He had a long-running rivalry with Jim Leighton for the goalkeeping position in the Scotland team. Craig Brown controversially selected Goram ahead of Leighton for Scotland's matches in Euro 96, despite the fact that Leighton had played in most of the qualifiers. Goram justified his selection with an excellent showing at the tournament. He was solid throughout in the opening 0–0 draw against The Netherlands, including an excellent save to deny Clarence Seedorf. Although Scotland dominated their final game against Switzerland, Goram was left increasingly exposed as his teammates chased forward in search of the second goal needed to progress from the group. As such, he was required to make several important saves, notably when he clawed away a header from Kubilay Turkyilmaz in the final ten minutes. Brown then selected Leighton for France 98, which prompted Goram to walk out of the squad completely, 15 days before Scotland were scheduled to play Brazil in the opening game of the World Cup.