Hosted by England, the tournament expanded from eight teams to 16 for the first time. England got off to a bad start, drawing 1-1 against rank outsiders Switzerland in their opening match.

However, a 2-0 victory against Scotland and a 4-1 crushing defeat of the Netherlands soon had them established as major force to be reckoned with. The Netherlands were on the verge of being knocked out at 4-0 down, but a consolation goal from Patrick Kluivert put them through to the quarter-finals at the expense of Scotland who, having previously drawn 0-0 with the Netherlands, defeated Switzerland 1-0.

The holders, Denmark, failed to show the form of four years earlier and went out in the group stages after a crushing 3-0 defeat to Croatia. The major surprise of the first round was Czech Republic qualifying to the quarter-finals at the expense of Italy, with Germany topping their group.

The knock-out stages got off to a poor start with the first two quarter-finals being decided on penalties after goalless draws.

Despite beating the Netherlands with ease in the group stages, England struggled against Spain and needed the heroics of David Seaman in the shoot-out to reach the semi-finals.

France defeated the Netherlands on penalties, while in the remaining two last-eight ties, surprise package Czech Republic defeated Portugal 1-0 and Germany won 2-1 against Croatia.

The semi-finals started with another 0-0 draw as Czech Republic eventually defeated France on penalties. However, the main focus was on the battle between old foes England and Germany. Described as a re-match of the 1990 World Cup semi-final, England got off to a great start with Alan Shearer scoring his fifth goal of the tournament in the third minute.

However, an equaliser from Kuntz took the game in to extra-time and eventually penalties. As had happened six years earlier, Germany reached the Final after winning the penalty shoot-out, with Gareth Southgate missing a spot-kick in sudden death.

Germany triumphed in the Final despite going behind when Patrik Berger's penalty had given the Czechs the lead early on in the second half. Oliver Bierhoff equalised to take the game in to extra-time and the German striker also scored the Golden Goal, winner, the first in the history of international football.