Euro 2020 Kicks Off

After a year of Football played in eerie silence fans are finally being allowed back in stadiums just in time for the euros a tournament that was supposed to be held last year but was moved to this year because of the pandemic.

Instead of one host country UEFA decided for the 60(1)th anniversary of the competition the tournament would be hosted in 11 different cities in europe including Wembley in London and Hampden Park in Glasgow.

The tournament kicked off on Friday 11th June 2021, at Stadio Olimpicoin, Rome as Italy put on a fine display as they dismantled Turkey 3-0 with goals from Ciro Immobile and Lorenzo Insigne along with an own goal from MerihDemiral got the gli Azzurri of to the perfect start. The Italians have gone a little under the radar despite being the most inform team in the competition .

Next up on the Saturday, the other group A match took place as Wales took on Switzerland in Baku, star man Gareth Bale had a quiet game but the welsh still managed to gain a good point as towering forward Kieffer Moore cancelled out BreelEmbolo’s opener.

Finland won their first game at a major tournament as Joel Pohjanpalo headed home against Denmark but the game was overshadowed by Denmark’s Christian Eriksen suffering a cardiac arrest in the first half. Thankfully he is okay and recovering in hospital, some things are more important than football and all that matters now is that he recovers.

The other fixture in Group B was Belgium vs Russia as Romelu Lukaku produced a fine performance as he bagged two in a convincing win for Belgium, while Thomas Meunier scored the other goal. Sunday was the big day as England played their first game of the euros at a sunny Wembley, Raheem Sterling scored the only goal against the Croatians as England got a little bit of revenge for the World cup semi final in 2018. Is it coming home?

Goren Pandev scored North Macedonia’s first goal at a major tournament at the age of 37 but they still came up short against Austria as goals from Stefan Lainer, Michael Gregoritsch and Marko Arnautovic gave the Austrians the win. Netherlands survived a scare as they were pegged back from 2-0 up. New PSG signing Georginio Wijnaldum and Wolfsberg striker Wout Weghorst gave them a two goal advantage but a wonder goal from Andriy Yarmolenko and a header from Roman Yaremchuk put Ukraine back on level terms before Denzel Dumfries won it for the Netherlands.

Scotland played their first game at a major tournament since 1998 but the dream turned into a nightmare as Patrik Schick scored a brace in a 0-2 Czech win at Hampden Park, his second goal a worldy from the half way line. Robert Lewandowski’s Poland slumped to a 1-2 loss at the hands of Slovakia, an own goal from goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was cancelled out by a goal from Karol Linetty but the Slovaks triumphed after Inter Milan centre back slammed home the winner.

Sweden then held Spain to a 0-0 draw and even had chances to win it after the Spanish got tired as Marcus Berg missed a sitter after brilliant work from Alexander Isak. The group of death was up next as Hungary had a full capacity support behind them at the puskas arena as they stood firm against Portugal for 80 minutes until Portugal turned on the style to win 0-3 with Ronaldo scoring a penalty and a wonderful goal after Raphael Guerreiro opened the scoring for the Portuguese.

Two of the most fancied teams then faced each other in Munich as Germany took on France, it was decided by an unfortunate own goal from Mats Hummels as the French ran out 1-0 winners. The second round of fixtures commenced as Russia beat Finland 1-0 with a goal from Aleksey Miranchuk.

Wales then all but booked their place in the knockout stage with a brilliant performance against the Turks with Gareth Bale starring despite missing a penalty. Aaron Ramsey gave them the lead then Connor Roberts sealed the three points in the final minute. The impressive Italy secured their knockout stage with their second successive 3-0 win, a brace from Manuel Locatelli and a goal from Ciro Immobile downed Switzerland.