Thierry Henry: My France, My Euros

'My name is Thierry Henry.

'I live in London, where I played

'for Arsenal for so many years.

'I also played in Barcelona and New York,

'but make no mistake - I'm a Frenchman.'

A very proud Frenchman.

I'm travelling back home as my

country prepares to host Euro 2016.

It's the first time we have hosted a tournament

since the World Cup in '98.

Making this journey reminds me

of the great success we achieved as a team,

and I'm really hoping there are more

good times coming for Les Bleus.

In fact, you know what?

I'm hoping for more than that.

I'm hoping for the Euros to bring happiness in France.

France needs Euro 2016 to be a success.

The memories of the terrorist attacks here last year

are still fresh in everyone's minds.

Recovery from those atrocities will take time,

but in the aftermath we saw the role football can play

in bringing people together.

As fans come to France from all around Europe,

this tournament is an opportunity to remind everyone

how our simple game can have a huge impact

way beyond the sport.

We have seen it in the Euros time and again.

Moments to take your breath away...

-COMMENTATOR:

-'Oh, I say, what a goal!'

Everybody's like, "What the hell is this?"

He was also like, "Ha! Yeah."

..moments no-one saw coming...

We played the pretournament favourite,

we played the defending champions,

and we played the world champions.

Now, I think we've done well.

..moments of heartache...

'Gascoigne!'

Do you replay that tournament in your head?

Well, I only ever think about it

probably about once a day now, instead of five or ten times a day.

'Oh, no!'

It means a lot to us Germans to win a game at Wembley.

..and moments of pure joy...

After that moment, it was like

this mental thing that it clicked,

and we just played with no fear any more.

..moments that all have one thing in common...

..they have brought people of all ages, creeds

and colours together in celebration.

We had this unbelievably kind of

party, family-friendly atmosphere,

which Three Lions was the soundtrack to.

# Three lions on a shirt... #

Euro 2016 is bigger than ever -

24 nations all hoping to make a little history of their own.

But before it all starts, I'm

taking my own trip down memory lane.

I'm not from Paris, actually, I'm from the suburbs of Paris,

so it's very different.

We say in France "banlieusard",

so it's outside of Paris,

and I'm proud of it, by the way.

I grew up in Les Ulis.

It's 25km outside Paris,

and it's pretty typical of the suburbs surrounding the capital.

Life was simple on my estate -

school and football.

We hardly ever went into the city.

When we did, it was for shopping trips

and seeing how far our francs could stretch.

We're going to pass Les Puces,

which is a market where you can find stuff

that are all kind of fake, or...

second-hand,

third-hand, fourth-hand.

So as you can imagine,

that's the type of thing that at the time my mum could afford.

Then you have to carry the bags back home.

It's a long one.

Trust me, I remember.

And you couldn't say at any point,

"Mum, my hand is hurting."

Trouble.

But being in Paris reminds me of always football,

because that's most of the time why I was in Paris.

France's history with the Euros goes way back to the start.

The administrator, Henri Delaunay,

came up with the idea in the first place,

and the trophy is named after him.

We also hosted the first tournament, in 1960,

won by Lev Yashin's Soviet Union.

Wow.

In 1984, a few weeks before my seventh birthday,

France hosted the Euros again.

Euro '84 is everything for me,

because it's actually the first tournament

that I remember.

-COMMENTATOR:

-'Tigana,

'two to his right and Platini through the middle.

'Tigana again.

'Tigana.

'Tigana...

'Platini...

'goal!

'Platini for France.

'I've not seen a match like this in years.'

And obviously, it was in France and we won it,

so it was great.

We had a great team.

You know - Platini, Giresse,

Tigana, Fernandez.

'Bellone through the middle.

'It's Bellone for France.

'Can he finish it here?

'Goal!

'They've done it.

'France are the European champions.'

That feeling of, "You can win."

You know, "It's possible."

You know, growing up, people were always talking about failure before.

And for one little moment, we won.

We won the Euros.

That was just amazing.

'They are champions at last, and who would deny them that?'

Six years later, I was selected to go to Clairefontaine,

the national football institute.

I was only 13, and I pretty much left home,

only returning on the weekends.

I didn't look back. The academy gave us

the grounding we needed to become professional footballers.

It was a massive bounce in my development,

since you had to be good at school to enter Clairefontaine,

and you had to maintain a certain level.

If not, they were going to kick you out.

That shaped me for life.

HE LAUGHS

Wowee.

This is the building of the kids at Clairefontaine.

As you can see, you have Diaby,

Nicolas, Jimmy Briand, Roussillon,

Rothen, Gallas, Ben Arfa,

Blaise Matuidi...

me.

If you see a player on the field

coming out of Clairefontaine,

you already can see straightaway

because that player will play with his head up,

know what to do with the ball.

It's almost like a Clairefontaine way, if I can say,

and I never underestimate, you know,

what I've learned here.

I played in Spain, I played in Italy, and in England -

everyone always asks me

about...about Clairefontaine.

It is the reference.

The names of the guys you can see on the walls, you know, prove that.

I used to come back all the time, being in the national team,

and come in and say "hi" to the guys obviously,

and talking to them about reality and what's at stake.

What they need to do in order to be great in the future.

There was no star on the top when I first trained there,

but respect for the shirt was everything at Clairefontaine.

It's the base for all the national team's age groups,

including the senior team.

Just seeing them gave us something to aspire to,

but always from a distance.

This is the field of the national team.

The first time I came across that field,

or any memories of that field, is...

is me being at Clairefontaine, 13 years old,

and we were allowed

to go and watch a training session.

You know, the likes of Laurent Blanc, Cantona.

We were not allowed to make any noise.

If I wanted to stay and watch a training session,

then as you can imagine that's all you want to do as a kid.

You know, you see the national team.

In 1998, France was hosting the World Cup.

I was expecting to watch my heroes as a fan,

just like I did at training back in Clairefontaine.

But as the tournament got closer,

I broke through into the squad.

I was living out my dream.

Young, raw and eager to make

an impact on the biggest stage.

You know, you're here to perform and try to do your best, you know,

and what a place, by the way, to do it.

Mon chambre.

HE LAUGHS

Memories.

You only see one bed here,

but it wasn't like that at the time.

We were sharing rooms, and rightly so.

In all fairness, it was way better because, you know,

you're going to stay in the camp for a long time, and it's always good if

you can share with someone that you can kind of have

an affinity with.

The...the two beds were actually like this.

The whole thing changed, as you can see.

I mean, you can't compare it to what it was before, but, yeah,

I was sharing a room with David Trezeguet.

You know, I was playing in Monaco with him,

and obviously we went on after that to make history.

For me, being from the suburbs of Paris, I saw that

stadium at the beginning,

when it was kind of getting built.

You could see how the stadium was going and you knew, obviously,

at the end of it that the World Cup was going to be around.

Long time.

Heh-heh.

Going to play...

..25km away from my house, that was just amazing.

As a team, we were focused on winning the World Cup.

But for many people in our country,

there were bigger issues which were hard to overlook.

The end of the '90s in France, they were tough years.

There was riots, there were fights,

and I think there was a sense of lack of patriotism.

You know, what is it to be French

when your parents are from Spain

or Algeria, Senegal or Mali?

It was a problem with integration.

I felt at the time a lot of people were hoping that the World Cup

would give a lot of hope to a lot of people

who didn't have any hope.

# Allons enfants de la Patrie

# Le jour de gloire est... #

I think we grew together as a team.

With the country, too.

So at the very beginning it was a bit hard, but slowly but surely

we grew in confidence, and we brought along the way

people on our side.

This team in '98, with all those different cultures,

profiles, backgrounds.

You know, Laurent Blanc, Marcel Desailly

playing next to each other in the back four...

..you couldn't make it more different.

Didier Deschamps and Zinedine Zidane -

couldn't make it more different.

And then suddenly, "OK.

"Well, they're all together,

"they're building something great together,

"why can't we, as well?"

I think the squad was actually the reflection of the country,

how the country was, you know.

We were trying to find a team,

and France also, as a country, was trying to find a way.

And then when we were showing to everybody that no matter where

you're from or what you believe in, that you can actually

be together and succeed together,

so the fans could relate to what

the team was trying to do and trying to achieve.

We all became one.

-COMMENTATOR:

-'The host nation has won the World Cup.

'France 3-0 Brazil.'

This team actually defines our country.

"This is us, this is all of us. Look, this is us."

And suddenly people are starting believing,

not just the fact that they could do it,

but believing in their own country, in themselves, as well.

When the referee blew that final whistle against

Brazil, that's exactly that moment that everyone,

every single person in the country, was French.

That's where you realise that, OK,

this is something we've never seen before.

Or probably the last time was when the Second World War finished.

But I think, really,

that just lifted the country like nothing else would have done.

It was our first World Cup, so it's always

going to go down in history, no matter what.

People came together.

I would say that, you know,

fans were kind of referring to

the Liberation of Paris.

That's how far they took it.

CAR HORNS HONK

We all know it's only a game, but sometimes it is more than a game.

Two years later, at Euro 2000, things were different.

We were two years older, wiser and more experienced.

We were the favourites...

..and the pressure was on.

'Henry has gone all the way.

'Zidane.

'Oh, it's a goal for France!'

In '98, we were known as a team that were not conceding -

very hard to beat.

And then I think in 2000, it was like the right mix.

If you wanted to fight with us, we could fight.

If you wanted to play, we were also ready to play.

And we had guys that could make a difference at any time.

I think personally that 2000 was our best performance

in terms of how WE performed there.

But you can never expect to have everything

your own way in a tournament.

If there was one match that shows

how fine the margins between

success and failure can be,

it's the final against Italy.

How we won it, I mean, that's still

I think what the Italians must be asking themselves.

-COMMENTATOR:

-'Totti.

'Little back-heel, Pessotto's in here.

'Delvecchio...

'goal!

'Italy have scored,

'and it's Marco Delvecchio.'

We had the right guys at the right time.

So Sylvain Wiltord coming on and bringing the game back to 1-1...

CROWD WHISTLES

'Just look at them on the bench there.

'Oh, I tell you what, Wiltord's got a chance for France.

'It's a goal.

'They've equalised.

'In the third minute of stoppage time,

'Roger Lemerre's world champions are still alive.'

And then you have, I think, the best player that I've played with

in the box, David Trezeguet, to finish the job.

'Trezeguet!

'France have won

'the European Championship.

'It's the golden goal.'

You know sometimes when you celebrate a goal

and you're like, "Hey, guys, guys, let's not celebrate too much,"

because if they score after,

then you look stupid.

But for that one, you could just run.

It was over, and it was the best feeling ever.

You could run for ever and do whatever you want,

because you won it,

it's over. "See you, bye-bye."

'Allez Les Bleus!'

2000 is beauty by definition.

Everything is beautiful.

The way you win it - against the Italians, as well,

you know, the proper rivals.

They hate us, we hate them.

It's fine, that's the way it is.

To do that to them, you know,

when they think they've won it,

everything in that tournament was beautiful.

The power of football is to unite people,

to bring people together from different backgrounds,

different origins.

There's a reason why it's the biggest sport in the world.

For such a simple game, football has immense power.

I've seen first-hand how it can unite the nation

and bring people together in celebration.

-# Ey-oh

-Ey-oh... #

It can also represent a country's identity.

I'm thinking of Holland, I'm thinking of Cruyff.

Total football.

You know, there was probably no team in history who have left such

a mark on world football without winning a trophy

as the Dutch team of 1974.

Although it was a disappointment to lose in the final, it was

an enormous achievement because of the football that we played.

Everybody recognised the orange,

you know, the orange colours.

It was also the way

the interpretation of the game was different.

I think that '74 generation

paved the way for my generation

to show themselves to the world.

'88 was the second coming of the Dutch.

They were the best players in the world, basically.

Gullit had won the Ballon d'Or in '87.

Gullit was the most glamorous, most recognised figure

in world football at the time.

And he was also sort of part of a new kind of footballer

who was much bigger, tougher,

stronger, faster.

That year, PSV Eindhoven won the Champions League.

The year before, Ajax won the UEFA Cup.

So we had a group of a lot of players with

a lot of experience on an international level.

Holland had experience and quality.

They were among the favourites to win the tournament.

But that means nothing once the game starts.

The Dutch lost their opening match against Russia,

with Marco van Basten left out.

He returned in the second game,

against England, to immense effect.

-COMMENTATOR:

-'Van Basten!

'Well, it's a hat-trick.'

Holland finished their group as runners-up.

They now faced a huge semifinal against their oldest,

fiercest rivals - West Germany.

The '88 semifinal is one

of the defining moments of modern Holland

because it's a replay,

in effect, of the '74 final.

Dutch people will tell you that, for them, losing the '74 final

was equivalent to President Kennedy getting shot in America.

I mean, this was a disaster.

I didn't have that sentiment of all these people.

"OK, we lost against Germany and it was not right.

"We played the best football." But I wanted to beat them anyway

because, you know, Germany is

a strong side, our neighbours.

We always have this rivalry with them.

It's about the war, about the fact

that, you know, the superior country.

The younger players there,

we couldn't really figure out what that meant,

this whole rivalry, Holland against Germany,

it had a lot to do, obviously, with what happened

in World War II, unfortunately.

And then the '74 World Cup final, I think,

created, really, that special type of rivalry.

'West Germany take the lead.

'And it's 1-1.'

-GULLIT:

-We had to be on our best on that day.

I think that it was an unbelievable feeling,

the goal that Van Basten scored in the last minute.

'Van Basten...

'it's a goal for Holland...

'..with barely 90 seconds to go.'

To beat Germany in Germany in such a tournament

was never heard of.

'And Holland are through to the final

'of the 1988 European Championship.'

We didn't even realise what was happening in Holland,

because you had no internet, you had no mobile phones,

but apparently

Holland was getting crazy.

It was like one big party.

The whole nation went entirely nuts.

Practically everybody in the country

flowed out into the streets, screaming with delight.

It was the biggest celebration

since liberation in '45.

-KLINSMANN:

-I think '88 was, for me, just kind of overwhelming.

You know, it was in your own country and, yeah, it gave you a sense of

very special occasions

of extreme emotions,

extreme kind of sentiments from both sides.

Well, after the game, Ronald Koeman

swapped shirts with Olaf Thon, I think,

and then symbolically used the shirt

to wipe his backside.

And I think a lot of people in Germany were shocked about that

because I think they felt that it's just a football game.

But I think, at that very moment, it became painfully obvious that,

at least for the Dutch, this was much more than a game.

There's an unpleasant aspect to the way the Dutch celebrated

because they were projecting their feelings about the Nazis

on to modern Germans who had nothing

whatever to do with the Nazis.

It was a little bit too much.

I don't think it was a nice thing to do,

because you need to

always have respect for the opposition.

The USSR had already earned Holland's respect.

Remember, they had beaten them

at the start of the tournament.

But this was a different Dutch team,

a team now full of confidence.

The feeling was almost, like, we couldn't do wrong.

There was no way they were going to beat us, for some reason.

And if you see, also, the goals that we scored,

it was unheard of.

-COMMENTATOR:

-'Gullit's there...

'yes! Holland 1-0.

'Ruud Gullit.'

It was fantastic for me that I could be important for Holland

in that game, but the icing on the cake

was, of course, the goal of Van Basten.

He can hit it another million times

and it'll never get in there like that!

'Van Basten's on the far side of the penalty area now

'to volley it...

'Oh, I say, what a goal!

'That's a beauty.

'Absolutely spectacular.'

Everybody is like, "What the hell is this?"

And he was also like, "Ha! Yeah."

Whatever we do, it will be ours.

'Holland are the champions of Europe -

'their first major trophy.'

It was our moment. It was our time.

The semifinal victory was celebrated in a huge street party.

With the trophy now in their hands, the party resumed.

In just two weeks, the Dutch had overcome their great rivals

and erased their tag as the nearly men

of international football.

And the team returned to Amsterdam to scenes of pure joy.

-GULLIT:

-Of course, arriving in Amsterdam in the canals

and the boats, people jumping into the water,

it was an unbelievable thing.

We couldn't, you know... and then you realise,

like, "Oh, something really, really happened," yeah.

Holland's long wait for a trophy was finally over.

For most teams, winning silverware is ultimately

what you're judged on.

Talented generations come and go,

but not many get those precious winners' medals.

It seems strange to think of it now,

but for years, Spain were a nation of underachievers.

With Spain, every time, growing up and playing against them,

even in your youth team, or playing against them

with the first team, I was like, "Hey, you're not sure of touching

"that ball for most of the game,

"but, you know, somehow we can beat them.

"So make sure we can put pressure, we can be physical with them."

And usually, you get your own way.

And then, suddenly, they understood

that they could beat anyone and everyone,

and, you know, they went on to dominate the game

for a very long time.

When it does matter, you guys always used to struggle, back in the day.

And I wanted to know where, as a team,

your spirit was in 2008 before that Euro?

Well, to be honest, it was basically

the same feeling that you just described -

it was in our heads.

When we had to play against Italy, quarterfinal,

everyone was like, "Oh, my God. The same story.

"France, Italy, you know, we always lose."

And then when it went to penalties, it's like the type of moment

where Spain will just go out on penalties.

What was in your mind when you went to take that penalty?

You know, at that moment, I always thought...

I shouldn't do that.

But I always thought, "What could

"have happened if I miss?"

Because I was 21 years old.

Mentally, for a young kid, you know,

you have a whole country expecting you to score and you let them down,

what would have happened?

But fortunately...

I never did.

When we went through to the semifinal, it was like this

mental thing that it clicked, and we just played

with no fear any more.

When you beat Italy, I was like, "Oh, it's on now."

And you went on to win that first tournament.

And how was it when you came back home

with that first title?

Yeah, it was amazing.

I think nobody expected it.

That's the thing with that team,

that the fans are so grateful

to us because, you know, what

we did, in the manner that we did

because, as you said, we played fantastic football.

I don't know where it came from,

but Xavi had the tournament of his life,

Iniesta had an amazing tournament,

Puyol was defending like a beast, as usual.

And the Real Madrid players - Sergio Ramos, Casillas -

had great tournaments.

I think we mixed different kind of players from different teams,

but we made a real team,

a real atmosphere of friendship, I would say, as well.

-COMMENTATOR:

-'Spain are European champions.

'So often they've been the bridesmaid, now they can celebrate.'

We have to agree that Spain is a nation of nations,

but that's seen by most people as an enriching thing.

It's good that a nation has got a lot of languages,

and people think in a different way.

But of course, there is something

that divides the country, and that's football.

There is the Barcelona fans and there are the Real Madrid fans.

There is no way they can be friendly at all.

That European Championships was absolutely wonderful

from that point of view.

Because we were like, "Yeah, I think we can all identify with that."

Real Madrid fans liked the fact that sometimes

we play it long to Fernando Torres, to Villa,

and Barcelona fans liked the fact that we kept the ball well

and controlled games.

So Luis Aragones was the man that put all that together

and took us the right direction.

The players are important,

-but I don't know if you agree with me that a manager...

-Yeah.

..is as important.

And Aragones, I think he was superb.

The way he spoke to us, the way

he made us feel that we had to win.

He had players to win.

From the beginning, he said, "If I don't win the Euros with this team,

"I will...I will always remember.

"I will have failed, like, so much as a coach."

This was the first day.

How did you approach the World Cup?

Cos you had to bring something

new in order to stay at the top.

Yeah, I think the main difference is that in 2008,

no-one expected us to win.

And in 2010, everyone expected us to win.

We started losing the first game.

I remember that very, very well against Switzerland.

-We beat Chile.

-Very difficult game.

That game, I think I've never felt so much tension

in that bus.

It's like we were going to fail,

we were going to disappoint so many

people if we don't win that game.

We cannot go out in the group stage.

Then you guys went on to win that final.

I don't remember who gave the assist to Andres,

in all fairness(!) Do you remember?

-THIERRY LAUGHS

-No, I don't!

'It's broken for Fabregas.

'Now, it's Iniesta.

'This is it!

'That's the goal!'

We, with France, did something that I thought

wasn't going to be repeated,

and you guys took it to another level,

because then you went to the Euros in 2012 and won it again.

How was the difference there, again, approaching the third one?

Obviously once you've won the two ones as France did, you know

that you are on the edge of making history if it can happen.

Maybe I would say that out of the three tournaments,

it's the one where we felt, or at least myself, I felt more dominant,

more confident because you have to remember

we played with Busquets, Alonso and Xavi in midfield.

And Iniesta, myself and Silva which, we are midfielders,

we are not strikers, we played without any striker

and I think as a team we played fantastically well.

So 2012 is the birth of the so-called "false nine".

It created a lot of debate. A lot of it in England, it was like, what?

You cannot have a team without a striker.

You know, what kind of team is that? You don't even deserve to win.

No striker!

What I felt, though, was that our football was quite conservative and

that again brought a lot of negative press from the outside world.

We left the good football for the final.

In the final it was just superb

and it wasn't...it was doubly pleasing cos it

was against Italy, our black beast, the team that normally beat us.

For many years they had the better league

and the better players, well, not any more!

Here's Sergio Busquets. Through for Torres.

They're appealing for offside. The flag has stayed down.

It's four!

Juan Mata has made it four. Records tumbling all around us.

Spain is not an easy country. It is a very complex country.

A lot of voices.

A lot of ways of thinking about the world but that every now and again manages,

through football a lot of the time, to find one common voice.

Spain's achievements are historic but they were the favourites.

When you are an underdog, it's different.

You can go unnoticed and surprise everyone.

In 1992, a bloody civil war was raging across central Europe.

The Balkans were at breaking point. Among the sanctions

the United Nations imposed on Yugoslavia,

they were banned from all sporting competition, including Euro '92.

Just ten days before the tournament started,

Denmark got the call to replace them.

I've had really sort of mixed emotions.

One was, of course, jubilation because, in many ways,

we felt that we were the better team but, of course,

the civil war in Yugoslavia was in many ways really hard to take

that we then should carry that kind of responsibility into these Euros.

A couple of players had the mindset of probably

we will go to Sweden,

we're going to play three games, we're going to have a shower

and then we're going to go on a bus again and go back to Copenhagen.

That's how the player was feeling at that time.

We drew 0-0 with England

and we were devastated that we hadn't won that game, devastated.

We played the better football.

We even had John Jensen hitting the post.

You know, when John Jensen hits the post, then you know you've had chances!

We deserved one point from that game

and we knew that one point, then at least we can go on to the next

game with some confidence and maybe belief that we can go out and beat Sweden.

Massive, massive game and in this game we really created chances

and they had this little fella upfront called Tomas Brolin

and he had a knack of turning up at the right time at the right

place with the right toe.

And they had one chance and I'm afraid to say that they

scored on that chance and they won the game 1-0.

Famously, the commentator on Danish TV showing the game,

he ended up his commentary saying that we have to now

confirm that Denmark are out of the Euros. He did.

Yeah. He never commentated much after that!

Denmark were not out but they were up against it.

They had to be beat France, the pre-tournament favourites

managed by the legend of '84, Michel Platini.

The French team seriously upset us in the tunnel

and I'm not sure which player it was.

Someone said we should go easy on them

because they had to play the semifinal, you know, so, and it's

just a silly thing to say because it gives you one or two extra percent because

you just want to beat them so much because it's such an insult, right?

Denmark have taken the lead for the second time.

I think when we scored that goal, something happened to us.

From being confused about how good we were

and very unhappy with our performances in the two first

matches and then suddenly we are in the semifinal.

France, so many people's favourites, are out of the competition.

A lot of things changed for us but in this country, everything changed.

Everything stood still for the next week.

Holland was probably the favourite to win it.

They were European champions from some '88 throughout...

I played against van Basten, Rijkaard, Dennis Bergkamp,

we have always looked up to them.

The Danes have scored.

Bergkamp, a goal.

Holland have equalised.

We did everything to win it.

Sometimes it doesn't happen.

And why? Yeah.

Would you believe this?

Rijkaard, it's in, it's 2-2.

I never for one second thought it was going to go to a penalty...

before it went to penalties.

I was that kind of arrogant goalkeeper.

I never looked at who was taking the penalties.

I wanted to feel like I was in control.

That this was MY place and you're a guest and you better behave

and miss.

Oh, save!

When it's van Basten it's massive because, obviously,

he's one of the best strikers ever, you know?

So, it's nice to have that kind of scalp, if you like.

They've beaten Holland 5-4 on penalties.

They found a lot of confidence out of the fact that they'd

beaten us, you know, the European champions.

So, therefore, for them there was no pressure

and I think that that helped them a lot.

We were in the final, we know it's Germany, we know that we'll do our best and then

Germany turns up and win everything, that's what Gary Lineker always said.

Two days before the final

and we have been now together nearly three weeks.

I remember we went past McDonald's.

The coach suddenly stopped the bus and said, "Listen, lads,

"there's a McDonald's over there, we've booked a table for you

"so we're going to go in there and we're going to eat as many

"burgers as we can," and Germany, they saw that.

It was in the press

and I can remember the faces of the German players.

It was like, "OK, we're going to win this game easy now."

'92 was then at a time where you had

so much confidence that it then turned into overconfidence.

Germany start the hot favourites,

but Denmark have been playing against the odds since they started.

They're very happy to be that way again tonight.

I went back to Gothenburg about three weeks ago

and it looks exactly the same.

I could go directly out to that spot where I scored the goal from.

It was quite a fantastic moment for me.

We hadn't talked about John Jensen.

For some reason, he never really scored.

In training, people got tired of having to go and get the balls

he's kicked because they went everywhere and, seriously, they did.

Before the game against Germany, I took five shots

with no goalie in the goal.

The first three, I hit over the bar.

Suddenly there was a guy pinching my shoulder and it was the manager.

He told me, "John,

"if you have a chance in the game to shoot the goal,

"please look at your shoes and don't look up

"because then at least you can hit the target."

-COMMENTATOR:

-The pullback.

And a goal! John Jensen!

A fabulous start for Denmark.

It's John Jensen!

I have to give him so much credit

for always believing he could hit the target.

The very day that we needed it, he did.

It's dramatic, it's delightful, it's Denmark!

We approached the final in a way that it was already won

before we actually played the game. So we got a lesson.

But they totally deserved that result.

Germany turn up and you think you will win this game

and it was a bit of an embarrassment.

You flew home after that final and you just question yourself,

what just happened?

Denmark receive a fabulous and well-deserved ovation.

We played England, who invented the game.

We played the host, Sweden.

We played the pre-tournament favourite,

we played the defending champions and we played the world champions.

I never realised that! Of course, Germany were the world champions.

Now I think we've done well.

Of course, they won it in '90, that's right.

When you go on the pitch, it's 11 against 11.

Of course, sometimes they are favourites but sometimes it's about

belief and I think that was the main story in this one here.

It was like a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale.

What happened is, when we came to Copenhagen,

we found out how big it was.

We actually flew over the town square and seriously, it was packed.

It was packed.

The way the whole tournament ended up, with us winning it,

it highlighted how important sport is.

We won it for Denmark, of course.

Straightaway we always said we won it for Yugoslavia as well.

We showed that, you know, it doesn't have to be violence,

it doesn't have to be war, we can still compete as countries.

Even to this day, it's very, very nice.

Denmark's victory in 1992

was the biggest surprise in the history of the Euros.

The kind of shock you don't expect to see again for a long, long time.

But 12 years later, it happened again.

This time, it happened to my team.

At Euro 2004, we were the defending champions.

Greece were 150-1 to lift the trophy.

That's the fascinating side of football,

you never know what happens in the next moment

and I think Greece is a wonderful surprise.

In the opening game, Greece showed the tournament hosts, Portugal.

Everyone thought it was a one-off.

Portugal, with a lot to do.

Greece, with their moment in football history.

They eventually finished second in their group,

making it through to the quarters, where they faced us.

Greece in the quarters? Easy, let's already think about the semis

and this and that because, in the semis, everything is possible.

Zagorakis away from Lizarazu.

Opportunities here.

Zagorakis with the cross!

Charisteas has scored!

People had a go at us because we lost against Greece

and I remember saying, "I want to see them play

"against the Czech Republic."

Everybody was raving about the Czech Republic.

I said, people will then maybe realise

how hard it was to play against them.

Into injury time at the end of the first period of extra time.

In goes the corner!

And they've won it!

The Greeks have won it,

with the silver goal.

Against all the odds, Greece were through to the final.

They faced the home nation, Portugal,

who they had already beaten in the first game of the tournament.

So who are you going for?

I have to go for Portugal, just because they're at home.

I'm playing percentages, as always. I'm going for the Portuguese.

Unanimous then?

Right, the final of Euro 2004, Portugal versus Greece.

Dellas with the goalkeeper.

They've scored!

Charisteas is the player that got the touch.

And it has stunned the Portuguese.

The unbelievable, the unfathomable

and the almost impossible has happened.

Greece have won Euro 2004!

Yes, it was ugly. Ugly and boring.

It was boring to watch,

but they won't care and the Greeks didn't care either.

I think that if you tell someone, "Would you rather play well

"and reach the quarterfinals, or play ugly and win the whole lot?"

I know where they're going to go.

Greece did it their way. They were resilient, pragmatic in a way.

That was a way of saying to everybody,

it's not about individuals, it is about a team

and a plan that you can have.

They had a plan, they had a good team and they won it.

They played against good teams along the way.

Greece's unlikely victory gives every nation hope,

that they could, one day, lift the trophy,

but England fans know you don't even have to win it

to bring the country to a standstill.

20 years ago, football came home.

The opening ceremony was all about tradition - old England.

But the real show was on the pitch

and Euro '96 showed us a new side to English football.

I think it was a carnival atmosphere in '96, a party atmosphere.

It was just a joy to play in and a joy to watch.

Euro '96 being here, that was really, really exciting.

Just the idea of having a football competition here,

we don't get them that often.

And then the idea came up a couple of times about writing a song.

# It's coming home, it's coming home... #

I remember getting this cassette

with the melody fully formed on it, as far as I remember.

And then me and Frank sat down and we thought, well,

all the previous football songs we've ever heard,

England songs, have all been very triumphant

and the key point about that is, they've always been wrong.

They were always wrong, we never did win.

Never got near winning. Except in '66.

# 30 years of hurt

# Never stopped me dreaming... #

And we wanted something that feels like,

this is actually how it feels to watch this team over many years.

It's a bittersweet song.

Frank has actually described it as a bittersweet love song

to the England football team. And it sort of is that.

# Everyone seems to know the score

# They've seen it all before

# They just know, they're so sure... #

There was a very strong sense in the press and from pundits,

"Oh, yeah, this is a bunch of wasters.

"Look at them, they're going to screw up our big chance

"to win a big competition that's in our home country."

They were under a lot of pressure with drink and the whole thing.

We were up against it from the very start

because on a trip three or four weeks prior to the tournament,

Terry Venables took us away on a trip to Hong Kong.

Then the proverbial hit the fan,

whereas the guys were caught out drinking late in the night,

early in the morning, so the newspapers were all over it.

Yeah, the dentist chair,

it was my birthday as well that time, I know that.

Talk about celebrating your birthday, I did that,

and I didn't realise...

Obviously, it was normal, what was going on back home

but it was when we landed, when I saw the press taking photos of us.

That unsavoury incident brought us together as a team.

How did you feel about having a tournament at home

and the response of the fans in Europe?

We didn't get off to the best start in the tournament.

We played Switzerland at Wembley. 1-1.

We beat Scotland, which was a massive occasion for us again.

This is Neville.

Oh, and there's Alan Shearer!

England had drawn with Switzerland in the first game

and there had been a slightly dour sense of, indeed, the song is right,

it's going to be a disaster, or very mediocre, or whatever.

Then in the course of quite a short time, they get a penalty, Scotland.

Gary McAllister misses. It's saved by David Seaman.

The ball goes up the other end, Gazza scores an incredible goal,

the sun comes out, we win.

Here's Gascoigne.

Oh, brilliant! Oh, yes!

We were in the dressing room.

"Whoever scores, lads, do the dentist chair."

Being an alcoholic, it had to be me!

Game before, I got taken off after 70 minutes.

I got loads of stick from the press afterwards,

so that shut them up a little bit,

but it was such a brilliant goal, I must admit.

I think the impact of a tournament at home is massive.

It definitely had a snowball effect on us.

Once we got a decent result, everyone got a little bit

more excited and the country definitely got behind us.

It wasn't just football fans, it was your mum, everyone,

even people who had never watched a football match

were suddenly swept up in it.

You could see mums and dads and kids and grandmas and grannies

with all the England shirts on and we thought, you know what?

This tournament has just taken off here.

When you guys beat Holland, I was like, "Wow!"

England lead!

Shearer!

Sheringham! It's four.

I thought personally that you were going to win it, at that time.

The Dutch were a very, very good team.

Some big-name players,

but the performance from all our players on that day was superb.

England were on a roll.

Every team needs a bit of luck to win a tournament

and when they beat Spain on penalties in the quarters,

I really thought their name was on the trophy.

But then, in the semifinals, came the Germans.

For England, it seems, it's always the Germans.

We were realistic.

We were not the best team in the Euros in '96.

But we had an amazing chemistry.

We had an amazing willingness to suffer, to go the extra mile.

Germany go up the other end and they are 2-1 up. How often do they do it?

It became a team that won because they played as a team

and managed to hide their flaws and managed to pull together,

but this was not a great footballing side.

Ironically, the one game that was probably outstanding

was the semifinal against England.

Hello again, glad you've tuned in.

You've obviously heard there's a football match on tonight.

You couldn't even describe what the atmosphere was like

from the English fans, how emotional everything was.

It really gave you goosebumps.

The whole nation really got behind this team

and I think it was impossible not to be caught up by that.

Of course, the Germans being the spoilsports,

rock up to ruin the party for everyone!

When you scored that first goal, early on, three minutes?

Yeah, it was early in the game, four or five minutes, from a corner.

And the way the game went, I said, "They can't lose."

Wonderful start!

We just felt everything was falling for us here.

It was all going so great for us.

It was a back and forth. It could have gone either way.

But we had this drive in our group that said,

"We're going to hang in there, we're going to win this thing."

They equalised and it goes to that golden goal time,

as it was then, and Gazza was half an inch away.

Gascoigne!

I don't believe it!

Then again, we go to penalties and because of what's happened

against Spain, we are still confident.

All our first penalty takers, and to be fair to Germany,

there's were also absolutely perfect.

Then we get on to the guys who don't really want to take penalties

and then the rest is history.

Oh, no!

The Germans go through again.

Did you watch the final?

I did watch the final, yeah.

I watched it because I knew I was sitting as top scorer

and I didn't want Jurgen Klinsmann to go

and score a goal or two to take over me!

Thankfully, he didn't. He won the tournament and I got top scorer.

Still Klinsmann.

It was not the most beautiful game,

but we were effective.

And it's gone in!

Getting handed that trophy at Wembley,

that meant a lot, there's no doubt about it.

It means a lot to us Germans to win a game at Wembley!

Staying in a hotel in Marble Arch and I was lying in bed

and it was quite hot.

All this noise and in the street were loads of German fans

singing Three Lions outside the window! It was really...

It's hard not to be a hooligan!

I think it was just a beautiful song.

It hit us extremely in the semifinal with England

because we were overwhelmed by that.

# It's coming home, it's coming

# Football's coming home... #

It became a huge, huge anthem in Germany. I think it's beautiful.

The party that had started in England continued in Germany,

but the tournament's feelgood factor

was felt long after that summer.

Euro '96 had changed how English football was seen,

both at home and abroad.

Certainly being English, supporting England and liking football,

had been slightly shameful, maybe, in the '70s and '80s because people

tended to be associated with,

A, not very good football and, B, hooliganism.

But there is a way of being patriotic that is not

nationalist and I think that was found in the country

and in football and at Wembley at the same time.

Do you replay that tournament sometimes in your head,

thinking, "We could have won it and I wish we had won it"?

Well, I only ever think about it about once a day now,

instead of five or ten times a day!

20 years on, the Euros are almost here again.

It will be the biggest European Championships ever.

With the final in Paris, in the Stade de France,

it may also be the most important.

In November last year,

the stadium was among a number of targets attacked by terrorists.

I think the country is still in shock after the attacks.

The thing that came off it was that we all got together.

We showed a unity, a solidarity.

The world came together, for France.

CROWD SING LA MARSEILLAISE

For me, Wembley, home of football,

singing the French national anthem, that was just amazing.

Football came together.

Wembley was an incredible experience

and I think it will be the same in the Euros.

Yes, everybody will come over and support their team and everything

but there will be a sense, I think,

from everybody coming to France about,

we were with you in November when your country was under attack.

We're still with you now.

24 nations, a festival of football.

The traditional superpowers are joined by talented smaller nations,

with Wales and Northern Ireland going to a major tournament

for the first time in a long time.

France is ready to welcome them all.

All I want to think is that football is my life,

football is a beautiful sport for so many people

and that we will all be happy.

I hope this tournament is remembered for the right reasons.

We all do, because sport unifies, sport makes people happy.

That mustn't be a platform for terror.

It's about happiness.

It's about having fun and, obviously, being secure.

We can bring all those nations together, through football,

the sport that we love the most.

The sport I love the most

and it is the number one sport in the world, in all fairness.

# Once I was seven years old... #

My trip down Memory Lane has reminded me

just how powerful football is.

# It was a big, big world

# But we thought we were bigger... #

The Euros have shown how it brings people together.

Especially when you win.

# Once I was 20 years old, my story got told... #

I've seen it in France before and I would love that for France again.

You will be watching this at home, backing your team, of course.

I'm backing France.

Allez Les Bleus!

# Once I was seven years old. #