In an exclusive interview with the Betway Insider, the former England winger reminisces about the Three Lions' best tournament since the 1966 World Cup
It was the year Will Smith battled aliens in Independence Day, the Spice Girls reached No. 1 for the first time with Wannabe and Dolly the sheep became the first mammal to be successfully cloned.
It was also the year when football came home.
“The whole summer of ’96 is something I’ll never forget,” says Darren Anderton, who has since become one of a handful of players synonymous with England’s best tournament since 1966.
“I was lucky enough to go to the World Cup in 1998 and score a goal – that was great.
“But to be part of the team in 1996 still ranks as a personal highlight in my career.”
Anderton almost missed out on the tournament on home soil after spending most of the season at Tottenham injured.
While his inclusion surprised some, the midfielder had the trust of then-England manager Terry Venables.
“I’d missed around five months,” says Anderton.
“The manager believed in me even though I’d only played three games at the end of the season.
“He thought I was still the right man to play and that gave me massive confidence.”
But Venables’ impressive man-management was responsible for so much more than Anderton’s resurgence.
A boozy pre-tournament trip to Hong Kong had unsurprisingly attracted attention from national press, while the 1-1 draw with Switzerland in opening game was not exactly well-received, either.
England needed a response, and El Tel knew just how to get it.
“After so much expectation it was as if we’d let people down,” says Anderton.
“Venables, being the man he was, didn’t get carried away. He believed in what he thought and believed in his players.
“The same team then went out against Scotland and we got the result that we needed.”
Saturday 15 June, 16:34
David Seaman saves Gary McAllister’s penalty. And then – just seconds later – Paul Gascoigne scores that volley, and follows it with that celebration.
It was the delayed catalyst the Three Lions needed so badly. Wembley is abuzz.
“Gazza’s goal was where the tournament really took off for us,” says Anderton, whose pride is audible even 20 years on.
“The difficulty of international football is getting your players playing like a club team and that’s where we started doing that.
“We obviously got some stick for the dentist’s chair, but it’s moments like that which bring you closer together as mates as well as a team.”
John Motson, commentating on the game for the BBC, declared after the game: “This is the moment you’ll talk about.
“When Gascoigne jinked through, as of old, and stamped his indelible mark on Euro 96.”
Motson was right.
Tuesday 18 June, 20:52
In the final group game, Teddy Sheringham has just put England four goals in front of 1988 winners the Netherlands.
Wembley has reached Churchill-levels of patriotism.
In his recent documentary marking Euro 96’s 20-year anniversary, Alan Shearer said it was the best atmosphere he had ever played in. Ditto Anderton.
“There’s so much pressure when you play for England,” he says.
“So to have a 4-0 lead against Holland with half an hour to go, where you’re able to enjoy the game and hum along to Football’s Coming Home…
“For me and most of the players, that goes down as a highlight of our careers.”
Saturday 22 June, 17:30
The quarter-final between England and Spain will be decided by – you guessed it – penalties.
A comedown was inevitable after the Netherlands game, and the match had been tense and insipid, with Julio Salinas’ innocuous disallowed goal the only notable moment.
“You know what I really think about?” Seaman told Shearer moments before the shoot-out began. “A chance of glory.”
Too right. Five minutes later – and after Stuart Pearce has achieved redemption for his miss against Germany six years earlier – Seaman saves from Miguel Nadal.
Mobbed by team-mates, Pearce and Seaman become the second and third national heroes to be appointed in the past week.
Wednesday 26 June, 20:30
This is it: a semi-final appearance that just a month earlier had seemed so impossible.
For most fans, anyway.
In a recent episode of the Betway Insider Podcast, resident tipster Alan Alger revealed how England’s last-four appearance represented a personal victory.
“A girl at work had applied for all the tickets in the ballot,” recounted Alan.
“On pay day, she said to me that she had tickets for the games and I’d worked out my rota. I thought that semi-final would be England’s semi-final.
“I gave her what was a very high percentage of a weekly wage for the ticket, then I hoped and prayed that England got through.”
Vindicated, Alan had no regrets upon taking his seat at Wembley
“The atmosphere was incredible,” he said. “The national anthem, I’ve never heard it sung with such gusto.
“I don’t think I’ve ever gone to a game with that much excitement.”
But would the result make Alan’s outlay money well spent?
Wednesday 26 June, 22:58
Gareth Southgate makes the long, lonely walk from the centre circle to the penalty spot.
The 25-year-old defender could not have had better penalty-taking tutelage, having sat through the perfect previous 11.
Southgate steps up, holds his breath. So does the nation.
And his gift of a penalty is gleefully scooped away by Germany goalkeeper Andreas Kopke.
With one swoop of Andreas Moller’s right foot, the ball crashes into the centre of the goal.
Heartbreakingly symmetrical with Italia 90, England are eliminated on penalties.
Did that painful defeat affect how Anderton remembers the tournament?
“There were some bad memories in terms of losing the semi-final, but in terms of the tournament they’re very happy,” he says.
Twenty years later, England – the players, the supporters and the nation – are doing it all over again.
Football can come home on the Eurostar, can’t it?
