Germany won the tournament, beating the Czech Republic 2–1 in the final with a golden goal from Oliver Bierhoff during extra time; this was the first major competition to be decided using this method.

[5] The hosts, England, drew 1–1 with Switzerland in the opening match of Group A when Alan Shearer's 23rd-minute goal was cancelled out by a late Kubilay Türkyilmaz penalty kick.

Groups C and D saw the Czech Republic and Croatia, whose national teams had only recently come into existence, qualify for the knockout stage.

[13][14] Italy's defeat meant they had to beat Germany in their final game to progress, but the World Cup finalists could only manage a 0–0 draw and were eliminated.

The other three quarter-finalists were Portugal (whose "Golden Generation" was competing at its first major tournament), Spain, and a France team featuring a young Zinedine Zidane.

The knockout stage was characterised by negative, defensive play; as a result, only nine goals were scored in the seven games and four of the matches were decided on penalties.

[24] The final saw the Czech Republic hoping to repeat Euro 1976 when Czechoslovakia defeated West Germany; the Germans were aiming to win their third European Championship.

Five minutes into extra time, Bierhoff's shot was mishandled by Czech goalkeeper Kouba and the ball ended up in the back of the net for the first golden goal in the history of the competition.

[27] Forty-seven teams ultimately entered to compete for the fifteen remaining places in the finals, alongside hosts England.

The remaining two second-placed teams, the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland, contested a one-off play-off match in England to decide the final qualifier.

For the first time in the history of the European Championship, the position of teams tied on points was decided by their head-to-head record, and not goal difference.

[33] If two or more teams finished level on points after completion of the group matches, the following tie-breakers were used to determine the final ranking: The knockout stage was a single-elimination tournament with each round eliminating the losers.

UEFA President Lennart Johansson had said that the organisation had felt it was time to bring the event "back to the motherland of football".

[29] The slogan was incorporated into the competition's most popular song: "Three Lions" recorded by comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner with Britpop band the Lightning Seeds.

[37] The song was prominently sung by England fans during all their games, and was also chanted by the German team upon parading the trophy in Berlin after the tournament.

[40] The British Royal Mint issued a commemorative £2 coin in 1996, which featured a representation of a football, "1996" in the centre, and 16 small rings representing the 16 competing teams.

The Sega Saturn version was the subject of considerable media hype and was a major system-seller for the system in the United Kingdom.

[46] The detonation of a van bomb in the city centre injured 212 people and caused an estimated £700 million worth of damage.

Four days after the blast, the Provisional Irish Republican Army issued a statement in which it claimed responsibility, but regretted causing injury to civilians.

[47] The Manchester bombing was the first and so far only major terrorist attack in the host city of an ongoing UEFA European Championship.

The scheduled match at Old Trafford on the day following the bombing went ahead as planned after the stadium had been heavily guarded overnight and carefully searched; the game, in which Germany defeated Russia 3–0, was watched by a near capacity crowd of 50,700.

[48] The large number of empty seats in most of the games not involving England was blamed on a number of factors: a lack of travelling fans from most of the other nations concerned, a lack of interest among locals for games not involving England, kick-offs before 5:00 pm that made it hard for children at school and adults at work to attend, steep ticket prices, and UEFA's policy of only selling tickets in blocks (where each block consisted of a set from each of three price bands).

[51] Despite this outbreak, the tournament overall was free of hooliganism, helping rehabilitate England's reputation after their fans' conduct during the previous decades.