| Euro 1996 was the first European Championship to introduce the current format of 16 countries competing in the final tournament. Fifteen teams had to go through a qualifying round to reach the final stage. England qualified automatically as hosts of the event. The winner and the runner-up of each group qualified automatically, with the exception of the two worst runners-up. These two teams had to play an additional playoff between them (single match in neutral ground), to determine the 16th team to join all others in the final tournament. This was between Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands at Anfield Stadium, Liverpool which the Dutch won 2-0. The first round group stage went mainly as most observers would have expected, with almost all the major teams qualifying for the quarter-finals. The only exceptions to this were the failures of Italy (from the "Group of Death" which also had Germany and the Czech Republic in it) and defending champions Denmark. The hosts England, after a slow start against Switzerland, defeated arch rivals Scotland and then defeated the Netherlands 4-1 with a superb performance to qualify. However, the knock-out stages were marked for their generally uninspiring play. Only 9 goals were scored in the 7 matches, with four of the games decided by penalty shoot-outs (three of them without goals). The semi-final between England and Germany ultimately ended in disappointment for the home side, as Germany beat England on penalties! The Euro '96 final was held at Wembley and featured Germany and the surprise of the tournament - the Czech Republic. In the end, it was a triumph for German striker Oliver Bierhoff, who scored Germany's equaliser in the 2nd half after Patrik Berger's penalty had given the Czechs the lead. As the game went into extra time, it was Bierhoff who scored the first Golden Goal in the history of international football to give Germany another major tournament success. | 
