...you missed a classic!

Bloody madhouse. 1-1 at half time then another one each within a minute in the second half. Yugoslavia had a man sent off and then went ahead. 3-2 up, Spain had to win and kept plugging away until they got a penalty in minute 90. They then announced FIVE minutes of injury time and Spain managed to win it at the death. Cameras cut to the Norway side just as they realised that it meant that Yugoslavia and Spain were through. It took the Yugoslavs a bit longer to do the maths, but then it ended up with both sets of supporters celebrating and both teams walking around arms aloft.

All the commentators and pundits reckoned it was probably the best game ever at this level and I'll have to agree. Oddly enough, Mark Lawrenson reckoned it was magnificent, but when we did it with Liverpool in 1995/6 he thought it was disgraceful. So disgraceful in fact that he became our defensive coach and had us so well drilled that the next season we.....errr, well actually, we lost 4-3 again didn't we? Just without the class that time.

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2000

Answers

Bliddy hell. Sounds like the France-Holland game is a classic too. The terrifying thing is that Savo Milosevic looks like getting the Golden Boot. I saw him at Villa Park a few times and he is unquestionably the worst striker I have EVER seen. Made Andreas look sensational. To this day, when abusing the opposition's strikers, a comparison with Savo is the first thing that comes to mind.

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2000

Totally agree Softie - excellent game! Very entertaining. (:o)

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2000

Balkan mentality??

It just seems like the Yugoslavs can't play well unless they are down to 10 men. It wasn't a classic as far as defences were concerned, but the attacking and midfields more than made up for that. Great game and fabulous entertainment. It's matches like that which make you realise just how poor we were in all our games, except perhaps the first 20 mins against Portual.

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2000

Aye Doug, the Blues vs Orange (aka Chelsea vs Arsenal) macth was a nother brilliant game. Much more controlled football than the Yugo match and hugely entertaining.

BTW - Milosevic has played well. We're probably far too calm for him in England. He seems to have a nose for goals. Quite possibly could get the Goalden Boot.

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2000

The ref got battererd too! Threatened 2ce by invading fans, and then got hit by a coin on the way out (bleeding cut an' all!).

UEFA spokesmen are understood to be blaming it all on English hooligans since the RAF bombed Serbia...a while ago...probably

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2000

And the Media are blaming Alan Shearer...

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2000

Isn't it nice now the English are gone?

Great atmosphere at the games, fans enjoying themselves, cameraderie, scintillating attacking football, players controlling the ball and passing it to members of their own team. Ah! Bliss!

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2000

Two great games yesterday. I couldn't help comparing them with our games and there was no contest. Apart from being gutted for Shearer, I'm glad England are out. Italy would have slaughtered us.

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2000

Softie,

My satellite company gave me a choice between Slo-Nor and Yugo-SPain and like a total idiot I chose to watch Slovenia to see how much Manure are going to overpay for Zahovic in the event Slovenia somehow miraculously advance. I noticed the expressions on the Norwegians went from smiles to confusion to "F**K"! In a matter of seconds!

But that's not the worst part of yesterday's attempt of an american trying to watch 4 euro2000 games: I had a choice of the Holland game or the Czechs, chose the dutch and fell asleep at half time!!! What a disaster, woke up and found out I missed a wonderful Spanish recovery and some beautiful goals by the dutch in the second half.

Why did the organizers decide to have 4 matches in one f**king day? They could easily have played 2 today.

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2000

Hard lines Pete! It was actually a decent move on the part of the organizers to make sure that all the deciding games were precisely that. We didn't want Portugal conceding a dubious pen to avoid Italy or anything like that, did we? Just a total bummer when you can't see them ALL live.

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2000