Match of the Day Top 10 Podcast: Lineker, Richards & Shearer look back at Euro 2016
- Published
Euro 2016 ended unexpectedly early for England - but what were the other standout moments?
Gary Lineker, Micah Richards and Alan Shearer discussed the tournament's highs and lows on the Match of the Day: Top 10 podcast.
There will be a BBC Sport Euro 2016 rewind live text on the website and app on Tuesday looking back at the tournament.
You can listen to the podcast on BBC Sounds.
Dimitri Payet's opening-night goal (Shearer: 8th, Richards: 9th)
Payet scored a brilliant 89th-minute goal to give France a 2-1 victory over Romania in the tournament's opening match. The hosts made it all the way to the final, where they lost to Portugal.
Shearer: He's scored some fantastic goals and this was another one - it was a great strike. He cut in from that left-hand side and bent it in the top corner. It was a great finish from a good player on his day.
Richards: I played against Payet when he was at West Ham. He was deceptive because he was quite plumpish and I thought, 'he's not going to outrun me'. But, for a big guy, he could move effortlessly. Then the way he would drop his shoulder ... and some of his free-kicks were brilliant. I was sad to see him leave the Premier League because I think if he had been there a bit longer then he would have been appreciated a lot more. He was a good player, a very good player.
Lineker: Scorching goal.
Eder's tournament-winning goal (Shearer: 10th, Richards 3rd)
Eder fired a low, 25-yard drive past Hugo Lloris in extra time to give Portugal a 1-0 victory over France in the final.
Shearer: It was a good goal - outside the box, touch, turn. It was a great occasion - I'm not sure it was a great goal.
Richards: He scored the winning goal in the Euros and he gets number 10?
Lineker: Alan - if you'd have scored the winning goal in extra time at Euro 96 - turned and hit one in the bottom corner from outside the box - where would it be?
Shearer: Number one... but if Pepe and Eder are doing a podcast, I'm pretty sure they'd put Alan Shearer's goal at number 10!
Robbie Brady's late header (Shearer: 6th, Richards: 10th)
Robbie Brady's 85th-minute header gave the Republic of Ireland a 1-0 victory over Italy and a place in the last 16, where they were beaten by France.
Shearer: That was a very good header, very timely. They had to win the game, the ball came in from the right-hand side, left-footed cross in, header... I don't know what the keeper was doing!
Lineker: A magic moment. I remember their manager Martin O'Neill pacing up and down - you could see he was so tense.
Cristiano Ronaldo's injury (Shearer: 9th, Richards: 4th)
Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo left the field on a stretcher and in tears after just 24 minutes of the final. He had hurt his left knee in a challenge with Payet.
Shearer: Because of the way he dragged his team to the final, it was all about him - and rightly so. But he got injured eight or nine minutes in and tried to carry on for 15 minutes or so. Then he had to come off and you could see him in tears. For the rest of the game he was up with his coach.
Richards: It was massive. We always thought, 'if Ronaldo gets injured they've got no chance'.
Lineker: I remember watching the game and thinking how many times whoever was directing the final cut to Ronaldo on the bench. It was like every time the ball went out of play - Ronaldo. That's the measure of a superstar.
Xherdan Shaqiri's scissor kick (Shearer: 7th, Richards: 6th)
Xherdan Shaqiri's stunning scissor kick gave Switzerland an 82nd-minute equaliser in their last-16 meeting with Poland, who beat them in the subsequent penalty shootout.
Shearer: Brilliant goal. His whole body was off the floor when he connected with the ball. To even try that from outside the box - no chance!
Gareth McAuley's towering header (Shearer: 5th, Richards: 5th)
Gareth McAuley scored Northern Ireland's first goal at a European Championship in a 2-0 victory over Ukraine. They reached the last 16, where they were beaten by Wales.
Shearer: What a moment for him - and what a moment for Northern Ireland to get through.
Richards: It's still a great moment because no-one gave them a chance. They didn't have great names but they had a great squad and cohesion. To see him score, it was nice.
Cristiano Ronaldo's flying header (Shearer: 4th, Richards: 8th)
Cristiano Ronaldo scored a trademark flying header to give Portugal the lead against Wales in their semi-final.
Lineker: It was one of those headers where it's almost like he hangs and time stops while he's up there, like a basketball player.
Shearer: His spring to get up there and to stay up there for so long - and then to get the direction on the connection of the header - is very, very difficult to do but he does it brilliantly.
Gareth Bale's free-kicks (Shearer: 3rd, Richards: 7th)
Bale scored three goals - including free-kicks against Slovakia and England - as Wales reached the semi-finals, where they lost 2-0 to Portugal.
Shearer: That first free-kick against Slovakia - it had that dink, dip over the wall. And then he had the one against England which Joe Hart should have saved. He was Wales' star player, they looked to him and he delivered.
Lineker: He had a great tournament didn't he? Top player.
Wales beating Belgium (Shearer: 2nd, Richards: 2nd)
Wales reached their first semi-final at a major tournament as goals from Ashley Williams, Hal Robson-Kanu - after a brilliant Cruyff turn - and Sam Vokes saw them past fancied Belgium.
Shearer: It was great. They got on a roll and everyone was playing their part, led by Bale. But that quarter-final was probably remembered best I think for Hal Robson-Kanu's goal.
Lineker: It was out of the blue - it's fair to say he's not been massively prolific and not scored that many goals like that but what a time to produce. They had a fabulous tournament. To go to the semi-final - a country of about three million people - is quite an effort.
Richards: It was brilliant, wasn't it? Robson-Kanu didn't even have a club at the time. It was a moment of sheer brilliance and it was nice to see - you always want an underdog to do well.
England knocked out by Iceland (Shearer: 1st, Richards: 1st)
England suffered their worst humiliation since they were knocked out of the 1950 World Cup by USA as Iceland - a country of around 350,000 people - beat them 2-1 in the last 16.
Shearer: It was just so bad. It was incredible because talk before the game was: 'This can't happen, there's no way this Iceland team can beat our England team.' Then England score - Wayne Rooney gets the penalty early on in the game, 1-0 up. Iceland were renowned for their long throws and lo and behold, a long throw into the box, flick-on and they scored. Then it was like: 'This can't happen, can it?'
Richards: It can!
Lineker: We were doing the highlights. We were thinking we would do the quarter-final, and then it was devastating. The worst shows to do are when England go out, whether you do it live or the highlights, because it's really difficult. You've got to say it as it is. If you play like that against Iceland, a country that has more volcanoes than professional footballers - which is a fact - then your job is to say it as it is.
Sport's Strangest Crimes: Vanilla Ice looks into the disappearance of prized racehorse Shergar
'Be your 100% authentic self': Gay former rugby league player Keegan Hirst speaks to his younger self