Familiar Foes: England vs Euro 2020's Quarter Finalists

Hello and welcome to Football Reloaded, your new home of football nostalgia between 1990 and 2010. 

After the excitement and hubris of England's stunning 2-0 win over Germany on Wednesday, attention now turns to Saturday's clash with Ukraine in Rome with a path to the final at Wembley clearly mapped out. 

With that in mind, let's take a look at some classic clashes between England and the seven other teams still dreaming of winning the Euro 2020 title. 

England 1-0 Belgium, June 26th 1990 (World Cup Last 16)

The game that gave birth to John Motson's famous soundbite that features in the original version of Three Lions as England did it in the last minute of extra time thanks to David Platt's excellent volleyed goal. 

After John Barnes had seen his first half goal disallowed for offside, England were heading towards their first ever penalty shootout (that would of course come later in the tournament..) when Paul Gascoigne clipped a free kick into the Belgian penalty area which was met expertly by Platt who turned as the ball dropped over his shoulder before unleashing an unstoppable shot beyond Michel Preud'homme to set up a quarter final clash with Italia 90's surprise package Cameroon. 

David Platt wheels away in celebration after his dramatic late winning goal against Belgium in the last 16 of the 1990 World Cup. 

England 2-0 Czech Republic, November 18th 1998 (Friendly)

The first meeting of the two countries since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993 would prove to be Glenn Hoddle's last game in charge of the national team as some three months later his controversial comments in The Times would prove to be the incident that saw the ex-Chelsea boss dismissed from his job as England coach. 

As it turned out, it was as good a swansong as Hoddle could have predicted as his side ran out 2-0 winners over the country that had finished as runners-up at Euro 96. Darren Anderton grabbed the last of his seven international goals when he opened the scoring in the 21st minute with Paul Merson notching the winner seventeen minutes later to cap what proved to be his final international appearance. Merson was replaced in the second half by Aston Villa team-mate Lee Hendrie who made his one and only senior appearance for the national side. 

Denmark 0-3 England, June 15th 2002 (World Cup Last 16)

Sven Goran-Eriksson's men breezed their way into the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time since 1990 with an easy 3-0 win over Denmark in Niigata to set up a clash with tournament favourites Brazil. 

England got off to a dream start when Danish goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen spilled Rio Ferdinand's sidewards header into his own net in the fifth minute (a goal which led to some questionable dance moves being exhibited by the Leeds defender), Michael Owen notched his first goal of the tournament with a fine close range finish before Emile Heskey made sure of the victory with just a minute of the first half remaining. 

Rio Ferdinand heads for goal to get England off to the perfect start in their 2002 World Cup last 16 tie with Denmark.

Italy 0-0 England, October 11th 1997 (World Cup Qualifier) 

And then one night in Rome, we were strong and we had grown as England defied the odds to pull off arguably the best result of Glenn Hoddle's tenure in charge of the team as they secured their safe passage to the 1998 World Cup finals in France. 

Just a matter of months after England had defeated the Azzuri on their way to winning Le Tournoi, qualification for the tournament was secured on a tense night at the Stadio Olimpico with the drama lasting right up until the final whistle. After Angelo Di Livio had been sent off for two yellow cards, Ian Wright could have won the game for England late on when he rounded Angelo Peruzzi only to hit the post from a tight angle while the Italians had a chance to win it themselves only for Christian Vieri's powerful header to go narrowly wide of David Seaman's goal. 

Spain 0-0 England (England won 4-2 on penalties), June 22nd 1996 (European Championship Quarter-Final)

For many years this was some kind of anomaly when it came to England as it was the only time they had won a game on penalties until the glorious World Cup last 16 win over Colombia in 2018. 

After the euphoria and excitement of England's 4-1 win over Holland to close out the Euro 96 group stage, the quarter-final with Spain failed to live up to expectation and turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. 

While the game is rightly remembered for Stuart Pearce's moment of redemption in the shoot-out, had the game been played in today's age of VAR, England would have probably been knocked out when replays showed that Julio Salinas' goal had been wrongly given as offside. Despite this though England produced four perfect penalties and progressed thanks to Fernando Hierro shanking his kick against the crossbar before David Seaman came up with a fine save to deny Miguel Angel Nadal (uncle of tennis superstar Rafa) and book a first Euro semi-final place for his side since 1968. 

Stuart Pearce's celebration became one of the enduring images of Euro 96 as he exorcised the demon of his penalty miss six years earlier when his penalty helped England defeat Spain. 

England 3-0 Switzerland, June 17th 2004 (European Championship Group Stage) 

The summer of 2004 gave birth to a phenomenon that the wider footballing world wasn't ready for when Rooneymania began to spread like wildfire which led opposition defenders scrambling to isolate. 

After coughing up a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 to France late on in their first Euro 2004 group match, England needed to defeat Switzerland to maintain any hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals and thankfully they were able to resuscitate their campaign thanks to two goals from the potent Everton striker and a late Steven Gerrard strike. Rooney opened the scoring with a fine close range header with his second goal coming via a fortuitous deflection off the head of Swiss goalkeeper Jorg Stiel, Gerrard prodded home Gary Neville's cross with eight minutes remaining to complete the rout and set up a heavyweight quarter-final clash with tournament hosts Portugal. 

England 2-0 Ukraine, May 31st 2000 (Friendly) 

It was the end of one era and the start of another as Kevin Keegan's side wrapped up their preparations for Euro 2000 with one former national captain playing their final home game and a future skipper making his international debut. 

Alan Shearer had already announced he would retire from international football following the tournament and skippered the side for the final time under the twin towers while it was the international bow for Liverpool's Steven Gerrard just a day after he had turned 20 years old. 

Shearer was denied the fairytale send off as he couldn't get on the scoresheet although he could take some solace in the fact that his 44th minute header from David Beckham's corner kick was palmed away by the away keeper into the grateful path of Robbie Fowler who swept the ball home from close range to give England a half-time lead. Shearer had a hand in the winning goal too when his pressure allowed Tony Adams to strike the ball into the ground that bounced over the Ukranian keeper into the net. 

Tony Adams scores England's winning goal during the 2-0 win over Ukraine at Wembley in May 2000. 

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