P 17 W 10 D 4 L 3 F 30:A 16
71% successful

ENGLAND

v

TURKEY

02·04·2003

Navy-blue shorts, with navy-blue drawstring. Red stripe running down three-quarters of seams, thicker at waistband and cut diagonally at its end, so that it points inwards. White number on left thigh, with a navy-blue border, in the same font as on the shirt. Embroidered emblem on right thigh, with 'ENGLAND' in capitalised white lettering inside a navy-blue panel above the emblem. Two embroidered white concentric diamonds on right thigh, below emblem.

White socks, with navy-blue hoop across tops. Two large navy-blue concentric diamonds on front of calf. English flag on back of calf.

England's captains wore a red armband with the Three Lions emblem on it, as on the shirts, but in the European Championship finals, against France and Switzerland, David Beckham wore a red armband featuring a black C, and against Portugal, he wore a blue armband featuring a white C.

• A long-sleeved version of the shirt was also worn. The red stripe down the sleeves ended at the elbow and was cut diagonally by thick reverse-stitching at its end, so that it pointed inwards. The gold star was positioned on the upper left sleeve.
• The shirts worn by Ashley Cole and Joe Cole also included their first initial i.e. A. COLE and J. COLE, apart from against South Africa, when only Joe Cole's surname was displayed i.e. COLE, due to Ashley Cole not being involved in that game.
• Apart from the first six games in which this shirt was worn, plus the friendly game against Portugal in 2004, when only their surname was displayed i.e. NEVILLE, the shirts worn by the Neville brothers also included their first initial i.e. G. NEVILLE and P. NEVILLE. In the first two games, of the two of them, only Gary played, and in the next four, only Phil played. Gary also wore his first initial in the two World Cup qualifying matches in 2004, even though his brother was not in either squad.
• For the three games played in the 2004 European Championship final tournament, England had logos sewn-on to the upper sleeves. The Euro 2004 tournament logo was on the right arm and the UEFA Fair Play logo was on the left arm.

• In the game against Wales, England had a black-and-white FIFA WORLD CUP GERMANY 2006 logo embroidered onto the upper right sleeve.

• Against Slovakia, Michael Owen's shirt had '50th CAP' displayed centrally, in navy blue, just below the match details at the bottom of the shirt. Phil Neville (v. Portugal at Euro 2004) also made his fiftieth appearance in this shirt, and may have had the same detailing on his shirt.
• The names of England's opponents, as they appeared in the match details, were AUSTRIA, CROATIA, DENMARK, FRANCE, LEICHTENSTEIN*, MACEDONIA, PORTUGAL, SERBIA & MONTENEGRO, SLOVAKIA, SOUTH AFRICA, SPAIN, SWITZERLAND, TURKEY and WALES. England were named first in the seven home fixtures, plus the European Championship fixture against Switzerland. They were named second in the other ten fixtures.

*In the home game against Liechtenstein, the opponent's name was misspelt as LEICHTENSTEIN (thanks to Simon Shakeshaft for spotting that one!).

• In the home games against Slovakia, Croatia and Liechtenstein, and away to Spain, England wore all white. An alternative pair of white shorts was worn, with white drawstring and the following design details:
  • Navy-blue hem. Red stripe running down three-quarters of seams, thicker at waistband and cut diagonally at its end, so that it points inwards. Thin navy-blue stripe borders red stripe on inward side and runs down to hem, curving towards rear. Navy-blue number on left thigh, with a white border, in the same font as on the shirt. Embroidered emblem on right thigh, with 'ENGLAND' in capitalised white lettering inside a navy-blue panel above the emblem. Two embroidered navy-blue concentric diamonds on right thigh, below emblem.

15 - David Beckham, Frank Lampard (3 sub), Michael Owen

• Beckham, Lampard and Owen each only completed ten of the 17 games. Taking into account the times when each joined and left the action, Owen appeared for the longest time on the pitch in this shirt, by ten minutes more than Beckham, though this cannot be entirely accurate due to the varying amounts of added time at the end of each half.

• Wayne Rooney played in 14 of the 17 games, but did not complete a full ninety minutes in any of them.

• Four players won their first caps in the shirt. John Terry came on as a half-time substitute. He went on to win 78 caps, with only the one appearance from the bench.

• Seven players made their last international appearance in the shirt. For Paul Scholes, the Euro 2004 quarter-final, against Portugal, was his 66th and last appearance.

• Nicky Butt won his 39th and last cap in the shirt, whilst Darius Vassell's last touch of his 22nd appearance was to miss the vital spot-kick that led to England's demise in the shootout against Portugal at Euro 2004.

• Every one of Vassell's eight appearances in this shirt, was as a substitute. Owen Hargreaves also made eight appearances from the bench in the shirt, but managed to start and complete one game, against Macedonia.

7 - Michael Owen (1 Pen.)

5 - David Beckham (3 Pens.)

• Owen also scored in England's penalty shootout, against Portugal.

• Beckham also missed three penalties in this shirt, against Turkey, France and Portugal (in the shootout).

• When the 18-year-old Rooney scored his first against Switzerland, he became the youngest ever scorer in the history of the European Championship final tournament, though he only held the record for four days, until Johan Vonlanthen, a Swiss opponent, who was exactly a hundred days younger than Rooney, netted against France in their next match in the group.

• Rooney's second against Switzerland, hit the post and rebounded in off the Swiss 'keeper, Stiel, so should, technically, have been an own goal, despite UEFA (and the Football Association) awarding it to Rooney. The FA did not credit Harry Kane with breaking Rooney's scoring record until he was actually two goals clear of the total, when he scored his 54th.

• Similarly, England's opener against Wales, credited to Lampard, actually deflected in off Owen.

• Four players, including Lampard and Rooney, scored their first international goal in this shirt. Lampard went on to score 28, whilst Rooney surpassed Sir Bobby Charlton's all-time scoring record for England, with 52.

• The only player to score his last England goal in this shirt was Gareth Southgate, who scored his second for his country after only 36 seconds of the game against South Africa.

15 - David Beckham

2 - Michael Owen

• Once again, Beckham dominated the captaincy. When he was unavailable, as in June 2003, when he was suspended, Owen stepped in as his deputy.

Following on from the bold red stripe of the 2001 white kit, England's next home shirt also made lavish use of red and it was worn at the final stages of Euro 2004, a tournament that threatened to transform a young star into an all-time great, before descending into the usual penalty shootout heartache.

The main innovation in this shirt, yet another designed by Umbro, is the small gold star placed on the arm in recognition of England's sole World Cup triumph in 1966. Somewhat less innovative, but curious nonetheless, was that at first glance, the newly-introduced practice of adding the fixture and date to the chest of the shirt, seemed to have been discarded. However, it was merely re-positioned to a less prominent location, the base of the front of the shirt, only visible when the shirt was not tucked into the shorts.

This shirt, like the previous year's red, was reversible for leisure wear, though the reverse was also white. Women's internationals, Rachel Yankey and Casey Stoney were also present at the launch. The women's shirt had a slightly different collar whereby the red v-neck was deeper and edged with navy blue, rather than the white winged collars of the men's.

One further curiosity was that the Umbro diamonds logo was switched from the left to the right thigh of the shorts for the first time on an England kit. This meant that it had to compete with the emblem, rather than the number, for attention.

On the field, Eriksson's squad qualified for the European Championship final tournament, beating off a strong challenge from a resurgent Turkish team that had finished third at the last World Cup. A brave backs-to-the-wall performance in Istanbul saw England secure their place in Portugal.

The tournament began with a tough encounter with the defending champions, France, where England almost pulled off a memorable victory, but the fates conspired against them. Beckham missed a penalty and Zidane was waiting to provide the sting in the tail at the end. If England were feeling sorry for themselves, Wayne Rooney proved to be the perfect antidote and the fearless 18-year-old exploded onto the scene with two goals against Switzerland.

Just as we were starting to believe that we had a team of world-beaters, the rug was pulled from under us again. Rooney broke a bone in his foot against the hosts and England were left in an epic battle for supremacy, penalties once again proving the insurmountable obstacle.

As usual, we licked the wounds and carried on. A strong start to the 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign and time for a new kit...