20th June 2000, was Alan Shearer's final game for England, having made his debut in February 1992 v France. He scored 30 goals for his country in 63 apps. At 30 years old, many thought he was too young to step down; at the time he was joint fourth top scorer for England with Nat Lofthouse, behind Bobby Charlton, Gary Lineker and Jimmy Greaves.
In what was the last group match of three, in the European Championship First Round, England faced Romania knowing that they needed a draw.
Previously, England had played Portugal in Eindhoven and lost 2-3, with goals from Scholes and McManaman. In the next tie against Germany in Charleroi, England beat their old enemy, 1-0, Shearer doing the business.
Next came Romania and with minutes left, England were happily drawing 2-2, with goals from Shearer and Owen. Phil Neville then got unbalanced and gave away a penalty, Ganea scored from the spot.
England had failed to beat Romania in six previous games, stretching back to 1970 and there was a hurting European Championships First Round defeat in 1998, a 1-2 loss against them in Toulose on June 22nd. Owen was our scorer then.
The failure to beat Romania left England in third place in the group. A draw would have done. It signified the end of international football for Shearer and Ince. Ince had played 53 games since his debut in September 1990. Manager Kevin Keegan's reign was coming to a close.
Portugal won England's group with 3 wins, Romania came second and Germany (for heaven's sake) were fourth. In context, we earned 3 pts coming 3rd and Germany were root with one point! Romania went on to the Quarter-Final, losing to Italy 2-0 and we didn't. Portugal went out in the semi-final to France on a golden goal and France also benefited from the golden goal, in the Final beating Italy in Rotterdam 2-1.
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