One of the peculiarities of the ill-fated golden goal rule is that it settled back-to-back European Championship finals.
The rule was introduced in 1993 but it took until 1996 for it to be adopted in senior international competition. Germany were to win EURO 96 when Oliver Bierhoff swivelled in the penalty area and beat Czech Republic goalkeeper Petr Kouba with a shot that he fumbled over the line. Kouba's mistake handed the trophy to the Germans as the only golden goal of the entire tournament settled matters.
Few teams prospered more from the ruling than France, however. On home soil at the 1998 World Cup, Laurent Blanc scored the first golden goal in tournament history to send Paraguay packing and then in the semi-finals at EURO 2000 Zinedine Zidane's golden goal from the penalty spot knocked out Portugal despite vehement protests after Abel Xavier was adjudged to have handled in the area.
The French would go on to lift the trophy but they would have to rely on a golden goal again. Trailing 1-0 to Italy, the French coach Roger Lemerre rang the changes and forced a remarkable turnaround.
“Games against them [Italy] were always very tough, very physical and tactical,” says Trezeguet today. “On top of that, we fell behind to a Marco Delvecchio goal. After that, the coach brought Sylvain Wiltord, Robert Pirès and me on, which changed everything.
Wiltord equalised before Trezeguet completed the job in extra-time after a run and cross by Pires.
Understandably, the former Juventus and Monaco hitman remembers that day at the De Kuip Stadium in Rotterdam with real fondness, not least since France became only the second team in history to hold both the World Cup and European Championship at the same time.
“It was incredible and on a personal level, scoring in the final was fantastic, of course,” Trezeguet recalls. “It was a brilliant goal to watch and it was the final, so there were so many emotions involved. It was a goal that generated so many emotions and meant that we were the first European country to hold both the World Cup and the EURO.
“Time has passed, but we can still feel how close the fans are with the 1998 and 2000 crop of players. We’re very well respected, but football continues to move forward, even though we made history.”
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