There’s no doubt football and drama go hand in hand, which makes it such an exhilarating sport to watch. But there are times when the drama spills over into controversy, to make sporting moments that are difficult to forget.

With the highs and lows of the Euros a regular talking point in the pub on football quizzes, we get the insider on eight of the most shocking moments in European Championship History.

Graham Taylor and Gary Lineker

Drawing 1-1 in their final Euro 92 group game against Sweden and with 30 minutes to go, England manager Graham Taylor needed to swing the match back to his side. And his decision was to become one of the most infamous of the Euro tournament when he opted to take off Gary Lineker. But for Gary, this was no ordinary match – it was to be his final appearance for his country and left him just one goal short of matching Bobby Charlton’s England score record. Taylor quickly regretted his decision as Sweden went on to win the game.

Dutch toilet humour

Rivalry was running high during the Netherlands’ Euro 88 semi-final clash with tournament hosts, West Germany. Celebrating coming from behind to scoop a 2-1 victory, thanks to a late goal from Marco van Basten, things took a turn to the distasteful. Having swapped shirts with Germany’s Olaf Thon, Dutch defender Ronald Koeman pretended to use it to wipe his backside. His joke caused outrage – although Netherlands went on to beat the Soviet Union in the final.

Spain’s ‘daylight robbery’

A contentious call in the Euro 96 quarter-final between England and Spain was just one part of a match that saw Spain’s Julio Salinas fume ‘it was impossible to win against 11 players, 70,000 fans and three officials.’ He had a goal controversially ruled out, leading to England to swipe the win after beating the Spanish side on penalties.

Portuguese meltdown

Portugal infamously went into full pitch meltdown during their Euro 2000 semi-final clash with France when just three minutes away from a penalty shootout, a French shot was ‘hand blocked’. The subsequent corner decision was then changed to a penalty and France claimed the win with a golden goal by Zidane. Chaos ensued as the Portuguese side berated the referee beyond the full-time whistle, leading to a red card for Nuno Gomes and leaving a sour taste at the end of what had been a thrilling game.

Iceland v England 2016 Euros

2016 was England’s 23^rd tournament, whereas it was Iceland’s first and boy, did they cause an upset! At the Stade de Nice, Iceland and England met in a final 16 match, with the Icelandic team stealing the lead from England in the 19^th minute and held on to win – and knock the Euro veterans out of the competition. Iceland continued their run into the quarter-finals, where they were finally toppled by France, 5-2.

Gareth Southgate’s missed penalty

 One moment England fans will never forget is Gareth Southgate’s penalty miss against Germany in the semi-finals of Euro 96. The hard-fought clash between England and the eventual Euro 96 winners went to extra time and, with a score of 1-1, onto a nerve-shredding penalty shootout. Gareth Southgate was the only player to miss his penalty…and the match went down in lionheart-breaking history.

Poland’s President steps in

A controversial referee call during Poland’s Euro 2008 group match against Austria lead to the country’s President weighing in after Marcin Wasilewski was accused of shirt pulling. The call was disputed but the subsequent penalty saw Austria go through. Enraged by the decision, made by referee Howard Webb, the Polish President, Donald Tusk, voiced his criticisms of the official, but to no avail. Webb was, however, dropped by UEFA for the rest of the tournament.

Greece Euro 2004 shock win

And finally, when it comes to shock results, then Greece holds the trophy after they defeated Euro 04 tournament hosts Portugal 1-0 to be crowned European Champions. It was a header from Greece’s Angelos Charisteas in front of Portugal’s home crowd in Lisbon which sealed the deal and saw the tournament favourites overwhelmed. The side were 80-1 outsiders to win.

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