Euro 2016 England v Switzerland, Group C, National Stadium of Kavala
A testing first match was made that much harder with seven of the 22 man squad injured in the week between naming them and the first match. Still a bunch of talent was left, and we took the field thus:
GK: Adu Sunday Barnes
DR: Glen Johnson
DL: Tony Hadley
DC: Steven Taylor (c)
DC: James McEveley
DMC: Jermaine Jenas
MC: Jay Bothroyd
MR: James Milner
ML: Joe Cole
FC: Mark Griffiths
FC: Jermain Defoe
The match itself was disappointing though as the Swiss failed to put up a fight. Bothroyd opened the scoring in the 14th minute and McEveley soon added a second on his way to the man of the match award. Mark Griffiths made it three completing a nine-minute triple salvo, and the game was won. The remaining 67 minutes were pretty dull.
Romania v England, Group C, Municipal Stadium of Trikala
Due to
INSANITY goalkeeper Adu Sunday Barnes
RETIRED after the Switzerland game, and with Chris Kirkland injured it was down to Simon Taylor to see out the tournament. He better not get hurt or die or something. Other than that we were unchanged, and scored early on through a Griffiths free kick, and eerily doubled our advantage soon after as McEveley headed home an identical goal to the one he got against the Swiss. Romania came roaring back into the game with a Gheorghe goal in the second half, but man of the match Griffiths ended the game in the 82nd minute when he rounded the keeper and made it 3-1, a score that remained until full time.
England v Italy, Group C, Apostolos Nikolaidis
With Jonathan Woodgate also
RETIRING mid-group, we were forced to put two half-fit players on the bench, one of whom was Wayne Rooney. Fortunately though we were able to field an unchanged starting lineup. Italy were stunned as we maintained our trend of early goals, Bothroyd netting the earliest yet in the opening minute. He himself added a second after about half an hour, and Italy seemed beaten. Miccoli and Cassano were both inches away from reducing their arrears soon after however, and going in 2-0 up was a bonus. A Pirlo freekick grazed the woodwork in the second half, but we were in control by that stage, and Gasbarroni went close after that it was not to be for the Italians, who were pipped to second place by the Romanians.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag G.D. Pt </pre>
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">1st Q England 3 3 0 0 8 1 +7 9 </pre><pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">2nd Q Romania 3 1 1 1 5 5 0 4 3rd Italy 3 1 0 2 3 5 -2 3 4th Switzerland 3 0 1 2 3 8 -5 1 </pre>
England v Wales, Quarter Final, Toumba
With Hadley suspended and Griffiths injured we turned to veteran Gareth Barry and fit-again Wayne Rooney for the Quarter Final with Wales. Chris Kirkland was fit enough for the bench in an 'absolute emergency' capacity only, and we were fired up. Rooney almost handed us an early lead after he latched on to a poor back pass, but he fired over, and Jenas followed suit with a snapshot soon after. In the twentieth minute though Rooney found himself with space and time in the box and fired home. We were off and running now, and Cole teed up Defoe in stoppage time, but he couldn't hit the target. Failure to convert these chances and more in the second half made the closing minutes somewhat nervy, but thanks to a dominating midfield performance we escaped with little in the way of scares to a semi final clash with Norway.
England v Norway, Semi Final, Municipal Stadium of Trikala
With Johnson injured we were forced to shift Jenas to right back and bring in Rangers starlet Jim White to play the defensive holding role for the semi final, but we didn't seem the worse for it early on as Jay Bothroyd continued his great goalscoring run with a second minute strike. Before Norway had regained a foothold he douled the advantage, but it took a good save from Taylor, retaining his place despite Kirkland's return to fitness, to prevent the Norwegians pulling one back before the break. A penalty with twenty minutes to go though gave them an opportunity to stay alive in the tournament, and it was converted, leaving us hanging on for dear life where minutes earlier we'd been playing as if we had one foot in the final already. Now we had to focus, and focus we did, Wayne Rooney's 75th minute strike putting the match beyond the devastated players in red. England were going to the final.
Serbia & Montenegro v England, Final, Toumba
We were unchanged for the biggest game in the last fifty years of English football, and the prevailing opinion was that we would win and win well. The first sign that all would not go to plan was the lack of an early goal, so important in each of our earlier games. The second was that we didn't score in the first match at all, or indeed for much of the second half. With five minutes to go it was 0-0 when Jermain Defoe took posession through the middle. He was forced out wide, but squeezed off a floaty shot. Shockingly the keeper just stared at it and it clipped the inside of the far post and floated it. The Balkans tried in vain to retaliate, but time ran out on them, and England were champions of Europe. As I said to the Queen when I received my farcical, undeserved knighthood in the wake of the triumph, this had been a lucky win, completely out of keeping with the run to this stage. I went back to Scotland after the media's hate campaign had died down somewhat, but the Daily Record reading classes never let me live in peace, so I moved to South Africa where I lived out my days in peace and quiet.
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