England & The EUROs: Which was your favourite tournament?

Euro 88

Hosted by West Germany, England had a time more miserable than the 2016 tournament losing all three of their games.

Gary Lineker, one of the world's most lethal strikers in world football, couldn’t hit a barn door as he fluffed chance after chance in defeats to the Republic of Ireland, Holland and the Soviet Union. After the tournament, it was found he was suffering from hepatitis.

The Dutch side were very much reaping the benefits of a ‘golden generation’ of players, with Gullit, Marco Van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Ronald Koeman in their prime.

Van Basten hit a hatrick against England and then scored a worldy in the final sealing a 2-0 win, which you can view by clicking this link.

Photo by Peter Robinson/EMPICS via Getty Images

---

Euro 92

Hosted by Sweden, this was Graham Taylor’s only tournament as England manager, and he made his mark in all the wrong ways with some bizarre team selections and tactics.

England drew 0-0 against both Denmark and France, then with the score 1-1 in the decider against Sweden, he subbed Gary Lineker (scorer of 48 goals for his country) with half an hour to go. England conceded a late winner and crashed out of the tournament.

It took a long time for Lineker to forgive Taylor.

The eventual winners of the tournament, Denmark, were not even supposed to be there after they finished runners-up to Yugoslavia in qualification. However, Yugoslavia imploded into civil war and the team were withdrawn right before the tournament started. So it was the Dane’s who were sat on the beach and with no preparation, who were invited to take their place at the last minute. And won it.

Photo by Mark Leech/Getty Images

---

Euro 96

This was the first time England had hosted the tournament, and the first time they really performed in the Euros. Led by Terry Venables, there was a memorable 2-0 win against Scotland, but the highlight was a blistering 4-1 win against Holland, which you can watch the highlights of in the link below.

England performed admirably in the semi-final against Germany and were the better team for much of the game, but it finished in a 1-1 draw and defeat in penalties.

The Germans faced the Czech Republic in the final, a team all being fair that England would have expected to have beaten if they had been in the final instead.

This was the closest to winning and most convincing that I have seen England in a tournament in my time watching, including the 1990 and 2018 World Cups.

---

Euro 2000

Managed by Kevin Keegan - a man who worryingly always referred to himself in the third person - he travelled with a plan to attack but without much clue how to defend...

Much like his title-blowing Newcastle team.

Three games in, he had watched his team give away winning leads in defeats to Portugal and Romania, as England reverted to bombing out of the Euros again.

The tournament was co-hosted by Belgium and Holland, and it was World Cup holders France who won the final, beating Italy 2-1.

---

Euro 2004

This was the second tournament for England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson, and is perhaps most remembered for where Wayne Rooney first made his mark on the international stage.

Only 18 years old, he hit four goals in the group stages as England qualified for the quarter-final against host nation Portugal, only for him to limp out of action after 27 minutes. England finished the game by limping out of the tournament on penalties.

Greece had qualified for the quarter-finals from a very strong group, despite only winning one game. They had hit upon the then-novel idea of playing a lone striker and proceeded to win the quarter-final, semi final and final by 1-0 each time against France, Czech Republic and Portugal.

Suffice to say, club sides the world over began to copy them soon after.

Photo by Henri Szwarc/Bongarts/Getty Images

---

Euro 2008

An occasion when England failed to qualify after a home defeat qualifier against Croatia. Manager Steve McClaren became known as ‘ The Wally with the Brolley’.

Hosted by Austria and Switzerland, it was the traditional football giants who fought it out in the later stages with a Spain v Germany final.

This was the start of the era of the great Spanish team of 2008 - 12 which swept all before it, with the 2008 Euros the first of the haul of silverware.

Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images

---

Euro 2012

England had impressively qualified under manager Fabio Capello, but he surprisingly quit in February following a row with the FA. Roy Hodgson took over as manager and, to be fair, got some good results against tough opposition.

In the quarter-finals, England drew 0-0 with Italy before inevitably losing on penalties.

After their success in 2008 and the World Cup of 2010 the question was: who could match the all-conquering Spanish?

The answer was nobody, and in one of the most one-sided finals of international football, Silva, Iniesta, Fabregas, Alonso and the rest swatted aside Italy 4-0.

Click the link here for the match highlights.

Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images

---

Euro 2016

No international tournament has had such a direct impact on the fortunes of Sunderland.

In the group stages, England looked as if they were struggling to get through the gears, and only picked up one win - against a Wales team which in contrast had a memorable tournament for the right reasons.

What followed in the second round against Iceland was one of the worst 90 minutes in the history of the three lions when, despite taking the lead, England were 2-1 down after 20 minutes.

The team visibly shrank and ran out of ideas and manager Roy Hodgson had no answer to leave everyone watching open-mouthed in disbelief.

Roy and the FA ‘agreed’ that his time had come, and they turned to our own Sam Allardyce to start a new dawn...

The Welsh fairy-tale came to an end in the semi-finals against Portugal, who took the trophy after a 1-0 win against France in the final. You can watch the highlights of Wales win against Belgium in the quarter finals by clicking this link.

Photo by Dave Winter/Icon Sport via Getty Images