UEFA EURO 1996 (champions - Germany)
EURO '96 in England ended at Wembley with Germany beating the Czech Republic 2-1 in extra time. Substitute Oliver Bierhoff headed an equaliser after Patrik Berger's penalty, then scored senior international football's first golden goal - a goal the referee first checked for offside, and whose minute UEFA's own pages still give differently.
Why this wins its question: The golden goal everyone can name, with the three things nobody carries: UEFA gave Man of the Match to Poborsky on the losing side, the goal was checked for offside before it stood, and UEFA's own pages disagree both on its minute and on how many extra players Germany were allowed to call up. All three are stated here rather than smoothed over, with the disagreeing pages named and dated.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
Germany beat the Czech Republic 2-1 after extra time in the EURO '96 final at Wembley, in front of over 76,000 spectators, in what was Germany's fifth continental final.
Patrik Berger put the Czechs ahead from the penalty spot before the hour, after Matthias Sammer brought down Karel Poborsky in the box. Berti Vogts sent on Oliver Bierhoff with 21 minutes remaining, in the 69th minute for Mehmet Scholl, and Bierhoff headed in Christian Ziege's deep free-kick from the right, goalkeeper Petr Kouba having stayed on his line.
Bierhoff then scored what UEFA's match report calls senior international football's first golden goal: on the edge of the box with his back to goal he turned and struck a left-foot shot that hit Michal Hornak on the way through, and Kouba let it slip through his hands and in off the far post.
UEFA's pages do not agree on when it was scored. The match report gives the 95th minute and the EURO Classics retrospective says it took just five minutes of extra time, while the tournament review places it four minutes into extra time. Two of the three point to the 95th minute.
Germany went into the final so depleted that Jurgen Klinsmann played with a calf problem and UEFA granted them a squad dispensation - described by the match report as permission to add two new players and by the EURO Classics piece as one extra player. Vogts later said he had nine fit players before the final and that his third goalkeeper, Oliver Reck, sat on the bench with an outfield shirt.
UEFA named Karel Poborsky, of the beaten Czech side, Man of the Match; the referee was Pierluigi Pairetto of Italy. Sammer recalled that Germany's celebrations paused while the referee consulted his assistant about a possible offside before the golden goal was allowed to stand.
EURO '96 was the first tournament at which the golden-goal rule applied, with 16 nations playing in England. The Czech Republic reached the final having lost their opening group game 2-0 to the same Germany, and having beaten France on penalties after 120 goalless minutes in the semi-final; Germany eliminated hosts England on penalties in the other.