#euro96

At Euro 92, the football world was stunned and surprised to see Denmark pull off an amazing upset on the way to winning the European Championship.

But four years later, there would be yet another similar story in England.

Going into Euro 96, the Czech Republic was not viewed as a contender by any means whatsoever. The Eastern European nation was just viewed as a team that was happy to be in England.

The Czechs started the tournament with a 2-0 loss to Germany but followed it up with a 2-1 upset over Italy.

A few days later it looked as if Italy would advance on goal difference but the Czechs scored a last minute equalizer against Russia to earn a 3-3 tie.

And it was the 3-3 tie that was enough to eliminate the Italians and put the Czechs into the knockout phase.

In the quarterfinals, the Czechs squeezed past Portugal with a 1-0 win coming by way of a beautiful lob goal from Karel Poborsky early in the second half.

Things would get more difficult in the semifinals against Zinedine Zidane and France. But the match was scoreless after one-hundred and twenty minutes of football.

※ Current Odds Date & Time: September 18, 10:00 a.m. (GMT)

Yet after five rounds of penalty kicks, the score was 5-5. Which team would finally miss?

Czech keeper Petr Kouba came up with the big save as he denied Reynald Pedros and Miroslav Kadlec converted his kick to put the Czechs into the final match at Wembley.

The Czechs would have shot at revenge against Germany in the final match and took the lead at the hour mark when Patrick Berger scored from the penalty spot.

But the Germans were in no mood to lose to the Cinderella team for a second consecutive tournament.

Oliver Bierhoff scored the equalizer in the 73rd minute and gave Germany the win when he scored the golden goal five minutes into extra time.

I remember watching this match and I was disappointed the Czechs didn’t win. It definitely was heartbreak for the Czechs, but they had every reason to keep their heads up.

Online bookmaker 10Bet has the latest outrights for Euro 2020 and currently the odds are 150/1 for Czech Republic to win the tournament.

The Czechs have not been very dangerous for a long time. But first they need to find their form during qualifying to ensure they are apart of Euro 2020.

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