ON THIS DAY

It's a little known fact but on June 6th 1996 the Czech Republic started out on their successful Euro96 campaign with a friendly....against Bamber Bridge! Just before the Czechs played their first group match against Germany they played a warm-up friendly against the Northern Premier League side. A capacity 2400 crowd and international TV coverage was enjoyed although the result perhaps wasn't - Bamber Bridge lost 9-1. Three days later the Czech Republic lost 2-0 to Germany at Old Trafford and that fixture was repeated on June 30th in the final at Wembley - which Germany again won.

For the first time England played an African nation in the World Cup, against Morocco in a group match at the 1986 finals in Mexico. A disappointing 0-0 draw was marked by the first sending off of an England player in a World Cup finals match when Ray Wilkins threw the ball at Paraguayan ref Gabriel Gonzalez. England qualified from the group in second place with group winners Morocco becoming the first African nation to qualify for the knock-out stages.