ON THIS DAY

England Under 21s met their Italian counterparts in the first match at the new Wembley Stadium in front of a 55,700 crowd. Giampaolo Pazzini scored the first goal after just 29 seconds and went on to score a hat-trick in the 3-3 draw. England’s goals came from David Bentley, Wayne Routledge and Matt Derbyshire.

Southampton's Matt le Tissier missed a penalty! Not an unusual outcome for any regular penalty-taker you would have thought but for le Tissier that proved to be a unique occasion. Le Tissier spent his entire League playing career at Southampton, where he was known as 'Le God', and took 48 penalties and hit the back of the net 47 times. That one miss came on this day in 1993 in Southampton's Premier League match against Nottingham Forest at The Dell. Forest 'keeper Mark Crossley saved the kick, later saying that it was the save of which he is most proud. Guernsey-born Le Tissier made 8 appearances for England but with that a penalty record like that you would have thought that England would have picked him for every match that might have ended with a penalty shoot-out!

In their first season in Europe on this day in 1965 Liverpool finally got past their Second Round opponents, Cologne. After a postponed match, two 0-0 draws in the home and away legs and then a 2-2 draw in a replay in Rotterdam Liverpool finally won the tie. No, not with a penalty shoot-out …on the toss of a coin!