England Embarrasses Holland
England, which hit bottom when it failed to qualify for the World Cup finals in 1994, emphatically rejoined the world’s soccer elite by humiliating the Netherlands, 4-1, on Tuesday to gain a berth in the quarterfinals of the European Championship.
Before 76,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham scored two goals each to crush the highly regarded Dutch. Shearer netted his first from the penalty spot in the 21st minute and then England scored three times in a 10-minute spurt in the second half.
The Dutch were saved further embarrassment when Patrick Kluivert, who entered the game with 18 minutes to play, scored five minutes later and that goal was enough to knock out Scotland, which downed Switzerland, 1-0, at Villa Park.
The Dutch and the Scots wound up tied in points and the Dutch survived because they had scored more goals in the Group A games.
“We are still alive,” a relieved Dutch Coach Guus Hiddink said. “The English taught us a lesson in all aspects of the game--in defense, in offense. They had four or five opportunities to score and took most of them.”
France and Spain also made it to the quarterfinals while Bulgaria, which reached the World Cup semifinal two years ago, didn’t advance.
Ally McCoist scored Scotland’s first goal of the championship but it wasn’t enough to put the team through for the first time in its history.
France downed the Bulgarians, 3-1, at Newcastle, with defender Laurent Blanc scoring the first goal in the 20th minute before he forced an own goal by Bulgarian striker Luboslav Penev in the 63rd minute. Substitute Patrice Loko scored in the final minute.
Hristo Stoichkov curled home a free kick for Bulgaria in the 68th minute to make it three goals in three games.
The result meant France stretched its unbeaten streak to 25 games, which goes back to a World Cup qualifying game loss to the Bulgarians in November 1993.
In another Group B game, a diving header by substitute Guillermo Amor with seven minutes to play gave Spain a 2-1 victory over Romania, which already had been eliminated.
Javier Manjarin gave Spain the lead after 11 minutes before Florin Raducioiu replied for Romania’s first and only goal of the tournament in the 29th minute.
