the closing ceremony finished, with memorable finale of a spine tingling sing along of You'll Never Walk Alone in which saw the rare occasion of both sets of supporters singing together, the pitch cleared in preparation for the teams to walk out, chances were likely that there was at least someone in that vast crowd who had been a spectator in 1966 who was wanting to be part of history again. Also there was another very likely thought that both sets of fans were reflecting past victories other the opposing side with the English thinking of not only that final in 1966 and that recent game just a few days ago, but also that 9-3 thrashing they'd giving the Scots back in 1961. For the Scots, they might've thought about either 1967 or 1977 and some very elderly types there would perhaps think of the Wembley wizards of 1928 in which they humiliated the English 5-1.

Now though, another game in that long collection of England/Scotland games was about to join that famous list. With such an atmosphere and the fact the two sides were to face each other again in a short space of days, the demand from the general public grew with the British Home Championship to return, however it seemed that their hopes all fell on deaf ears. Finally the moment came in which out of the Wembley tunnel, the teams emerged and the roar that welcomed them to the pitch was incredible with flags and scarfs flying all around Wembley, oh yes, regardless of how the final was going to go, the fans had made the atmosphere worthy of a final, now it was all down the players to do their part for the game.

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The players all stood facing the royal box as their anthems were being sung and thankfully this time neither side booed either anthem, though this was perhaps the fact that the Royal Family were in attendance and both sides had decided to put on their best behaviour. One final thing to do before the game had begun as the players were still lined up was that the match officials would all shake hands with the Queen Mother as she came as she went along the line to wish them all well for the final. She especially gave the Scottish team an extra bit of encouragement as she had a connection with Scotland due to the fact she had spent much of her childhood at Glamis Castle and the players seemed more than happy to win the game on Royal Orders.

Eventually and after all that, the match would begin with a number of familiar faces that had all played a part in that game, even the referee, Italian Pierluigi Pairetto, had been part of the last game the two sides played in was here too. Thanks to vocal encourage of the large English support in Wembley, England would start the match on the front foot and for all the years that the Tartan Army had often drowned out the English support on their many visits to Wembley, here they were finding it hard for a change as the English look set to try and make life difficult for the Scots.

On the bench, England manager Terry Venables was a nervous man. The deep lines on Venables face seemed more pronounced as cameras focused on him, according to the mindset of the English press however, his England side was not only just expected to win the final, they were to walk it; crushing the Scottish underdogs under their boots. The golden goal winner from Gascoigne over the Germans in the Semi-final had sent the press into a frenzy thinking that this certainly theirs to lose now and in some ways they might've had a point.

View of the Scottish half of Wembley prior kick off
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With the formation of the Premier League, the wealth and the size of the teams' average attendance in contrast with the Scottish league, the English game didn't exist in a different league to the Scots, they played in a world to them. The England manager thought otherwise what his fellow countrymen though of the Scottish and even Welsh leagues. To get to a final with a team that, with perhaps the exception of McCoist, didn't have any superstars was a hell of an achievement that seemed to show that teamwork was the main deal in football so in no way did Venables envy his Scottish counterpart, Craig Brown, in that regard.

As much as it was an all British final plus the overwhelming view that England were favourites and that Scotland were major underdogs here, the England manager knew very well that football was unpredictable and had first hand experience to prove it at during his time as the manager of Barcelona, his side were humbled by Dundee United on their run to their eventually victory in the 1987 UEFA Cup. When the English did win the World Cup in 1990, few English commentators seemed to disregard the fact that a quarter of the team all played for Glasgow Rangers and the Scots would cheekily remark that they won the World Cup that year. A few Scottish sides had gotten to European finals and had the English press forgotten when during the 1994 Cup Winners Cup Final saw Arsenal suffer an embarrassing loss to Dundee United and a year later, Aberdeen would reach a Champions League final in which although they lost, who had all seen that coming if getting that far?

Plus even this year, Raith Rovers had been the shock team of Europe as they had pulled of an unlikely success in the UEFA Cup and Paul Gascoigne himself played in Scotland, so all in all, in no ways was the Scottish league some crackpot tin pot league that Venables thought a view that was not only narrow minded but even insulting in truth. Bottom line, Venables saw the Scots as a worthy appointment for the final. However his thoughts were broken when in the 8th minute, after much English domination, England would win the first corner kick of the game in which Gascoigne would run up to take the corner.

With hearing the blast on the whistle, he swung it over inside the box in which Shearer would leap into the air to band in the goal towards the bottom right of the goal in which poor Goram couldn't get his hand on it in time and Shearer ran off in celebration as the English half of Wembley erupted as fans celebrated with utter joy of getting the perfect start while any Scot there could only groan and facepalm at going behind early on in this game. All except for Craig Brown who looked with a thoughtful expression, there was still plenty of time to turn this game around and sometimes getting an early lead he thought could always be a problem.

Shearer enjoys the moment of getting an early goal for Scotland
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Funnily enough, the game had started almost identical of how the Semi final with England and Germany had begun with England starting off very well only for the Germans to come back into the game very soon after and that was happened with the Scots. Shearer's early goal would help, for better or for worse whoever you spoke to, get Scotland back into the game as they starting pushing forward to try and find an equaliser with the first chance Scotland had of the game being a stunning attempt in the 13th minute in which thanks to a cross from John Collins would cross the ball over towards McAllister who would volley an almighty shot from 40 yards out from the box that Seaman had to get his hand on it to prevent it from going in. It would've been a stunner had it gone in but there was now grounds for cautious optimism for the watching Tartan Army.

England certainly did have most of the possession in this half so far, but the Scots were really putting up a spirted fight that was only helping their supporters roaring them on to find the equaliser. In the 18th minute, Tony Adams would foul John Collins some 30 yards away from the penalty box and had given the Scots a free kick in which looked to be quite a good position for McAllister to try his luck from. With many holding baited breathes as he awaited for the referee to blow his whistle to begin the kick and the Scotland captain sent the ball curling downwards but unlucky for him, Seaman dived the right way and got both hands on the ball.

England may had been in front but it was starting to look clear now that they were rocking as Scotland were probing them all over. Venables sat them with a hand rubbing over his mouth as he watched his England team looking disjointed in places and his only hopes were that they didn't give the Scots a goal in this first half, though in the 21st minute, Sheringham would try and help add to England's lead as he managed to find his way inside the Scottish penalty box thanks to some schoolboy defending from the Scottish backline and it was once again Goram who came to the rescue as he dived to his left to grab onto the ball, he wasn't going to let England try and score into his own net again in this game.

Gascoigne taking on McAllister and Hendry during the first half
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Back and forth the ball went up and down the field with both sides really going for it as was the feeling of how much it would mean to win this final. Time and time again Scotland would try everything to find the equaliser in which many Scots watching the game live on TV felt they deserved as they nervously drank their beer across living rooms and pubs throughout the land. The game itself was also getting quite fierce with tackles as the game rolled along into the 27th minute in which it felt every player all had a point to prove with their countries' pride at stake and more surprisingly was that neither a yellow or red card had been shown by the Italian referee who instead was motioning for both to play on as a way of keeping momentum in the game flowing.

Then in the 32nd minute, Pierce was trying to get his head on the ball thanks to a cross from Southgate, John Spencer however would leap up into Peirce's space where he managed to divert the ball forward and with that he kept on running with many Scots in the stadium rising to their feet feeling that something was about to happen. Spencer would pass the ball towards McCoist who was no inside the box and look set to score, however rather than thump it in, he instead let the ball roll behind. This to many at first looked like a stupid waste to throw away such a good chance, however it was part of a training ground exercise as Brown watched with him mouthing the tactics he had told the players to himself.

The ball itself would roll back towards John Collins he came rushing like a runaway train and with a furious strike towards goal, slammed the ball into the underside of the roof of the net in which Seaman couldn't do nothing about and the fears of the English had come true, Scotland were back into the game. The Tartan Army in Wembley roared with delight this time as the English were now quiet as they could only watch Collins get surrounded by his teammates and there was an incident of one happy yet heavily drunken Scot trying to get on the field to celebrate, but was pushed back to the terraces. 1-1, now anything could happen.

Going for goal, Collins before his equaliser for Scotland
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Scotland had been on the rise for a quite a bit of the game and now that goal would surely do more than enough to help them press on to try and find another goal to end this first half on, how glorious from a Scottish perspective to be leading at halftime at Wembley, in a final of all places?! England now looked rattled and frustrated as in the 36th minute, McCoist nearly made it worse for the host nation as he found himself inside the box as the ball was crossed over by Durie on his right and despite pulling of a strong header onto goal, Seaman would make that McCoist's attempt wouldn't get anywhere near from going over the line.

However shortly after that attempt from Scotland's lucky talisman, England would find themselves back in the game and responded with a long range shot from just over the halfway line in the 42nd minute when Paul Ince tried to pull off a long range shot that went flying towards the goal that as it got closer, looked like it might land in the Scottish goal and Goram would have to leap up to nudge the ball over the ball and land on the roof of the net to give England a corner kick. Cue the great relief from the Scots that they had gotten off the hook that time. However that attempt would only inspire the rest of the English players to press forward to find not only the lead, but delivery a sucker punch for the Scots right before half time. As the game now went into 2 minutes of added time of the first half, the English had now began to put the Scots on the ropes and many of the Tartan Army were checking the watches or looking up at the big screen wondering how much time they had left.

England were like a wounded animal that was out to punish the Scots for them trying to pull of an upset and then within the very last seconds of added time, Sheringham would gallop down the left Scottish flank with the likes of Boyd and Hendry all trying to stop him, but he would let one fly when he was just on the outside of the box and sent it hitting the post before going in for goal. The English began to celebrate, but that was quickly cut short when it was seen that the linesman had raised his flag up for offside and before the English players could respond to that, the referee blew for halftime and it would come as a relief for the Scots to have time to recover, though the last second offside moment did not go down well for the English as Shearer would lead a protest on the Italian referee trying to point out that it was onside and not off.

"He's got it wrong!" Shearer and Ince argue with the referee over Sheringham's ghost goal
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Most of the Scottish players would leave the field, though some stayed behind as they tried to get in the action as by now 8 furious England players were surrounding the referee like a swam of angry bees as he tried to leave the field. So much so that tempers looked like they were going to boil over ("Would her majesty like to witness a punch up?" McKinlay would joke under his breath as he tried to help the referee get away). It was a pity that such an exciting final so far was being marred with a rather sorry state of affairs. In hindsight, the English players would agree that the goal was offside, but in the spur of the moment and with pride riding through their veins, it could only had ended up like that.

For Craig Brown, he was delighted at his team getting back into this game at showing good character, now they had to go out and start off on the front foot in the first half in the best possible way. And as the sky began to get darker by that point as the sun set over Wembley, his thoughts were on what to say to his players and his own memories, or rather nightmares of 1966 that he hoped to banish for good here. All he needed was his players was to stand up and be counted and put on a show the thousands of Scotland fans in Wembley and as he walked into the tunnel, he looked back at seeing many of them chanting their hearts out. They deserved it surely.

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Craig Brown's team talk had been simply about keeping the English back and frustrating them as he felt that would help lead to Scotland finding a second goal. He had also presented to the players a truckload of good luck cards from school kids across Scotland that all had little messages of support for them to win which was heart-warming to say the least, though there was one message from a kid in Dundee who had seemly wrote saying 'Good luck Scotland and beat those dirty English bastards!' It was unknown if it was actually written by some kid or was in fact written by some random Tartan Army support who had sent it in as a joke.

Nonetheless the team all found it hilarious and would return out on the field to start the second half with a notable spring in their step. For Craig Brown, he knew how much this final matter to many of his fellow countrymen, but he really felt the tension about this game though with regards to the final in 1966. He could, at the age of 26 at that time, remember being in a pub for the final and his memories are tinge with joy and regret. He could remember Denis Law's opening goal that sent him into a state of frenzy, however then came Duncan Edwards' hattrick heroics to stab at the heart of Scotland. As soon as Edwards scored his third goal, he left the pub in state of despair of losing a final to the English.

Granted some pride was restored a year later when they got revenge on the English at Wembley and the following year when Scotland become victorious in Rome, but the pain of 1966 still affected him and he never imagine he'd ever get Scotland back into a final at Wembley again, let alone being against England and 30 years later no less. This was perhaps the only chance they'd get at being here again and what a way to wipe away 30 years of hurt for the Scots for not that year but also winning their first bit of silverware in 28 years. Funnily enough, Brown would have to admit that the occasion of it being England had actually made him forget that they were out to play for silverware and was only reminded in the dressing room when John Collins suggesting that if they won they'd need to add two stars above the Scotland badge.

Anyway, as Brown focused on the game, he was pleased to see his side start of the second half very well with it looking like they had no trouble in pushing back the English as if they had nothing to fear from them now. Then in the 48th minute, McCall would lob the ball up towards Durie who swung the ball over towards McCoist inside the penalty box and right before the English defence could react, McCoist slipped the ball into the left side of the goal in which although Seaman went in to dive to save it, he came off short of his fingertips as the ball hot the post and bounced off into the direction of the net and the roar from the Scottish supporters was enough to tell how much it meant for them...Scotland were leading England 2-1 at Wembley...in a final!

"Get In!" McCoist celebrates his goal that gives Scotland the lead in the final
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The pudgy looking Craig Brown leapt in the air while punching his fist upwards like a boxer. The scenes of utterly delighted Scots were one no one would forget as flags were be waved around like mad, strangers hugging each other and bits of beer were flying around the air and soaking everyone. McCoist found himself getting piled on by his teammates as the look on his face seem to explain how much this meant for him, one could only imagine the scenes back home when McCoist's goal managed to sneak it's way in. However, as much as was a fantastic start for Scotland, there was still a long way yet to go.

By now, Venables had ran over to the touchline and was yelling out at his players to move as they kicked off from the centre circle. His plans he had made for his team during halftime had now gone out the window and now they'd have to improvise. "Come on lads!" Venables yelled at the English players. "You're all worth more than them, what are you waiting for?!"

As the Tartan Army cranked up the noise levels in Wembley, the Scottish players looked a bit wary now. At this point one would've thought they would try and add to their lead and bury the English, instead they seemed like they wanted to hold them off and frustrate them more with perhaps one such moment in the 53rd minute when McCoist tried to channel the skills of Jim Baxter by recreating his famous 'keepie up' routines in which the Scots cheered in delight at what he was trying to do, those these antics did not go down well with the English as almost as a party pooper moment, David Platt would clean the ball straight off the feet of McCoist which like a pantomime villain, the Scots booed Platt as he sent the ball up the field to his fellow teammates.

England would nearly get back into the game when Platt himself in the 57th minute would swing a shot in the hit the crossbar. The Scots had been warned, England were getting back into this and it looked like it was going to get a bit physical soon. In the 60th minute, the first yellow card of the game would be shown for Scotland as McCall would get booked for a tackle on Shearer and England would get a free kick from it and Gascoigne would be up to take it from 25 yards away from the box. He would swing the ball up towards the penalty box in which Sheringham would get his foot on it. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as Goram dived into the direction of the Englishman and Sheringham went to fire on goal.

The ball however hadn't connected on his foot that well and instead of going straight as he wanted, the ball scuffed off his foot and went tumbling over the right of the goal and crashed out for a goal kick, poor Sheringham placed his hands on his head in dismay while his fellow countrymen groaned an anguish, oh how that would've the equaliser. Despite this, Venables now looked confident as he crossed his arms watching his side going all out to get themselves back in it, more of this pressing of the Scots and they'd surely get the goal they craved for.

Scotland fans after taking the lead over England
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Both sets of fans looked nervous as the time ticked away, England were paying well but were still behind and running out of time while the Scots were pinned back into their own half while holding onto their lead and they swore the clock seemed to go at snail's pace, the tension was being felt all around Wembley across the country. In the 65th minute, both sides would make a substitution as Caulderwood was brought off for Scotland in exchange for Craig Burnley to play in an unfamiliar defender role and as a way of adding some extra attacking force for the line.

England would make a change in midfield when Ince was brought off for David Barmby to take his place, clearly both sides were going to throw everything forward to win this game and both managers looked determined to finish the game in 90 minutes. The tempo of the game then suddenly decreased as it looked like the weight of history and the exhausting performance for both sides was catching up to the players and it did look for some concerned minded folk that the teams were running out of ideas to try and win the game. This was reflected in how oddly quiet Wembley got as looks of fear and concern seem to grip fans on both sides of the divide as it was looking increasingly clear that nobody had any idea how this game was going to finish.

Scotland's ultra defence style had only led the English players to gather in confidence to the point when David Seaman had become a forgotten figure in the game and spent more of the time gazing up at the screen showing how much time was left...they were now into the 76th minute, 14 minutes left from a loss to the Scots. Could they turn it around? Then a minute later as Platt was charging inside the box, Boyd would make a desperate tackle that saw him bring the Englishman tumbling to the ground and made his teammates and the English supporters cry out for a penalty.

The referee had already blew his whistle for a penalty in which the English knew they had a chance to grab an equaliser and poor Boyd was shown a yellow card for his troubles. All eyes turned towards Shearer as he walked up to the spot to take the penalty, but then he was stopped by Gascoigne who began explaining something to his teammate which went on for about a minute. Then to utter shock of many, Shearer stepped back and allowed Gascoigne to take the honour of takin the spot kick. Over on the English bench, Venables was furious, "What the hell's he's playing at? It should he Shearer not him!"

It was a bizarre situation as to why Gascoigne wanted to take the spot kick, however it would soon dawn on many as to why he wanted to volunteer. With him being Goram's teammate at Rangers, Gascoigne knew how to beat Goram on penalties and it was actually a clever scheme from Geordie. What followed next would be one of the funniest moments in any football moment in which Goram would try and recreate Grobbelaar's famous 'spaghetti legs' routine he did in the European cup final of 1984 as a why of trying to distract his Rangers teammate. However Gascoigne would grin at him and would repeat the Scottish keeper's moves by repeating the routine himself; the two Rangers teammates, in perhaps one of the most important moments in their lives for their country, had decided to get involved in a ridiculous schoolyard antic.

It would be a moment that anyone there at Wembley or watching on TV would ever forget; a glorious mix of gamesmanship, humour and bravado. Gascoigne's plan would prove to be a success as he would slam the ball into the top right of the goal and give England the equaliser they deserved, but after the antics just there, few would funnily enough ever remember the goal. Once the game got underway again with 10 minutes plus added time to follow, England now moved forward to go in for the kill and snatch a late winner in under 90 minutes. Dread was now settling in for the Scots.

Gascoigne celebrates his penalty that puts England back in the game
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Despite England looking very strong in the closing minutes, Scotland weren't now going to sit back as in the 83rd minute, McCoist would rip through the English backline and try and score a dramatic goal, but his shot went off the left post and out for a goal kick. Two minutes later, Shearer tried to get his second of the game with a volley, but it went way over the crossbar for this time a Scottish goal kick. Both sides were now doing everything they could to try and snatch a late winner to end the game as a grandstand finish as both wanted to end the game in 90 minutes and not to go into extra time or penalties.

Yet despite the best efforts of both sides in a heart stopping finale, 90 minutes would end with the sides firmly deadlock and golden goal now loomed. The game had been a classic game in all sense of the word and now Venables and Brown would have to gear their players up for more football to be played and the many fans around Wembley wearily awaited for extra time to begin.

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Both sides had gotten this far thanks to getting a golden goal in the games they'd had won in the Knockout phrase so they knew how useful golden goal would be, plus neither side wanted to go to penalties. So after Scotland made a swap for Kevin Gallacher to come for John Collins, the game restarted and now the tension could be felt around Wembley more than ever. Golden goal was simple enough for anyone to understand, one shot, you're dead. The sound at Wembley became rather muted as it felt among the fans that someone was die suddenly and nobody knew what to do other than bite fingernails.

Slowly both sides started to grow in the second half and then in the 98th minute, Scotland found themselves moving up the field in which Spencer was up near the box where he saw McCoist racing towards it in the centre and he would roll it over in which Seaman was caught off guard and he was nowhere near McCoist as he slid in to a goal that was frankly gapping for him and the Scots cried out for him to tap it in and win the game...instead as he slid in, he went in with a bit too much force that he saw in his horror the ball bouncing off his foot and almost into Row Z.

It would a nightmare moment for Scots that looked set to be their moment, so much so that the referee was almost about to blow his whistle and point to the centre circle to end the game. Instead a shocked and despaired ridden McCoist lay there on his back with his hands over his face and would have to get helped up by Seaman pulling him up, he didn't have any time to think about it as he had to get back into the game as England were now on the front foot to try and snatch the winner.

The look on the faces of the Scottish fans after McCoist's golden goal miss say it all
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England kept pressing and yet the Scots were putting up a good defensive performance to try and frustrate the English from coming at them. Then in the 102nd minute, after much pressing from England, Platt would swing the up towards Sheringham near the corner flag who in turn would thump the ball up towards the penalty box in which a mad scramble would follow in which Goram leapt up to try and knock it forward, but he not noticed to his horror Shearer waiting in the area and realising his mistake, he ran back towards the box to try and grab it, but all he could see was the ball racing right past him and getting lost amidst the nylon netting. Goal for England!

The Golden goal had been scored and that meant England were the victors of Euro '96. A minor pitch invasion from English fans followed but quickly dealt with, then again who could blame them for such emotions? For the Scots, it was a painful one, lightning had struck twice and the players all sat there on the field looking shell-shocked as they could only congratulate and watch the English celebrate with each other, the hopes of a revenge result for 1966 had gone and the players felt they had let their fans down as Craig Brown went on the field to try and comfort them.

However in a tearjerker moment, with many Scottish tears being shed, the players went up to Wembley half of Scottish supporters to applaud them as a matter of thanks, and the fans all rose as one and gave each and everyone of those players who wore dark blue a standing ovation and long drawn out version of Flower of Scotland that even if you weren't a Scot was still heart breaking to know that after such unfair odds at them (88 to 1 to win) and against what everyone thought they could do, Scotland had done far greater than what anyone else thought was predicted from them.

Well Played, both sets of fans congratulate each other at the end of the game
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Venables was delighted, after such harsh words from the press at the start of the tournament and him pulling a victory at Euro '96, even if perhaps he had done it the hard way, this victory would no doubt help him keep his job and look forward to taking the team to France for the next World Cup, but being the gentleman as was didn't forget to share his commiserations for Brown and the rest of the Scottish team and wish them all well for the future. In a great gesture of first applauding the Tartan Army for the atmosphere they had shown, he order the English players to perform a guard of honour as the Scots went up the Wembley steps first to collect their runners up medals and applaud them, a nice touch that went down well.

Finally Tony Adams would lead the team up the steps to collect the trophy from the Queen Mother and was greeted by a roar from the English supporters as he rose it above his head, though many Scots couldn't bare to watch after how they had lost the game and those who did could only watch with tears running down their faces, more so with the players with a now famous shot of a tearful McCoist, wearing his runner's up medal, looking on with regret and just what might've been had be scored that goal. Once the English players went back on the field, Paul Gascoigne ran over to hug his upset Rangers teammate.

"Good game, Ally," Gascoigne expressed.

"Aye...aye, well done mate." McCoist replied sadly.

"See in France then," Gascoigne added, hinting at the prospect of them both playing at France '98, and while The Geordie would get the chance to play a part in next World Cup and be proving right on that prediction, this tournament would sadly be the last time that Ally McCoist would play for Scotland at a tournament. The end of an era but a new one would be there on the horizon as soon, both teams would make the journey over the English channel in what was the final World Cup of the 20th century and no one knew just what to expect in 2 years time.

Final standings of the Knockout phase of Euro '96

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And so we come to end of Euro 96 and let me tell you, I seriously did consider having Scotland winning this tournament, but then I thought sometimes you learn more from a loss and that will come in handy for Scotland down the line, but it wasn't an easy thing to write let me tell you. But yeah, how'd you like this one and some 'In character' thoughts would be fun to imagine where were you on the 30th June when England played Scotland in the final of Euro 96? Anyway next update we are off to the World Cup in France and one that I remember as my first, though giving what happened to Scotland, not the best memories...

Anyway hope you liked this update and look forward to seeing as we head to France, until then...catch you later and please let's hear what you thought

 

[BenC]

Genuinely shocked you had England win this one, I'd went in to the update fully expecting a Scottish win even after England initially took the lead.

Another enjoyable chapter, obviously happy with the result but feel sad for the Scottish supporters there, I'm glad golden goal is no longer about.

 

[Ruperto Pesto]

Man, this post was superb!...you did all way around what I wanted to do in my TL 2018 final, but excellent! I enjoyed vividly this ATL euro final...1996 Euro Is one of the I remember the most, and "beloved" if the word is correct, perhaps because of the age at that time (16)..or because the atmosfere...to me, after Portugal 2004, all euros became boring ... But you have made myself to relive those days despite this Is an ATL, as if this really had happened

 

[QTXAdsy]

Chapter 110: Don't Come Home Too Soon

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If football's home is in England, then the World Cup's would undoubtedly be France. The idea of the World Cup first came from a Frenchman, Jules Rimet, and France had only hosted the World Cup 70 years ago in which on that occasion, the French got nowhere near the final and even though they had got to the final in 1982, there wasn't really much to sing about. However it was fitting in some ways that the final World Cup before the millennium would take place in the World Cup's homeland and with it so an expansion of teams from 24 to 32 in which three of which would come from the UK, England, Scotland and Wales.

It would be the Scots however that would get the honours of opening the tournament with current holders Brazil and after their brave yet ultimately heart breaking run at Euro '96, the feeling among most Scots was that it would encourage them to do one step better here in France. There was some controversy as Scotland's talisman, Ally McCoist, had not been included in manager Craig Brown's plans and the thoughts of Scotland going anyway without the help of McCoist was a crazy one to say the least and it didn't help that Scotland would lose 2-1 in their opening match with Brazil which included a Tom Boyd Own goal.

It was hardly an impressive start to say the least, however they knew that if they could get a victory over the Norwegians in their next game then Scotland would have a chance. As the thousands of fans on both sides crowded in at Bordeaux's Parc Lescure on the 16th June (a stadium that Scottish side Raith Rovers would win to lift the UEFA Cup during the final in 1996), the Tartan Army were nervous for Norway had drawn in their opening match with Morocco and all they needed to go through was get a victory over the Scots that would no doubt see them through but also spell the end for the Scots here in France. With this fear of going out, the pressure was on the Scots and when the game began, however they started off well and in the 4th minute when up on the offensive, John Colins would lob the ball up over into the Norwegian half when it would fall for Christian Dailly who would header home the ball into the right side of the goal. The amazement of many so many early on, Scotland had taken the lead and it felt like things were on the up for the Scots.

The Scots celebrate the early goal in the game with Norway
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For Craig Brown and the many Scots in the stadium, it felt like nothing could go wrong and in doing so, Brown would utter this to one of the assistants on the bench. However he was tempting fate and as the game wore on, Scotland certainly looked more sharper with the Norwegians looking uncomfortable with Durie nearly doubling Scotland's lead from a corner in the 9th minute that would be saved by the Norwegian keeper, Frode Grodås. More and more the Scots pressed forward showing their experience and the game looking rather similar to the game with the Swiss at Euro 96 in which they utterly battered them.

Despite this promising style of play, the loss of McCoist to the team was felt as Scotland were carving out chances but yet despite all this, they just couldn't quite take their chances and in the back of the mind of some of the Scots, doubt was creeping in that it all might come back to haunt them and by the 27th minute, the Norwegians slowly started to get back in the game. In the 34th minute, Norway could come up with their best chance of the game when Roar Strand was handed over a cross from Solbakken who went to fire on the volley from 18 yards out from the box in which Goram had to knock the ball out to give the Norwegians a corner, thankfully that attempt didn't trouble anyone as the Scottish keeper would jump up to save the ball with ease.

Nonetheless Norway was taken confidence from the fact they could sense the Scots now looking wary with them looking unsure as to what to do. Other than a decent chance from Darren Jackson in the 39th minute in which would've gone in had it not gone of the Norwegian keeper's foot when he dived to the left and would've no doubt given themselves some breathing space before halftime. There really isn't much to report on other than Norway showing some fight back into this game, thankfully for the Scots the half time whistle blows and any chance for Norway to get a goal in this half goes.

Happy Tartan Army supporters after half time comes round with Scotland leading 1-0
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Despite Dailly's goal being the one thing that separates both sides in this game, Brown and the rest of the Scottish players are not impressed with the performance feeling that they should've been much better in this game with their chances while the Norwegians have a feeling that they are due a goal in this game. For the many thousands around the stadium, all they could do is wonder and predicate how the game will go...

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As it would happen and much to the dismay of the Scots, the Norwegians would get a goal back in the second half and had started how they had ended the first with them being in the ascendance. What no one had expected was that the goal would come round within the opening moments of the first minute of the second half when Vider Riseth would cross the ball into the Scottish penalty box and lining it up for H. Flo to get an early goal for Norway and the Scots could only curse their luck at losing their lead and thinking that it was bound to happen to more the kept missing chances.

At this point, the game would turn out rather strange as by now, the Scots were looking shaken from that sudden goal and any plan they had worked with Craig Brown had pretty much gone out of the window and looked there for the taking. Oddly though, the Norwegians rather than going in all guns blazing to get the victory seemed more interested in holding on for the point and in a ironic role reversal of the first half, this slack play would only encourage the Scots to fight back with a notable effort from John Collins in the 57th minute being one he nearly headed into the side of the goal. Still, there was some cautious optimism for the Scots.

H. Flo celebrates his goal that draws Norway 1-1 with Scotland
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A minute later, frustration was starting to develop for Norway when Berg was booked after his challenge on Durie and slowly and surely, gaps in Norway's defence was opening up and the Scottish players felt that they had to act now if they wanted to win this game and save themselves from going out. Finally then in the 63rd minute, Scotland were awarded a penalty after Jackson suffered a shirt pull in the box by Ronny Johnsen which brought the Scotland player down and here was surely the moment in which Scotland could retake the lead and win this game.

It was no surprise as John Collins stepped up to take it and after scoring a penalty in the game with Brazil, few expected him to miss. Sadly for the latter that would actually come true as his shot proved to be a rather weak one that went to left and the Norwegian keeper had no trouble in saving it as he guessed correctly. The Norwegian supporters cheered in relief while the Scots now feared that the missed penalty would be the moment that Norway would come back into the game and push forward to find the winner themselves.

Then not long later in the 66th minute, the Scots would fight back and it would be a little moment of magic from the Scots in which David Weir when running on the counter would make a volley shot up towards Craig Burley who got his foot on the ball with ease and thanks to a cheeky chip, and the Norwegian keeper hesitating, Burley helped his country regain the lead and this time it looked like Scotland were on course to record their first victory of this World Cup, all they had to do now was hope that they didn't bottle it and allow for the Norwegians to find their way back into this game.

Burley celebrates putting Scotland 2-1 in front
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Norwegian frustrating followed that second goal for Scotland in which in the 72nd minute and looking angry at what was happening, Dan Eggan would pull off a rather ungraceful sliding tackle that only sent poor Paul Lambert flying off his feet and landing on his side in a rough position. The Scottish players, fans and bench cried foul for action to be taking in which it was duly delivered as the Norwegian defender would get a yellow card for his actions, yet bizarrely tried to reason with the referee that Lambert was play acting to make it look worse than it was, though giving the way he landed, few would really believe his thoughts on that.

Scotland now kept pushing forward and unlike before in which they held off for most of the second half, the Scots this time weren't going to make that same mistake twice and began making inroads up the field to find the third goal that would seal the game for them and put them in a decent place for their next match with Morocco. But despite the Norwegians now looking dejected after that second goal and with the Scots looking more clinical here, they did suffer from their failure to convert any of the chances they had which by the time the game wheezed along into the 85th minute, Scotland might've 5-1 up had they not been so wasteful.

3 minutes of injury time followed and within the first minute of it, Norway, after making a late burst of attacks in the Scottish half, would win a corner and the ball would end up in the box which involved an massive scramble to try and get on the ball, and it would however end up on the foot on Strand who thumped the ball into the roof of the Scottish net and the Norwegians celebrated a late equaliser, yet many Scottish hands rose up when in fact Strand barged into Colin Hendry inside the box was saw him fall over and after the Scottish players surrounded the Hungarian referee pointing this out, the Norwegians now looked on nervously as the referee consulted with the Swiss linesman nearby and within about less that 30 seconds, a decision was made in which the referee blew his whistle and pointed towards the Scottish goal for a goal kick for Scotland .

The Tartan Army cheered in delight that they thought was justice was done to get the victory in the end and the table would now look promising for the Scots providing they could get a result from their final group game with Morocco then they would surely be there in the last 16. For Norway, they had a tough match with Brazil in which their own chances of going through were now razer thin. One thing was for sure though was that hopefully, the Scots wouldn't be going home so soon...

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And so here we are at France '98 and the first World Cup I remember, mainly the opening game with Scotland. Anyway, here with Scottish football being in a batter place here and with the reputation of going out at the group stage being butterflied away, we also get to butterfly away Scotland's World Cup song for 1998 and the inspiration of the title for this update, Don't Come Too Soon.

Before anyone asks anything, that is our song we had for France 1998 when by then the joke of going out at the group stage was no longer funny, the video even parodies that Brazil team promo advert at the airport if you put the videos together you'll see what I mean. Anyway I know many of my countrymen will be relieved that we don't have that song round our neck like a milestone, so if anyone has any ideas of giving the Scotland team ITTL a better suited World Cup song (maybe something referring to Euro '96?) and band to sing it, please say below in the comments as I will mention it in the next update with the Scots.

Anyway, next update will be back to Bordeaux with the Welsh taking on the Mexicans, until then. Hope you enjoyed this update.

 

[HesitatedEye]

If and When Mike Bassett gets made in this timeline that airport scene is gonna be a totally different thing altogether.

 

[QTXAdsy]

If and When Mike Bassett gets made in this timeline that airport scene is gonna be a totally different thing altogether.

Funny you should say that as Mike Bassett will still happen ITTL, however there will be a few differences with the film with the airport scene being one that has a bit more action let's say...

I'll include an update with that when the times comes so keep an eye out for that!

 

[GeorgeUK]

Given you had Newcastle win the league in 1996 ITTL, will Chelsea win the title ITTL 1999? That side had a huge amount of talent and if Casiraghi had avoided that injury at West Ham and Laudrup been a regular starter they could well have gone the extra mile.

 

[QTXAdsy]

Chapter 111: No Sheep Out Here
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No sooner after the Scots left Bordeaux with a trail of empty beer and whiskey bottles in their wake, the locals of the French city were to greet yet another group of British supporters just a mere four days later when Wales came to town to play Mexico in their second group match of the World Cup. For Wales to qualify, it had been something of a miracle that they had qualified as it had been a difficult transitional period for the national side with the great Ian Rush finally retiring from international duty after Euro '96, something that while hard to take, wasn't all that surprising. What was shocking though was that Wales' manager, Terry Yorath also joining Rush out the exit door. It was all but a mere speculation in the Welsh press as to why Yorath has decided to step down with although that the FAW had offered him a further 2 year extension following Euro '96, it was unclear as to why he had decided to step down with some thinking that it was a dressing room mutiny or that with Rush retiring for playing for Wales that Yorath felt he'd done enough and thought a new generation deserved a chance.

In the end following Yorath leaving, in stepping in the manager's boots was to be John Toshack who agreed to help his country qualify for the World Cup in France. However even with new ideas and players on show, it was always going to be difficult to get use to the fact that Ian Rush was no longer there as for anyone under the age of 15, he was Wales and his absence made many fear that the national side would struggle and in some ways after some very heavy defeats to the Dutch in which they lost 3-1 at home and were routed 7-1 away, it seemed that everyone's worse fears were going to be realised. However in the second half of their qualifying campaign, and after surviving many calls for Toshack to get the sack, he managed to rally the players and get them on a winning run going unbeaten and in a dramatic final match with the Belgians in Brussels, would see Wales snatch a victory and the play off spot for the World Cup. There in the play offs they would meet in an all Celtic affair with the Republic of Ireland in which Wales would win 4-2 on aggregate (3-1 at Home and 1-1 Away) and thus completed an insane qualification campaign that is fondly remembered for many Welsh football fans to this day.

Welsh excitement at being at the World Cup was however to the given a downer when they found out they were drawn in a group to face off their Dutch conquerors yet again and pretty much nobody gave the Welsh a chance to get something from it, the fact it was the opening match for them too didn't help much either. However despite being under the cosh for the most part and having virtually no scoring chances, Wales managed to hold of the Dutch to a 0-0 draw which would help give Wales a degree of confidence that a victory in their second group match with Mexico would no doubt be enough to secure their passage to the knockout stage.

That day on the 20th June was a hot and sunny day in which saw the beautiful French city being taking over by the 10,000 Welsh fans who had made the journey out here and while the vast majority of them were all in a good mood into the run up of this match, Toshack though was nervous as he watched his players warm up on the field and saw the Welsh supporters getting into their seats inside the stadium. He had gotten criticism that despite getting the point against the Dutch, the 'parking the bus' style of play they had shown in that game had left many unimpressed with many calling them lucky and felt that Wales had no chance against the Mexicans who's own supporters on the other half of the stadium were making quite a din and knowing that they managed to beat the South Koreans in their opening match, a victory for them here too would more or less see them through to the next round.

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​

The opening period of the first half would prove to be a painful one for the Welsh as with them playing 4-4-2, the Mexicans seemed to have no trouble as just like the Dutch before them, the poor Welshman struggle to keep Mexico out and it didn't help when in the 12th minute, Robbie Savage would make a sliding tackle on Pardo which saw the Welshman booked and thus awarded Mexico a free kick which thankfully for Wales didn't come to anything. On the touchline, the only thing Toshack seem to repeat was 'keep it tight! keep it together!' as the first half rolled along. Wales' keeper Paul Jones had so far in this World Cup had a torrent time as he had so far in total made 21 saves and while many would've thought he was one his way to win the Golden Shoe award for being the goalkeeper of the tournament, that thought was not even in the back of his mind as he only wished his job could've been more easier as in the 18th minute, he leapt up to try and get his hands on a flying Mexican volley, but it only went way over the crossbar and out for a goal kick.

Despite all this in the 32nd minute when after a barrage of Mexican attacks, Toshack called out his players to tweak their shape a little to play a 4-3-3 to try and put Mark Pembridge up alongside Dean Saunders and Craig Bellamy to help them out and who in turn had up to this point in the game had barely been in the game. Incredibly, this slight tweak to the formation would actually see Wales finally start to press forward when in that minute after Wales made a first counter attack run thanks to Pembridge, it was cheered by the Welsh supporters mainly out of the fact they had finally gotten out of their half.

'To me', Robbie Savage trying to get the ball to him
​

At last, some cautious hope could be felt among the Welsh supporters who felt that they still yet might have a chance as when the final 10 minutes of the first half appeared, the Mexicans had all a look of frustration seeing the Welsh starting to make inroads in the Mexican half with the red wall of Welsh supporters in the ground starting to cheer the team on now hoping for something before half time. Then in the 42nd minute, it did happen when Wales won a corner with Ryan Giggs taking it and he would send the ball crossing down into the box in which a few bodies leapt up in the air in which out of all of them, Saunders would be the one who'd get his head on it and would bang it into the bottom right of the net in which Jorge Campos, Mexico's goalkeeper, couldn't do nothing about it to save it and all the white shirted Mexican players and their many fans inside the stadium could only watch the Welsh players and supporters celebrate wildly for taking the lead.

For Mexico, it was a right kick in the teeth after all the hard work they'd done that it had all come down to this with them being behind, what on earth were they to do now? Mexico tried to find a late goal in the closing moments in the first half but in the end, the Welsh would hold onto their lead and would sprint off for half time with a notable spring in their step and TV cameras would focus on the Cheshire Cat grin that Toshack had plastered on his face, the look of a man who had succeeded in a robbery. Wales' performance might've not won them in favours, but no Welshman would care for that as they all awaited for the second half...

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Wales' good luck would carry on into the second half in which despite the Mexicans making a change at the start of the second half, they clearly hadn't gotten over the fact that they gone behind to this little nation that most Mexicans were interested in a strange sport called Rugby and sheep. Then it would get worse when in the 48th minute, Wales would strike on the counter in which the Mexican defence fell apart and a quick pass from Ryan Giggs up towards Mark Hughes, having been played in a unusual midfield role, sent it up towards Bellamy who without any problem fired a screamer of a shot into the top right of the net from 20 yards out and the Mexicans now found themselves falling behind to the Welsh 2-0 now.

It was a goal that surely sealed Wales' place in the last 16 and it was one that nearly sent the Welsh supporters into raptures that everything was going their way. Mexican frustration would boil over when in the 50th minute, Blanco would get a yellow card when after making a charge at the Welsh goal, he barged in Robbie Savage knocking him to the ground and this would see the two players nearly come to blows in a moment of madness that both teams tried to prevent from getting out of hand, no more so than the Welsh due to the fact Savage was already on a yellow card and they didn't want to lose him now.

Welsh players celebrating after getting their second goal
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Credit to the Mexicans, they did try their best to get back into this game and it seemed to happen to them when in the 55th minute, they were awarded a penalty after Rob Edwards brought down a Mexican player in the box, being booked in the process, and thus seeing Aspe stepping up to take the penalty with only Paul Jones standing between the sticks to try and stop him. The whistle blew and Aspe ran up to take it, striking it to the right and Jones not only went the right way, but saved it and held it tightly to him as if the ball would try and escape. Another sucker punch for the Mexicans and more sheer joy for Wales who couldn't believe how lucky they were.

From then on, Wales now pushed forward as they tried looking for a third goal but just couldn't seem to find it as now Mexico looked like they were on damage control mode as they tried to prevent Wales from snatching another goal in this game. Despite this good play from the Welsh, in the end they fail to find another goal to really stamp their mark on this game and it would be the Mexicans that would fire back in the 62nd minute when Blanco would score perhaps the best goal of this World Cup with a neat little volley in the air that Paul Jones couldn't do anything to keep it out to make the score line 2-1.

Blanco scoring a wonder goal to give Mexico a goal in the game.
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From then on, the game would prove to be a nervous one was Wales as that goal would give Mexico the drive to push forward in this game and try and turn this game around, in which they did have the players to do it and the Welsh fans would keep checking their watches to make sure how long they have to play. After much defending, heavy breathing, and nail biting, Wales would hang on to win the game 2-1. It was not going to be game best remembered by anyone, but for Wales it was surely enough to see them through as following a 1-1 draw with South Korea in their final group game, Wales would finish on 5 points and tying with the Dutch with only the latter team finishing group winners on goal difference.

Wales would find their place in the next round, but there was still the matter with England and Scotland...

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Ok another update, not my best update and a short one I know, but I have been busy of late, plus work of late has been hell with the frost really playing havoc with my taxi and how I hate winter...not to mention my beloved Raith Rovers always liking to play difficult. Anyway next update will be of England and Romania that includes Gazza. Will he be able to help England get out of a tight spot in that game? Find out next time!

​

 

[HesitatedEye]

It's nice to see the Welsh doing well and glad to see Ireland missed out on the hell that was Holland from 96-98.

 

[QTXAdsy]

Chapter 112: Good ol' Gazza
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To say that the career of England's Paul Gascoigne, better know in the media as Gazza, had been something of roller coaster ride would be an understatement. He burst on the scene during England's run to win the World Cup at Italia '90 and thanks to his fancy skills and his now famous tears of relief in the final that endeared him to the nation, it seemed after that the world would be his oyster and it really did look like that. After performing a spell at Tottenham, he would make the move in 1992 over to Italy where he would play at Lazio but sadly due to a bad luck of injuries, he would have a mixed bag of a career out there. Plus when the World Cup came round for 1994, the Englishman would sadly be unable to play for his country due to having a bad injury. His loss was felt as England had a poor run in the States and their defence of their title would end with an embarrassing loss to the Scots in the last 16. To this day many England fans would debate what if Gascoigne had been with the team in 1994 and how better their chances might've been.

Ironically, it would be Scotland that would provided Gascoigne with his renaissance as it would be Rangers that came calling for him in 1995 and in turn, he would set the whole of Scottish football on it's head when in the following year, despite losing the title to a rejuvenated Celtic the following year, he would help the Glasgow team win the Scottish cup and help them get them to the Champions League final, a game that they were well beaten 3-0 by Juventus. Nonetheless his time in Scotland had got him the nod to play for England during their Euro 96 campaign, though with the well known controversy about the drunken antics of him and his teammates in Hong Kong during a friendly didn't exactly put them in the English's press good books.

However he would help England to glory by winning the tournament, though it had to be those Scots again that they had to play again and he did wonder if he was going to get welcomed back to Scotland with open arms, however he would help Rangers win the title and league cup the follow season and quickly won back the faith of the Rangers support. With him missing out on the last World Cup, Gascoigne had mentioned that he wanted to play at least at one more World Cup and his wish would finally be granted when Venables would include him in his squad list on the trip to France.

That being said, the England legend would find his veteran status in the line up something of a strange irony as when he went out for Italia '90, he was one of the younger talents in the team that just so happened to be surrounded by many talented veterans, now it was the same here but vice versa as he would have to help guide some of these young, freshly talented players such as Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen and David Beckham just to name a few. Despite many wanting him to play in the opening match, Venables decided to place him on the bench and didn't play in part in their opening game with Tunisia, though with them winning that game 2-0, it didn't seem much of a loss.

However it was in England's second group game with Romania, the surprise dark horse of the last World Cup, were proving everyone that they were not a one hit wonder as they made it hard for England to try and get at them and had dragged England to a 0-0 draw at half time. Then it got worse for England when right in the first minute of the second half, Romania's Moldovan would strike first and saw the English a goal down. Thankfully England would start to get back into the game as they started to create chances and the inclusion of Michael Owen in the 72nd minute would prove the world that he was one hell of a talent that made even Gascoigne impressed by what he saw.

Romania get the opening goal
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Around parts of the stadium, pockets of England fans began chanting 'We want Gazza!' demanding for him to get on the field as the game was still had the Romanians leading 1-0. Of course the chants quickly turned to cheers in the 81st minute, not that they got what they wanted from Venables, but that Owen would fire in the goal that help get England back into the game. Now all that was needed in the final closing minutes was for England to go in for the kill and win this game, though the Romanians were not going to give up so soon as they also tried to find the winning goal.

With 5 minutes to go, Venables look back on the bench and gave Gascoigne the nod of approval and that was only thing he needed to get the motivation to get off the bench and get ready to get on the field. The welcoming cheer that greeted him as he ran on the field to replace Paul Scholes was really something else, the English fans greeted him as a long lost friend who had come their aid in their desperate hour. From the moment he started playing in the game, he showed everyone that even in his thirties he still had much of the skill that had won him much praise by many and even nearly helped England find a winning goal in which in the 87th minute, he tried to fire on the volley at goal but it was the hands of Romanian's Bogdan Stelea that would keep the goal out.

Nonetheless in the closing minutes and thanks to Gascoigne being in the team, England were now clearly in the ascendancy and now the Romanians were finding it difficult to try and get themselves out of their own half. At this rate, the best they could do was hold on for a point and hope England wouldn't score late on, how very wrong they were to be. In the 89th minute, England won a free kick some 20 yards out with Beckham going up to take it and it was likely that the young Manchester United player might've thought of trying his luck from that position, yet he saw Gascoigne in a unmarked area with seemly most of the Romanian players trying to stifle out Alan Shearer from getting a chance.

Gazza making his first moves in the game with Romania
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The referee blows his whistle and Beckham knocks the ball over to his right where Gascoigne is, totally fooling a 5 man Romanian wall that were trying to stop him, and with a lovely side footed volley, Gascoigne would fire home the ball into the right side of the goal to help put England 2-1 and turn this game around on it's head. The England veteran would find himself getting surrounded by his teammates with the England fans around the stadium roaring in delight that they are on track to reach the last 16 and win the group. The sucker punch of a goal for Romania proves to be too much for them and the final moments of the game would see them chase the game.

Romania do try one last chance when Petrescu tried to snatch a late equaliser in injury time, but Gascoigne would quickly stop him from getting anything there and in the end, England would win the game 2-1 and pretty much set to join Wales into the last 16. The aftermath of the game would see the fans chanting out 'Gazza we love you!' to their hero and the England star man would famously, when walking round the field getting a lap of honour to the fans, would wave his hands in the air as it he was conducting the crowd as they sang their praise for him.

Gascoigne would not long after race over to Venables and hug him. "Thanks boss for this," he muttered proudly.

"No need to thank me," Venables replied as he pulled back from the England player. "Thank you for saving our arse out there. Could've gone all tits up out there had you not played your part there."

The two men were silent but smiled at each other basking in the moment of victory and went over to rest of the players to enjoy the moment with the fans. In the end, Gascoigne's efforts in this match would reward a place in the starting XI in their final group game with Columbia in which they'd win 2-0 and thus, winning the group without dropping any points with Romania finishing in second place.

Beckham and Owen celebrate after the final whistle
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However it was in the aftermath of the victory some 20 minutes after the game had ended that as the players were about to head down the tunnel that Gascoigne noticed something up on the terraces nearby the team tunnel that caught his eye. He saw a young England fan, probably about 6 or 7 years old, who had cut his leg after tripping up on the stairs with the poor boy crying his eyes out while his farther was trying all he could to calm the boy down. The sight before struck a chord with Gascoigne and in that moment, he felt and urge to try to do something to help and he rushed over to the scene. The boy stopped crying when he, his father and a handful of England fans nearby, saw the England player rushing up to them as he pulled off his shirt and leapt over the fence.

Gascoigne would stop once he got up to the pair and handed over his shirt to the young boy who he and his Dad looked up in awe at the England player was actually trying to help them. "Have it lad," Gascoigne spoke in his thick Geordie accent as he handed over the shirt to the boy before ruffling the young boy's brown hair. "Don't greet now, enjoy tha' we won." And with that, Gascoigne turned on his heel and rushed back to join the rest of his stunned teammates while the boy and his Dad held the shirt as if they were holding the hammer of Thor.

The young boy would never forget the moment and would have Gascoigne's shirt hanging up on a wall somewhere to this day. For all that everyone thought of Gascoigne being nothing more than talented yet drunken lunatic, this little moment would show that he does care for many around him and it was the connection the English players and fans needed to show more of as they were going to need it out in France here.

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Another short chapter, but it's nice to write Gazza at France '98 with a little tender moment there at the end in which I think I should do more moments of in this TL rather than just focus on the football side of events which will help make each chapter stand out a bit more and not looking the same. Anyway, next update will be Scotland vs Morocco and will the Scots have any better luck than the hammering we go IOTL? Find out next time!

 

[HesitatedEye]

Gazza to me is a flawed genius like Maradona or George Best. I can totally respect everything he could do with a football and he was a genius at it but some of his antics made me think he was a total tit.

 

[Ruperto Pesto]

With England first, there will be no match against Argentina I guess...that's good! Despite hitting twice in the post against Netherlands in QF ( Argentina, I mean)...and that action that costed Argentina's Ariel Ortega to be booked ( hey, if Robben achieved that penalty against México un 2014, that action that mexican Brizio Carter didn't buy to Ortega, was penalty as well haha)...argentinian players and manager Daniel Passarella asked that they ended very tired, physical and emotional, after the match against England...so Argentina vs Romania Is winnable to argies into 90 minutes and they Will be able to be in better shape against dutch?

 

[QTXAdsy]

With England first, there will be no match against Argentina I guess...that's good! Despite hitting twice in the post against Netherlands in QF ( Argentina, I mean)...and that action that costed Argentina's Ariel Ortega to be booked ( hey, if Robben achieved that penalty against México un 2014, that action that mexican Brizio Carter didn't buy to Ortega, was penalty as well haha)...argentinian players and manager Daniel Passarella asked that they ended very tired, physical and emotional, after the match against England...so Argentina vs Romania Is winnable to argies into 90 minutes and they Will be able to be in better shape against dutch?

Yes, the game with England and Argentina is butterflied away here and I do find that a bit sad as that game is one of the greatest WC games of all time. Then we make up the loss with encounters in '74, '78 and '90 so I guess they make up for it.

With Romania, I thought they were IMO an underrated team in the '90's, and with them having made the semis at WC 1994 ITTL and having lost the third place game, the game will likely be a rematch of that.

Mind you, the Dutch team that year was a real beast of a unit.

 

[QTXAdsy]

Chapter 113: Just Like That
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It had been a long time since Scotland had faced off Morocco, the last time being at the 1970 World Cup in which the Scots would win 2-1 on that occasion though few would remember that it would be the African side that took the lead in that game. Since then of course African teams were no longer there now to simply add to the numbers and were now decent sides, this Moroccan side had a lot of players that played in the Spanish, Dutch, French and German leagues just to name a few. That all said, for the many Tartan Army supporters that gathered inside the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, most perhaps didn't know much about Morocco other than the fez hats and it's association with famous comedian Tommy Cooper and there was the odd 'Just like that!' impression that several Scottish fans tried to do who were lucky to get interviewed.

Craig Brown though was a worried man as the anthems were being sung, the group stage as it stood was very tight as Brazil led the group by 6 points and looked certain to make it through to the next round if they avoided defeat to Norway, who in turn along with Morocco both had a single point and needed a victory in their games here to avoid an exit from the World Cup while Scotland sat in second place on 3 points, but it could all looked so different by the end of the day. Many of his countrymen had made a foregone conclusion that Norway had no chance with Brazil and would likely get thumped while if that was the case, Scotland only needed to draw here in order to go through, though Brown knew more than anyone that luck was never on Scotland's side and he had a worried feeling that something bad was going to happen.

From the opening few minutes of the game, it wasn't looking any good as Morocco came out of the traps and the Scots rumbled on like an unfit and confused unit who either looked like they were unprepared for this sudden first attack or perhaps were exhausted after their victory over Norway. Scotland though did make a rare attack in the 12th minute when they won a corner and Dailly attempted to try and volley it into the back of the net but only succeeded in blasting it over the bar and into the disappointed and unhappy Scotland fans.

Dailly tries to score, from a live BBC broadcast of the game
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Still the one bit of hope was that with it being 0-0 in both this game and in the one with Brazil and Norway, Scotland would be going through as long as those scores were to remain the same. Craig Brown though did think of that and he stood there on the touchline with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed in concentration and his tried to figure out what to do to help them get a foothold in the game. However his thoughts were stopped when in the 23rd minute, Morocco would take the lead thanks to a Bassir goal and now Morocco had leapfrogged the Scots to move into second place. A horrible feeling was felt by many Scots who knew now that they could have a short stay in France at this rate.

Brown then decided to change the formation to go from 4-4-2 to 4-3-1-2 in the hope that Scotland could get something here. Thankfully this change did start to lead to a few promises for the Scots as in the 27th minute, Burley, playing behind Durie and Gallacher, almost found Scotland an equaliser when he attempted to volley the shot into the top left of the goal. The many members of the Tartan Army who had been covering their eyes following that Moroccan goal could start to feel a small bit of hope that this game was not over in the slightest.

Even the new attacking formation was making it difficult to keep a now resurgent Scotland back and in the 32nd minute, Gallacher would be brought down in the box by a tackle by Abrami and Scotland were awarded a penalty with John Collins stepping up to take it. He had scored the penalty against Brazil when they were a goal down in that game and now many of his countrymen watching the game would hope he'd do the same here. With a comfortable shot to the left and sending the keeping the wrong way, Collins helped get Scotland back into this game and many watching the game in Scotland would've likely shouted 'Ya beauty!' or 'Get in!' just to name a few. Nonetheless Scotland were back in the game and were once again sitting in the second place and news from the other game revealed that it was still 0-0 with Brazil and Norway, all looking good so far.

Collins celebrates helping Scotland go 1-1 with Morocco
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The penalty would in turn help Scotland give the Scots some confidence that was being reflected on both the field and up in the terraces in which the Tartan Army were chanting out the Moroccan support. Scotland almost took the lead then in the 37th minute when Durie made a decent run on the counter and tried to go it all along as he made it to the box, though he would kept held back by several Moroccan players and would see his shot go wide of the post. In conclusion however, the rest of the second half would be a rather stuffy affair as Scotland tried to find the lead yet Morocco were making life hard for Scotland as the first half ended 1-1. It was all looking good, that is if Norway suddenly took the lead on Brazil, right?

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After the good promise Scotland had shown in that first half, many expected that they would get the goal they craved for in this half, however it would be the Moroccans that nearly took the lead when a lightning fast run from Hadda in the first minute of the second half would see him lob a ball over at the Scottish goal and Jim Leighton would have a to knock it up into the air, however in his horror he saw the ball curling downwards towards goal and cue the reaction of many Scots covering their eyes fearing the worse, thankfully Leighton would just knock it over and onto the roof of the net. It would be a Moroccan corner but it all could've been far worse, the corner would be cleared with ease.

Scotland though tried to ease their way back into the game though the states of the game would prove to be a rather worrying thing for any Scot keeping an eye on as Morocco had more possession of the ball at 58% and by the 56th minute of the game, they had now gotten 7 shots on goal to Scotland's 3, warning signs for the Scots no less. But then in the 59th minute, disaster strikes for Scotland when Craig Burley took out his frustrations of his side not getting anywhere in this game with a brutal tackle on Bassier and it would lead for Burley getting a straight red card and would see him out of Scotland's game in the last 16, that is if Scotland could get there first.

The sending off for Burley with the game at 1-1
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Much like how Scotland's equaliser had done a lot to help Scotland find confidence, the sending off for Burley would do the same for Morocco and it was now the 10 man Scotland team trying their hardest to keep this game as a draw, it felt now that getting a victory for Scotland was out of the question and that it would be the African team that looked more likely to score. In the 67th minute, Hadda attempted header in the ball via a corner kick for his side and Leighton would have to come out and save it though the game was starting to turn into a nightmare, if only Brazil could give the Scots something to cheer about as that game was still tied at 0-0. "What are they doing?" Craig Brown asked one of the assistant coaches when he heard the news about the score in the game. He then looked to the rest of the guys on the bench and sighed. "See what I told you, we don't have the best luck...if any."

It was quite a surprise to hear the normally positive manager stating the negative terms, since that final loss at Euro '96 however, it might've made him feel more wary of results but then again that normally happened with any losing team in a final. For what felt like an age, Scotland were doing all they could to keep Morocco out and thankfully by the 74th minute, it seemed that the African side were running out of steam and Scotland could start to push them back. Then more good news happened just a few minutes later when the roar of delight was heard by the Scotland fans in the ground as news had come through that Brazil had finally scored in the game with Norway and that was surely the group stage settled with many Scottish flags now waving around the stadium in joy.

The joy though would quickly turn to concern when a further few minutes later in the 83rd minute, news came through from that other game in which Norway had equalised and the group was now looking tight in which anything could happen. Two minutes later though, Scotland would win a corner kick and here was a chance to find the winning goal. It would be taken and finding himself in just the right place, Collins saw the ball curling down towards him and he would bang in the ball to his left and scenes of utter joy would follow as now the Scots were in front and looking now comfortable that they had this game in the bag with them finishing in second place.

Collins just a few minutes before his second goal
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Scotland were now looking confident and the Moroccans, after all the hard work they had done in trying to find a winner, lost heart and looked like they wanted this match to end and go home, but no one expected a further twist in the tale. Just as the game was getting into added injury time, shocking news was passed around the ground from the other game that thanks to a penalty for Norway, it was the Scandinavians had turn the game on it's head and that meant Morocco was now bottom with one point, Norway on 4 with Scotland and Brazil both tied on 6 points each with the South American nation being only ahead thanks to goal difference.

Suddenly a strange feeling of over confidence washed over the Scottish fans thinking that if you could score more goals now or if Norway put more past Brazil, then Scotland would be surely win the group, something that at the start of this game would've felt stupid. That being said, Craig Brown was now breathing a sigh of relief that they were in front as he had a funny feeling something would happen in that game with Brazil and Norway, now he had been proven right. In the end however, hopes of a flurry of goals for Scotland didn't come to pass as the Scots would hold on to win 2-1 and so too would the Norwegians, the latter sadly despite their impressive result over Brazil, would finish two points below the Scots.

The strange thing was as the many thousands of Scots left the stadium was that they all felt relief more than joy, they would now face the prospect of taking on Italy in the last 16 which didn't sound too exciting for the Scots. The night would be remembered when the Tommy Cooper-ness of the night would be unintentionally channelled by Craig Brown in which when a BBC crew pulled him over to one side after the final whistle and asked how did it feel to win. Not actually thinking straight with his mind being still on the game, he would reply by simply saying "Just Like That."

The following day would see the Daily Record newspaper have Brown's face superimposed on Tommy Cooper with it's rather gleeful headline saying 'Just Like That!' Craig Brown would later on see the funny side of it, but then, he now had to get the team ready for their knockout stage adventure, hopefully it wouldn't be a short one...

Final standings of Group A

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And that horrible battering by Morocco is now butterflied away...oh joys! Anyway, now we move onto the last 16 and this is how the games line up:

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Italy vs Scotland

Brazil vs Chile

France vs Paraguay

Nigeria vs Denmark

Germany vs Wales

Netherlands vs Yugoslavia

England vs Croatia

Argentina vs Romania

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So some differences to the line ups here, how do you predict for the Home Nations and for Argentina's game to go? Expect many more surprises and in our next update, Scotland will play Italy, can they do it? Find out next time...

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[Ruperto Pesto]

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And that horrible battering by Morocco is now butterflied away...oh joys! Anyway, now we move onto the last 16 and this is how the games line up:

------------

Italy vs Scotland

Brazil vs Chile

France vs Paraguay

Nigeria vs Denmark

Germany vs Wales

Netherlands vs Yugoslavia

England vs Croatia

Argentina vs Romania

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So some differences to the line ups here, how do you predict for the Home Nations and for Argentina's game to go? Expect many more surprises and in our next update, Scotland will play Italy, can they do it? Find out next time...

​

Nice to see Scotland butterflying away that match against Morocco...still remember that match how suprised to me, because I expected nothing more than a scottish victory...at least for 1-0, and it turn out to be a disaster...I remember I was in my first year at University, and I ran away from the class to watch the double match that day....16hs, a perfect time to watch high class football in (southern) winter...

About Argentina, this was the first generation post Maradona, and I think, as I quoted before, the deserved better luck...names like Batistuta, Ortega, Sensini, Javier Zanetti, Matías Almeyda, Verón, Simeone, el "piojo" lopez, el "muñeco" Gallardo (now River Plate manager), etc...deserved better consideration. Against Croatia in OTL, Argentina was superior with half of the titular team, resting for Round of 16. Well, one can say croatians perhaps weren't too convince to win, because they have to face England, and Argentina, for their tradition, and more at that time, must win that game. For me Romania was declining despite results...and against Croatians they played as if they were satisfied after 8 years of emerging football. Of course England played against Argentina with another attitude, and tie was fine, but was an unfair result England 1 - Romania 2 in OTL...

All that introduction to say, for me, is Argentina's victory against Romania during the 90 minutes...

I'd love to see this Ortega's goal in this WC

England vs Croatia, is victory for England, perhaps in 120 minutes...Wales have a tremendous opportunity against an ageing and unimaginative german team...and Scotland, the same with Italy...Italy was tough, but had their own complications at the time they display their game, as against Chile, and Norway, despite 0-0 against France. Scotland can make history again, ITTL.

 

[QTXAdsy]

Would like to say that today not only marks my birthday, but also is the first anniversary since this TL first started and I would like to give my great regards to everyone who has followed this TL from the start and I hope you stick around as we have more adventures yet to explore!

And as a little present to you guys, I have a little spoiler for TTL's Euro 2008 that we will show later on ITTL, here you go...

Spoiler: Spoiler box 1

Spoiler: Spoiler box 2

Spoiler: Spoiler box 3

Hopefully I'll get the next update soon as possible, but until then see you guys later!