England and Wales were
drawn in the same group for the European Championships in France next summer.
The draw, this evening in
Paris, saw two of the home nations pitted together with Slovakia and Russia in
Group B.England will take on Wales in
Lens on June 16 in what will be their second match of the tournament.
England’s opening game is
in Marseille against Russia on June 11.Marseille was the venue for England’s 2-0 win over Colombia in France ’98
when David Beckham scored a great free-kick.England’s last group match will be against Slovakia in St. Etienne on
June 20.St. Etienne was another of
England’s venues in ’98, where they lost on penalties to Argentina and Michael
Owen scored ‘that goal’.
This tournament has been
expanded to 24 teams and this has thrown up the romantic occurrence of several
first-timers to Europe’s top party.Wales
and Northern Ireland will make their bow in June, as will Albania, Slovakia and
Iceland.
England were one of the
top seeds in the draw, along with France, Spain, Germany, Portugal and
Belgium.France were automatically drawn
into Group A, although UEFA couldn’t avoid the futility of having to draw their
name out anyway, presumably to make sure we hadn’t forgotten them.
They were drawn in with
Romania, Albania and Switzerland.France
v Romania will be the opening match Euro 2016 at Stade de France on June 10.
England were drawn out
next to go into Group B, along with Wales who meet Slovakia first up on day two
of the tournament in Bordeaux.
Northern Ireland were
drawn into Group C, which was headed up by World Champions, Germany.Ukraine and Poland make up the group.Northern Ireland’s first opponents will be
Poland in Nice on June 12.They take on
Germany in Paris on June 21, after meeting Ukraine in Lyon on June 16.
Defending champions,
Spain, were drawn into Group D and will meet Czech Republic in their opening
game.Turkey and Croatia were also drawn
into this group.
Group E appears to be the
toughest of them all and poor old Republic of Ireland were given the honour of
trying to find their way out of this one.Belgium, who top FIFA rankings, Italy and Sweden are to be their
opponents.June 13 sees both opening
games in this group with the Republic coming up against Sweden in Stade de
France.They then take on Belgium in
Bordeaux on June 18 finishing with Italy in Lille on June 22.
Group F, in contrast,
appears the easiest of groups and Portugal can consider themselves very lucky
to be drawn top seed in this one.They’re
up against Iceland, Hungary and Austria.
The top two in each group
progress to the knock-out stage along with four of the best third-placed
teams.These will be determined by
points first, goal difference next and then goals scored.The knockout phase takes on a similar format
as World Cups do, with a Second Round, consisting of sixteen teams leading to a
Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals before the Final at Stade de France on July 10.
There are many matches to
look forward to and I’ll be posting some previews in anticipation of an
exciting tournament.
In addition, I will be
posting pieces on each of the previous tournaments.
If you want to follow the
tournament using an online wallchart then look no further than this
website.This guy puts together some
wonderful spreadsheets which means all you have to do is enter each result and
the document automatically updates. You
can try and predict the scores too and see who might meet who in the knock-out
rounds.
Nottingham Forest had won the European Cup in 1979 in their
first attempt at a European competition.This entitled them to qualify automatically for the following year’s
tournament.
After winning the First Division in 1978, they finished 2nd
the following season.1980 would see
them finish 5th in the table as Liverpool claimed their 2nd
successive title.
As with 1979, both Nottingham Forest and Liverpool were in
the draw for the First Round.However,
unlike 1979, they wouldn’t meet each other.
English clubs had now won the European Cup in 1977, 1978 and
1979.Nottingham Forest were about to
embark on their attempt to keep the trophy in England.
Such was the open nature of European Leagues back then that
only 8 of the 32 teams competing in 1980, had qualified for the 1979 trophy.
Here is the list of the qualifiers
As there were 33 qualifiers, a Preliminary Round was played
with Republic of Ireland Champions, Dundalk, beating Northern Ireland
Champions, Linfield, 3-1 on aggregate.
FIRST ROUND
The draw was made for the First Round.Forest had beaten Swedish side, Malmo, to
lift the trophy in 1979, now they were drawn against the next Swedish
Champions, Osters IF.This was a golden
period for the club as they’d just won the first of three titles in four
years.But their first entry into this
competition gave them possibly their toughest task.Liverpool were drawn against Dinamo
Tblisi.They’d just won only their 2nd
Soviet title, beating Dinamo Kiev, the previous season’s winners.Celtic were up against Albanian side,
Partizan Tirana.
Defending their title for the first time, Forest were
workmanlike in the 1st leg.A
goalless first half, but then the deadlock was broken just after the hour as
Ian Bowyer gave Forest the lead.Bowyer,
then scored his 2nd with 15 minutes remaining and Forest took a
useful 2-0 lead to Sweden.
Two weeks later and Forest cruised through to the next round
as a 1-1 draw was enough to give them overall victory.Mats Nordgren put the home side in front just
into the second half, but Tony Woodcock equalised on the night with just 10
minutes to go, and Forest had successfully negotiated their first hurdle.
Liverpool had been drawn against Soviet champions, Dinamo
Tblisi.Tblisi were full of players who
would impress on the world stage in Spain in 1982, but were largely unknown in
most of Europe.Liverpool won the 1st
leg at Anfield, 2-1, but the 2nd leg was a disaster.3 second half goals for the home side gave
them a 3-0 win, and for the 2nd season running, Liverpool were out
in the 1st Round of a competition they’d won twice.
Celtic were up against Albanian side Partizan Tirana.Considered one of the real minnows of
European football, the Albanians took a shock lead by winning the 1st
leg, 1-0.At Parkhead, Celtic defender
Alan Sneddon put through his own net, and the Scottish champions were staring
down the barrel.Rod McDonald then
quickly equalised, with Roy Aitken putting them in front soon after.But Tirana had the away goal.Celtic fans needn’t have worried as goals
from Davidson and another from Aitken gave Celtic a 4-1 lead by half-time and
the tie was over.
Two of the favourites also cruised through.Real Madrid saw off Bulgarians, Levski
Spartak, 3-0 on aggregate.In the 2nd
leg, goals from Vincente Del Bosque (future Spanish national manager) and
Laurie Cunningham (former West Brom winger and first black player to represent
England at any level), were enough to see them progress.Ajax were the most impressive.They travelled to Helsinki to meet HJK.They were 4-0 up by the break, and ended up
with a crushing 8-1 win.Goals from
players such as Ruud Krol (Dutch captain in 1978 World Cup), Soren Lerby, Simon
Tahamata and Frank Arnesen (yes, that Frank Arnesen).For
the 2nd leg Ajax were again 4-0 up by half-time.They again won 8-1 with 4 goals from a
19-year old called Ton Blanker.
Irish champions, Dundalk lost 0-1 in Malta against
Hibernians, but turned it round with a 2-0 win at home. English fans were also
interested in the performance of SV Hamburg, as they included the England
captain, Kevin Keegan.Hamburg were up
against Valur of Iceland.They won 3-0
in the 1st leg and then 2-1 in the 2nd.3 of the goals came from Horst Hrubesch who
scored twice in the European Championship Final in 1980.
The biggest shock was AC Milan losing to Porto.0-0 in the 1st leg in Portugal,
Milan were then stunned by a 0-1 defeat at home.This was the 2nd successive season
the champion club from Italy had gone out at the first hurdle.
Arges Pitesti (ROM)3-2AEK Athens (GRE)(3-0,0-2)
Dynamo Berlin4-1Ruch Chorzow(4-1, 0-0)
Servette4-2Beveren(3-1, 1-1)
Dukla Prague4-3Ujpest Dozsa(2-0, 2-3)
Strasbourg6-1Start(2-1, 4-0)
Ajax16-1HJK(8-1,
8-1)
Omonia7-3Red Boys(6-1, 1-2)
Celtic4-2Partizan Tirana(0-1, 4-1)
Dundalk2-1Hibernians(2-0, 0-1)
Porto1-0AC Milan(0-0, 1-0)
Real Madrid3-0Levski Spartak(1-0, 2-0)
SV Hamburg5-1Valur(3-0, 2-1)
Dinamo Tblisi4-2Liverpool(1-2, 3-0)
Vejle4-3Austria Vienna(3-2, 1-1)
Hajduk Split2-0Trabzonspor(1-0, 1-0)
SECOND ROUND
The draw for the Second Round put Forest up against Romanians,
Arges Pitesti.The Romanians had just
won only their 2nd national title, and to this day remains their
last honour.Celtic would meet
Dundalk.Real Madrid were drawn against
Milan’s conquerors, Porto, and Tblisi’s prize for knocking out Liverpool was a
tie against Hamburg.Ajax were now up
against Omonia from Cyrpus
As in the 1st Round, Forest were at home in the 1st
leg.16 minutes in and Woodcock and
Birtles had given them a 2-0 lead.The
Romanians struggled to make an impact and couldn’t grab an away goal.
This proved crucial as 5 minutes into the 2nd leg
and Ian Bowyer scored his 3rd goal of the campaign and Forest were
in total control of the tie.John
McGovern was a surprise name on the scoresheet (he only scored 6 goals in over
250 games for the club) midway through the first half and Forest were into the
Quarter-Finals.Barbulescu got a goal
back for the home side, but Forest were never under any real pressure and
cruised through to the next round.
Celtic and Dundalk played out a cracking game at
Parkhead.McDonald gave Celtic the lead
and then midway through the first half, there were 3 goals in 2 minutes as
Celtic were now 3-1 up.Mick Lawlor then
got a goal back for the Irish which would mean a tricky away 2nd
leg.Celtic managed to see out the away
leg with a 0-0 draw.
The big game was Real Madrid against Porto.Porto won the 1st leg, 2-1 as
Cunningham scored again for Real.At the
Bernabeu the home side had to wait till 20 minutes from time before Benito
grabbed the only goal of the game and Real were through on away goals.
Hamburg were up against Dinamo Tblisi, and went one better
than Liverpool with a 3-1 victory in the home leg.Keegan was on the scoresheet.In the 2nd leg, Gutsaev scored
early for Tblisi, but then Keegan equalised.Hrubesch then put the Germans in control with a 2-1 lead.Hamburg ended up 3-2 winners and went through
6-3 on aggregate.
Ajax had won both legs of the First Round, 8-1 and followed
this with a 10-0 win over Omonia Nicosia of Cyprus.Their Danish winger, Soren Lerby scored 5
goals.Ton Blanker grabbed his 2nd
hat-trick of the competition.The Dutch
fans were then expecting further goals in the 2nd leg.There were, but unbelievably they were all
for the Cypriots, who won 4-0.
Strasbourg and Dukla Prague played out a dramatic tie as Prague
won the 1st leg, 1-0.Strasbourg had equalised the tie, so they needed to play out extra
time.With 4 minutes remaining, the
French finally scored the winner.
Dynamo Berlin4-3Servette(2-1, 2-2)
Strasbourg2-1Dukla Prague(0-1, 2-0)
Ajax10-4Omonia(10-0, 0-4)
Celtic3-2Dundalk(3-2, 0-0)
Real Madrid2-2Porto(1-2, 1-0)
Hamburg6-3Dinamo Tblisi(3-1, 3-2)
Hajduk Split4-2Vejle(3-0, 1-2)
QUARTER-FINALS
Into the last eight and the four favourites were kept
apart.Nottingham Forest got Dynamo
Berlin, Ajax had Strasbourg, Hamburg were drawn against Hajduk and Real Madrid were
to meet Celtic.
For the third successive round, Forest were drawn at home in
the 1st leg.But it was a changed
side Brian Clough had put together and the performance suffered.They had just lost to bottom club, Bolton, in
the league, and also seen Tony Woodcock move to Cologne.Trevor Francis appeared in his first European
tie since his goal won the Final last season, and in midfield Clough included
Stan Bowles.Bowles had been signed in
the previous December as he’d fallen out with new QPR manager, Tommy Docherty,
who was also credited with George Best’s departure from Manchester United a few
years earlier.Neither Francis nor
Bowles could inspire Forest as East German international, Hans-Jurgen Riediger
scored the only goal of the game.Forest
had lost a European tie for the first time.
Two weeks later in Berlin and Forest were a much more
settled side, although they’d just lost in the League Cup Final to Wolves, with
Andy Gray getting the only goal of the game.16 minutes into the game and Trevor Francis scored, and Berlin’s away
goal had been wiped out.20 minutes
later and a good turn and shot from Francis made it 2-0 on the night.With just 5 minutes of the half remaining,
Robertson was brought down in the area and he converted the penalty himself and
Forest were cruising.Forest eventually
won 3-1 to go through relatively comfortably in the end, to yet another
Semi-Final.
Celtic entertained Spanish giants, Real Madrid for the 1st
leg.This was a game that remains in
Celtic folklore at George McCluskey and Johnny Doyle scored the goals that gave
them a famous 2-0 win.The return leg
saw Real score just before half-time through Santillana.10 minutes into the second period and West
German international, Uli Stielike then levelled things on aggregate.As extra time approached, Juanito won it for
Real and Celtic had come so close to putting out the 5 times winners of the
trophy.
Ajax turned up at Strasbourg having scored 26 goals in 4
games.The French, who included French
manager Raymond Domenech, held them to a 0-0 draw.The return leg saw the Dutch knock the goals
in again as they won 4-0.
Hamburg had won their 1st leg, 1-0 at home to
Hajduk Split.They doubled their lead
overall as Hrubesch scored within 2 minutes of the start of the 2nd
leg.Vujovic got a goal back for the
home side but Hamburg went back in front, before Hajduk scored twice in the
second half leaving Hamburg to go through on away goals.
So the big four were all through to the Semis with many
predicting an Ajax v Real final.
Ajax4-0Strasbourg(0-0, 4-0)
Real Madrid3-2Celtic(0-2, 3-0)
Hamburg3-3Hajduk Split(1-0, 2-3)
SEMI-FINALS
Forest were drawn against Ajax for the Semi-Finals, and as with
every other round this season, were at home first.In fact in 8 rounds over two years, Forest
had only been away from home first, once.Real would meet Hamburg in the other tie.
Ajax had already scored 30 goals when they arrived at the
City Ground, with Soren Lerby scoring 9 and Ton Blanker, 10.Blanker had only played 3 games and wasn’t in
the team for either leg of the Semis.On
a typical European night in England, the crowd were enthralled as Forest took
the game to their opponents.With 10
minutes of the first half remaining and Francis scored from a corner to give
Forest the lead.In the second half,
Zamborn handled in the area and Robertson stepped up to score the penalty, just
as he’d done in Berlin.Forest took a
useful 2-0 lead to Amsterdam.
A capacity crowd in the Amsterdam Arena willed the home side
on.Ajax had won the European Cup three
times in 1971, 1972 and 1973, but only contained Ruud Krol from that side.The goalless scoreline was finally broken in
the 65th minute as Soren Lerby headed in from a corner for his 10th
goal in the competition.But Ajax were
unable to add to that and so Forest had won to go through to their 2nd
successive final in only their 2nd appearance in the competition.
In the other tie, Real Madrid beat Hamburg, 2-0 in the
Bernabeu, as Santillana scored twice to give them a useful lead.In the 2nd leg, Manny Kaltz scored
from the spot in the 10th minute, and then Hrubesch made it 2-0 to
the Germans to level things up on aggregate.On the half hour and Laurie Cunningham gave the Spanish a crucial away
goal, but Kaltz scored again, 5 minutes before the break to give the Germans a
3-1 lead on the night.With Real still
leading overall, and half-time approaching, Hrubesch popped up to score again
and the West Germans went into the break 4-1 up and also leading on aggregate.The next goal would be crucial and it was the
Germans who got it as Memering scored in the 90th minute and Hamburg
were through to the final.Real were
gutted, especially as the Final was to be played at the Bernabeu.
Hamburg5-3Real Madrid(0-2, 5-1)
EUROPEAN CUP FINAL
This Final was keenly anticipated.Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest, all hard
work, tough defence and counter attack.SV Hamburg, the new West German darlings with the European Footballer of
the Year, Kevin Keegan, in their ranks.They also contained internationals like Manny Kaltz, Horst Hrubesch and
Felix Magath.Keegan had been
inspirational when Liverpool lifted their first European Cup in 1977, he was
aiming to do the same for Hamburg.
Forest were without Trevor Francis, who’d picked up an
Achilles injury.The Germans started
brighter, and forced an early save from Shilton as Magath went close in the
opening 10 minutes. Before the game, Keegan had predicted that Hamburg would
keep attacking, and so it proved.But
Forest worked hard and were well drilled in defending.20 minutes into the game and Robertson
exchanged passes with Birtles, beat his marker and as he reached the edge of
the box, hit a shot that went in off the right-hand post.It was a goal against the run of play, but
set the pattern for the rest of the match as Forest just defended their
lead.Within a minute Reiman had the
ball in the Forest net, but the flag was up for offside.
Keegan tried to inspire his team mates, as he ran and ran,
but each chance they had was either saved by Shilton, or repelled by Burns or
Lloyd.Forest were clearly tiring
towards the end and may have conceded with 5 minutes to go but Buljan managed
to put his shot wide from about 5 yards out.
Forest hung on to retain their trophy.They may not have had as much flair as their
German opponents, but they were clinical and efficient.Even Clough had to admit the Germans superior
technique, but he added “We beat them for application, determination and pride
– all the things that portray our football.
He went onto say, “if you have to defend you have to do it
well.It’s as important as
attacking.At half-time I wondered how
we could last.Mills was one of only
three players we could have taken off.In fact, Birtles did not have enough strength to remove his shin pads when
he came off at the end.”
This was the pinnacle for Nottingham Forest Football
Club.When Clough arrived in 1975 they
were a struggling Second Division side, eventually winning promotion in
1977.By 1980, they had lifted the
League Championship, 2 European Cups and 2 League Cups, the European Super Cup.
This win also meant they became the first club to have won
the European Cup more times than their own domestic League title.
Like many I was shocked
and appalled at the footage of Chelsea fans denying a Parisian entry to a train
on the Paris Metro.If that wasn’t bad
enough, the fans then delighted in chanting about being proud to be racist, as the
Frenchman was black.
Next morning Chelsea
Football Club released a statement saying if any of those involved proved to be
season ticket holders then they would be banned for life.
Of course many supporters
of other clubs couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stick the boot in and claim
they weren’t surprised, or that it confirmed everything they hate about the
club.It seems to be beyond their
understanding they’re simply exhibiting prejudice of a similar nature to that
of the racists.You cannot label the
whole club & particularly all Chelsea fans as racist purely because there
were a few idiots who wanted to throw their weight around in a foreign country.
I have only seen a few comments
seeking to justify this in some way, and some of them even suggested ‘what has
happened to this country’ as a reason for it.Again, if you are outraged by foreigners coming over here acting like
the own the place, then you can hardly defend those who do the same elsewhere.
There are several things
to note about this whole unsavoury event.Firstly, it’s irrelevant which team they were supporting, in fact you
could argue it’s irrelevant the reason they were in Paris.People are far more ‘brave’ in groups than
they are on their own, and that includes men and women these days.What we had here was a group of English men
portraying thuggish behaviour in a foreign capital city, purely because they’re
English.Let’s just imagine one of these
fans trying to get on the tube at Leicester Square only to find a group muslims,
Poles, Turks or Bulgarians, unable to speak any English, barring their
way?You can imagine the calls for
throwing these foreigners out of our country.
We expect, even demand,
people from other countries respect our country and traditions and yet time and
time again British people go abroad with an arrogance it’s everyone else who is
at fault.
How many people arrive in
Tenerife and head straight for Lineker’s Bar?How often do you see Britons in Spain passing all the local restaurants
and cafes looking for one advertising ‘full English breakfast’?
What you will also have
heard said many times in Paris the other night was groups of supporters looking
for somewhere to eat and drink and turning down options because they were too
full of locals (this would’ve been phrased in more Anglo-Saxon language).
Watching the footage of
this incident seemed to take us back about 30 years to a time when English fans
went abroad in the belief we owned the place.Of course many will point to there being elements of these incidents
within plenty of clubs in the country and hopefully the fact it has now been
brought to the attention, it should deter people from repeating it.But I must admit I thought Chelsea had left
that type of ‘supporter’ back in the 1970’s.
These blokes will have
family members who have seen the footage.Some of them will have children, they may possibly work with people who
found the whole business abhorrent.Their
employers may be very interested in what they’ve seen.As this footage is now on the internet it’ll
be very difficult to completely remove it.
This is how I suggest we
deal with the perpetrators.Personally,
I still believe in public shaming people.Just banning them from grounds will not change their views, and this is
the key.There’s little point continuing
to punish people unless they understand what they have done is wrong.They must be educated so they can see how
wrong their behaviour was.Their
pictures are already being spread around the net and hopefully their names will
be soon too.There may be the view you
are giving them further publicity, but the publicity you are giving them will
have repercussions for years.When
employers receive job applications one of the first things they do is ‘google’
the name to see what comes up.If they
see all the coverage about this incident they are likely to think twice about
giving them a job.In this way there is
a great opportunity for the suspects to admit their mistakes.As I said earlier, people are far more brave
in a group than on their own and one or two of the group may well have been
uncomfortable with the chanting, but weren’t ‘brave’ enough to stand up and say
so.They now have an excellent
opportunity to distance themselves from this.
Get your face on camera
apologising to the victim would be a good start.
Many have long pointed
out the idiocy of supporters chanting racist abuse one minute then cheering a
black player from their own team the next.It is perfectly plausible to think that just after the ‘we’re racists
and that’s the way we like it’ chant, these idiots then went onto sing of their
love for Didier Drogba.
Of course an education
programme takes time, money and motivation.It is far easier and cheaper to just ban these people, but you’ve not
dealt with the cause, only the effect.If you have blisters on your feet it is far cheaper to put a plaster on
it, yet the problem is your shoes are too tight.Much the same as it’s fairly pointless continually
locking up drug addicts without curing them of their addiction.Unless these people see the error of their
ways they will not change.They should
be made to view the footage again and then have it turned round to show them as
the victim and see how they’d feel about it.The anger of their social circles should also shame them into looking
inward to ask themselves whether they really should be treating others in this
way.
It also should be pointed
out there is racism within all cultures and religions and white people are
certainly prejudiced against in a number of situations.However, it hardly progresses the issue
further if we hide behind the rather juvenile “well they’re doing it, so why
can’t I”?
Much as it took Italy a
long while to truly accept the English back in the country after Heysel, this
will make things tougher for supporters of other clubs going to Paris and it
could well impact on non-football fans.If you think that’s unfair then consider Parisians are merely
demonstrating an underlying prejudice against the English in exactly the same
way many supporters of rival clubs have been waiting for an incident such as
this as a reason to spout their hatred of Chelsea.
This has nothing to do
with Chelsea, they are powerless to control who does and who doesn’t support
them.These were middle-aged English men
who are part of our society and we are all responsible for our society.
