Hotspur Towers- Spurs and the Euros - 5

In part 5 of the story looking at the clubs connections to the European Championships we cover the 1988 and 1992 tournaments and discover how the 1992 tournament was won by a team that failed to even to qualify for the finals.

Before that the 1988  competition saw England use five Spurs players this time around during qualifying  and all together in one of the games. We also had players in the Scottish, Belgium and Republic of Ireland teams.

England was again one of the top seeds and started their campaign with a home game with Northern Ireland having been drawn with them in the previous qualifying competition.

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Hoddle and Waddle (who scored) were in the team alongside Barcelona’s Gary Lineker, two goals. The next game saw them beat Yugoslavia and Gary Mabbutt joined his two teammates and scored his first goal for the country. Mabbutt, Hodge and Waddle played in the third game, Waddle scoring in his 25th appearance for England as they beat Northern Ireland. The trip to Turkey saw those three were joined by Hoddle and Clive Allen, in what would be his only competitive game for the country, in a 0-0 draw.

It would be 2016 when we saw five Tottenham players in the same England team again. By the time the two teams met again six months later. There were no Spurs players on display but Lineker hit a hat trick and Hoddle (Monaco) came off the bench. The last game also saw no Tottenham players involved as England won the group three points clear of Yugoslavia. Northern Ireland was third and did not include a Spurs man.

The Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Belgium were all drawn together in group 7. Richard Gough (top image) played in five of Scotland’s games. Gordon Durie then at Chelsea and would join Spurs later made one appearance from the bench.

For the Republic Chris Houghton played twice whilst Tony Galvin (left)  played in seven games.

Tony played five games as a Spurs player and the last two after his move to Sheffield Wednesday. He also scored his only goal for his country as a Tottenham man in his 19th and last appearance when he was with Spurs in the win away to Luxembourg.

                                                                                                                          Below - Gary Mabbutt

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Nico Classen again featured for Belgium in all eight of their games. Scoring in the first game at home to the Republic he followed that up with a hat trick in the victory away to Luxembourg. In their fourth match he fired another hat trick at home to Scotland.

This left him the top scorer in the qualifying group. The Republic won their group, Belgium was third and Scotland finished fourth.

Wales were managed by Mike England but the only player interest was Pat Van der Hauwe (1) who was with Everton but later joined Spurs.

They finished third in their group. Norway included future Spur Erik Thorstvedt who finished bottom of their group.

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Thus England and the Republic of Ireland reached the finals; it was the Irish side’s first major tournament. England included Chris Waddle, Glenn Hoddle(below) now at Monaco and future player Gary Lineker. Whilst Ireland used Chris Houghton and former Spur Tony Galvin. The two teams were drawn together in group B. They met in the opening game and the Irish came out on top by the only goal. After the game the England manager publicly blamed the players and mentioned Lineker by name. It was later discovered Lineker was suffering from hepatitis at the time. Waddle and Houghton both played.

Things did not get better for England as they lost their second game 1-3 to Holland, Waddle came on after an hour. This was followed by the Irish drawing with the Soviet Union. The now meaningless last game saw England lose again 1-3 to the Russians whilst the Irish lost to Holland and both teams were eliminated.

The other group saw hosts West Germany draw with Italy in the opening game. The Germans included Jurgen Klinsmann, long before his Tottenham days, in their side.

Their second game saw Jurgen score the opener as they beat Denmark. The Germans lost in the semi final to Holland who then beat the Russians in the final 2-0 to win their first major trophy.

The finals saw not one player sent off and none of the games even more surprisingly ended scoreless.

Meanwhile back in N17 we finished down in 13th place.

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The ninth tournament was held in Sweden in 1992. This was the last time there would be eight teams in the finals. The qualifying competition saw two new teams The Faroe Islands and San Marino take part for the first time. East and West Germany were both in the draw but after their reunification they took the fixtures that had been drawn for the West.

Scotland qualified for a major tournament and Gordon Durie moved to Spurs in time to play the last qualifying game as one of our players and he scored in a 2-2 draw in Switzerland. He had previously scored in the game with San Marino. 

England and the Republic of Ireland were paired with Poland and Turkey. Lineker and Gascoigne represented England in their opener V Poland which was won 2-0 and Lineker scored from a penalty. The next game was a 1-1 in Dublin. Lineker captained England and it was England's 150th draw.

Incidentally not a Tottenham connection, in the Irish side was Andy Townsend who is now one of the leading pundits on Star Sports. 

Right - Andy Sinton

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Lineker played in the return game and then captained the side in the next two games. Both with Turkey and both won 1-0. Steve Hodge, now at Nottingham Forest was a substitute in the first match. England finished their group games away to Poland. Gary Lineker skippered the side again and scored in a1-1 draw. Andy Gray of Crystal Palace won his only cap and Andy Sinton (QPR) made his debut. Gary Mabbutt also played. Gary has played in three of the qualifying competitions but was not selected for any of the final tournaments. This left England top of the group ahead of the Irish by one point.

The finals saw Scotland included Richard Gough (now at Rangers) alongside our own Gordon Durie. The Germans had Inter Milan’s Jurgen Klinsmann whilst England named Gary Lineker as captain and future player Andy Sinton in their squad.

There was a surprise team in the finals, Yugoslavia having qualified were in the middle of a civil war and UEFA banned them from all competitions.  

On May 30th they invited Denmark to take their place as long as they agreed and submitted a team with a couple of days. Russia had qualified but there place was taken by the CIS which represented a number of the smaller states after Russia broke up.  

Left - Clive Allen

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England got off to another bad start when they drew with Denmark 0-0. They then had the same result with France in the next game (the French manager was Michel Platini) before losing to Sweden 1-2 to finish bottom of their group, this despite taking the lead in the 3rd minute.

The other group saw the Scots lose to Holland and Germany before beating the CIS, to finish third. Klinsmann scored in the game V Holland. Denmark then beat Holland on penalties in the semi finals and completed their fairy tale by beating the Germans in the final 2-0. Meanwhile back in N17 Spurs slipped to 15th place in the table.
In part six, Football is coming home.
 
COYS
Keith Harrison.
t- Keith 16024542
f- peter shearman (old non de plume)
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Notes – 1 - See Connections – Belgium.