ENG: Alan Shearer (53), Paul Gascoigne (78).

SCO: -.

On the 76th minute Gary McAllister (Scotland) missed a penalty kick - David Seaman saved.

ENG: SEAMAN 7; Neville 6, Pearce 5 (Redknapp, 46 - 5) (Campbell, 85), Ince 4.5 (Stone, 77), Adams 5.5; Southgate 5.5, Gascoigne 6, Shearer 6, Anderton 5; Sheringham 4, McManaman 6.

SCO: Goram 6.5; McKimmie 5, Boyd 5, Calderwood 5, Hendry 6.5; McAllister 5.5, McCall 6, Collins 6, McKinlay 4.5 (Burley, 82); Durie 6 (Jess, 87), Spencer 5 (McCoist, 67 - 5).

REFEREE: Pierluigi Pairetto (Italy).

AUDIENCE: 76.684, Wembley, London.

YELLOW CARDS: Ince, Shearer (England); Collins, Spencer, Hendry (Scotland).

RED CARDS: NONE.

No sooner had the crowd stopped applausing David Seaman for the first penalty stopped in EC'96 than we've also seen the best goal of this tournament. Paul Gascoigne got a ball from Darren Anderton, raised the ball over Hendry with his left, cut to the right and shot from the air with his right, beating Andy Goram. 2:0, in a game disappointing me with the result, but by no means with the quality of play.

This tournament has by now three important features - bad refereeing, a low number of goals and most of all, excellent keepers. Mihailov, Pascolo, Rustu, Schmeichel, Lama, Kouba, Ladic, Zubizarreta, Peruzzi, van der Sar... The two we saw yesterday were no exception. Andy Goram proved once more his superb skill, but above all, it was David Seaman, "The Man Of The Game".

The 1st half was scoreless, but both teams showed us they knew how to play a good soccer. A free kick bomb of McAllister from 25 meters (4) found Seaman well-prepared, and on the other hand, Sheringham failed to head it home (13). Seaman was mistaken just once, slipping the ball out of his hands (21), but the defence managed to parry the danger. Two other headers of Sheringham (32, 41) found Goram well-placed, and the shot of McCall (40) went to Seaman.

In the 2nd half, however, England started mightily and was soon rewarded. The shots of Gascoigne (50) and McManaman (51) went near the left crossbar of Goram, and Shearer (47) did not get a penalty kick he wanted so much. But the same Shearer soon raised his own mood, as well as England's. 53: a pass of Gary Neville found Shearer's head, and the excellent scorer had no problems, 1:0.

60 minutes passed since the start, and Teddy Sheringham headed it home, only to see a sparkling save of Goram from the goal-line. On the other side, Seaman managed to throw over the bar the header of Spencer (62). 3 minutes later, "The Save Of The Game" was registered: Durie headed it home from 7 meters, but Seaman sprang from nowhere to deny it.

With 14 minutes to go, the Scotts were 11 meters from the equalizer: McCall sent Gordon Durie into the box, and the latter was kicked down by Tony Adams. McAllister ran and shot a bomb to his left, but Seaman read the direction and flew there to send it to a corner. The next move was the fantastic strike of Gascoigne, securing the English victory.

Main Page	Soccer Page	EURO'96