Classic Euro Moments: Gazza’s Goal at Euro ‘96

March 12th, 2008 | by: Daryl |

Paul Gascoigne’s England career was a lot like the rest of his career. A load of injuries mixed in with moments of genius. Gazza came into Euro ‘96 on the back of some good form for Glasgow Rangers, and at 29 years old he was injury free and playing under his old mentor Terry Venables as England hosted the tournament. And so he produced arguably the best moment of his England career in the group stage against Scotland at Wembley.

Receiving the through ball, Gazza lifted it over Colin Hendry’s head with his left foot and then waited for it to drop before volleying past Andy Goram with his right. He made it look easy. The celebration is equally memorable, as Gazza and teammates recreated the infamous “dentists chair” drinking photo that had been plastered all over the tabloids before the tournament.

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http://scotland.worldcupblog.org Ian

Not a great moment for Scotland fans, but a fantastic goal. If we could have stopped Gazza there, we might have moved on, since Holland only beat us on goals scored with equal goal differential … oh well. Still, fantastic goal. If we had to be beaten, you like to be beaten with that sort of style.
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

If I remember rightly, wasn’t it Holland’s consolation goal in their defeat against England that denied Scotland qualification from the group? I remember being annoyed by that.
http://scotland.worldcupblog.org Ian

Yeah, technically that was the last goal, so I guess that was the one that did it. Annoyed is certainly one interpretation of what Scottish fans were. “Near miss”, though, is a pretty familiar statement in Scottish football, so we’re used to it.