GER: Oliver Bierhoff (73, 95 - Golden Goal).

CZE: Patrik Berger (59 pen).

GER: Koepke 7; Strunz 6, Babbel 5.5, Sammer 7, Helmer 6.5, Ziege 7.5; Scholl 6 (BIERHOFF, 69 - 8), Haessler 5.5, Eilts 6 (Bode, 46 - 5.5); Kuntz 6, Klinsmann 6.

CZE: Kouba 5; Rada 6, Kadlec 6.5, Suchoparek 6.5; Hornak 6, Bejbl 6, Berger 6, Poborsky 6 (Smicer, 87), Nedved 6.5, Nemec 6.5; Kuka 6.5.

REFEREE: Pierluigi Pairetto (Italy).

AUDIENCE: 76.700, Wembley, London.

YELLOW CARDS: Helmer, Sammer, Siege (Germany); Hornak (Czech Republic).

RED CARDS: NONE.

The Championship is over, and the game to end it was, surprisingly enough for the final, "The Game Of The First Times". The first Golden Goal, the first full comeback of this Championship, the first severe referee's mistake not to influence the final score... And maybe, the most important - the first title of Berti Vogts as the German National coach.

The Queen stood there, handing the gold medals to the winners. Sometimes the Germans showed pieces of dull soccer, sometimes they enjoyed the bad refereeing in their favour; but still, they deserved to win the title. Yesterday, it was a hard task of defeating the great Czech team, especially being down after another terrible referee's mistake, a strong will to be appreciated much. Vaclav Havel, John Major, Helmut Kohl were there to congratulate the winners too; and Boris Becker hugged everyone when the players ascended to the stage.

The tears were in the eyes of the distinguished German captain Juergen Klinsmann - he had to miss the semifinals because of an injury, but scored 3 goals in the tournament and was a very important part of the German squad. And who wasn't? It was a wonderful tournament of Dieter Eilts and Matthias Sammer, the latter even scoring 2 crucial goals. It was Christian Ziege to beat the Czechs twice, first with his goal and yesterday with a great goal pass. It was Andreas Koepke in a series of fantastic performances in the net, and yesterday he left Germany in the game with a fabulous save after a shot of Smicer, 2 minutes from time. And so on, and so forth... But the happiest man on the pitch was Oliver Bierhoff, coming as a substitute during the late stages of the game and making the picture change.

But first of all, there was a game in which no team was the underdog both before the game and on the pitch. Klinsmann tried his luck with a header (6), and so did Ziege (28), in vain. On the other side, Kuka made miracles; one of those resulted in a pass to Poborsky (13) who volleyed it high.

The first real opportunity was of Kuntz (35), who got a ball 5 meters from the net and tried to throw it over Kouba; the keeper was beaten, but Karel Rada kicked the ball away from the goal-line. Scholl's shot (39) went too high, and then Kuntz (41) failed to beat Kouba in one-to-one, after a good work of the keeper. The Czechs performed a good counterattack, and Eilts made his only mistake of the tournament, losing the ball to Kuka at the left wing of the attack; Kuka penetrated, overran Sammer and Eilts and was denied only by Koepke in one-to-one (43). Rada headed it high (44) from a corner.

The 2nd half started better than the 1st. Bode (48) didn't reach the ball sent by Helmer, and the wonderful combination of Klinsmann - Scholl - Strunz resulted in the latter's shot over the bar (50). On the other hand, Berger shot (54) after a preparation work of Kuka, but Koepke managed to take the ball.

After 59 minutes, the score was opened, after another referee's mistake (when will it end, for God's sake?). A penetration of Poborsky was stopped by Sammer BEFORE the box, but the Czech's spectacular flight ended inside and misled the referee. A penalty was awarded, Berger shot it strong and flat, Koepke guessed the direction right, but the ball went under his stomach. 1:0 to the Czechs.

Berti Vogts felt the title sailing out of his hands, and made a substitution that saved the game for Germans - Oliver Bierhoff instead of Mehmet Scholl. And it proved worth after just several minutes. In between, these were the imprecise shots of Berger (64) and Haessler (70), but after 73 minutes there came the equalizer - Christian Ziege bounced a free kick into the box, and Bierhoff rushed forward to head it home from 4 meters, 1:1.

A great shot of Marco Bode (83) went straight into Kouba's hands; Rada blocked greatly the shot of Klinsmann (84), and Klinsmann wasted the pass of Babbel to head it too high (85). But the best opportunity of the dying minutes was of the Czechs. Dusan Uhrin substituted Poborsky with Vladimir Smicer, the fresh husband. Two minutes on the pitch (89), Smicer swang his defender and shot a very dangerous ball from 20 meters; it jumped on the ground and went to the right German corner, but a fantastic dive of Koepke sent it circling past the post. Two other saves from the corners, one of Koepke and one of Kouba, ended the game. The extra-time.

Here, Strunz tried his luck in vain (92), and Berger missed the frame with a surprising shot of his (93). And here came "The Golden Goal" that ended the story. Bierhoff, pressed by Kadlec in the box (95), managed to turn around and to shoot with his left from 14 meters. The ball hit Hornak, changed its direction and slipped out of the hands of Kouba. It rolled slowly, slowly, slowly ... into the left post and in. 2:1, and it was over.

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