Euro 96 Revisited – 13th and 14th June
In all the excitement of the England vs Scotland match, I completely forgot to add the match reports of two games!
On 13th June, Bulgaria beat Romania, their Balkan counterparts by a goal to nil. The winner came from their enigmatic playmaker Hristo Stoichkov after only three minutes.
Stoichkov took the ball from 35 yards out, ran at the Romanian defence and with two defenders closing in, poked the ball past Bogdan Stelea.
In the later kick off, Holland beat Switzerland 2-0 at Villa Park.
It took until midway through the second half before the Dutch made the breakthrough. Johan Cruyff’s son Jordi scored from the edge of the box after Pascolo, the Swiss goalkeeper punched a corner clear.
Dennis Bergkamp sealed the win for Holland on 79 minutes, chasing Edwin Van der Saar’s lofty clearance to score at the second attempt.
On Friday 14th June, Portugal beat Turkey 1-0 in Group D to go top of Group D. In the later kick-off, Czech Republic sprung the first shock of the tournament, beating Italy 2-1 at Anfield.
Portugal’s only goal of the game came from central defender Fernando Couto following a well-worked short corner.
Rui Costa hit a low cross from the right hand corner of the penalty area and the ball ricocheted off three Turkish defenders.
It landed nicely for Fernando Couto who caught the ball on the volley from just inside the box, hitting the ball hard into the bottom corner of the net. It was a very tidy finish from a defender!
Czech Republic upset all the odds by beating Italy 2-1, with all three goals coming in the first half.
Pavel Nedved opened the scoring after only five minutes with a composed finish. A ball came in from the right wing which wrong-footed Italian defender Roberto Mussi. Nedved was right behind him and chested the ball down before prodding the ball past the on-rushing Angelo Peruzzi.
Enirco Chiesa levelled matters after 18 minutes. The Italians broke on the counter-attack, with Chiesa runnong at goal. He flicked the ball wide to Diego Fuser before carrying his run into the box.
Fuser returned the ball to Chiesa with a first-time pass and the striker hit the ball hard and across Petr Kouba into the far corner of the net.
The Czech’s winner came after 35 minutes when a low cross from Pavel Kuka was volleyed low into the for corner by Radek Bjebl.
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