The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, or as one refers to as the UEFA Euro 2020, or simply Euro 2020, is the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), which is also known to host one of the most prestigious club football tournaments known as the UEFA Champions League. Being held in 11 cities in 11 UEFA countries, the tournament was initially scheduled from 12 June to 12 July 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID 19 pandemic and rescheduled for 11 June to 11 July 2021. It retains the name UEFA Euro 2020.
The following points include everything you need to know about the biggest football cup in europe:
1.Venue
2.Qualifying procedure
3.Groups
4.Knockout stage
5.Underrated teams showing their capabilities
6.Statistics
7.Final fixture
1.VENUE
The federation decided that each city will host three group stage matches and one match in the round of 16 or in the quarter-finals, Saint petersburg was an exception here which hosted six group stage matches, London will host two games in the round of 16. The distribution of matches for the eleven stadiums is as follows:
-> Group stage, round of 16, semi-finals and final: London(England)
-> Group stage and quarter-finals: Baku (Azerbaijan), Munich(Germany), Rome (Italy), Saint Petersburg(Russia)
-> Group stage and round of 16: Amsterdam(Netherlands), Bucharest(Romania), Budapest(Hungary), Copenhagen(Denmark), Glasgow(Scotland), Seville(Spain)
2.QUALIFYING PROCEDURE(As stated by european football federation)
The procedure states that 55 teams were split into 10 groups of five or six. Four of the five groups of five contain one team that has qualified for the UEFA Nations League Finals. The top two teams from each group will be eligible for the final tournament, determining the first 20 places.
Play-offs (four teams qualify):
The last four EURO places will be won through the European Qualifiers play-offs, which will be contested by the 16 UEFA Nations League group winners (i.e., the four group winners in each of the four divisions).
Each league has a course of its own and will feature two single-leg semi-finals and one single-leg final. The winner of each course will win a ticket to UEFA EURO 2020.
3.GROUPS
Group A: ITALY , WALES, SWITZERLAND , TURKEY
Group B: BELGIUM, DENMARK, FINLAND, RUSSIA
Group C: NETHERLANDS, AUSTRIA, UKRAINE, NORTH MACEDONIA
Group D: ENGLAND, CROATIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, SCOTLAND
Group E: SWEDEN, SPAIN, SLOVAKIA, POLAND
Group F: FRANCE, GERMANY, PORTUGAL, HUNGARY
Extra info: Group F was known as “Group of death” as it contained the world’s powerhouses teams.
4.KNOCKOUT STAGES:
Knockout stages, which, as suggested by its name, is the part of the tournament where the losing team gets knocked out from the tournament. The top two teams in their respective groups go through along with the best four of the six third-placed teams. Knockout stages often transpire to be the most exciting aspect of any tournament. These stages force a team to play 30 extra minutes in case the scores are level after 90 minutes. Suppose the scores are still level after 30 additional minutes. In that case, the spectators and the players experience the nail-biting penalty shootout, making even a neutral fan's heart race. The knockout stages conclude with the final, which ends up in crowning the champion. This time the final was played between a resurgent Italian side that failed to make it through to the World Cup in 2018 and a young English side looking to get its hand on its first European Championship. The final was played in the world-renowned Wembley stadium, where fans of both the teams were hoping to see their nations lift the silverware.
5. UNDERRATED TEAMS SHOWING THEIR CAPABILITIES:
As is the case with every major tournament, fans and football pundits have favorites declared to win the tournament. However, as seen multiple times, some of the favorites get knocked out early, and some underdogs end up going deep into the tournament. This time, there were some significant shocks as the defending champions Portugal and the reigning world champions France got knocked out in the Round of 16 by Belgium and Switzerland, respectively. The Round of 16 also ended up in the Germans getting knocked out at the hands of England. Teams like Ukraine, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic made it through to the quarter-finals. Underrated players like Patrik Schick and Yann Sommer had a stellar tournament. However, the team that stole everyone's heart was Denmark. Denmark got off to a bad start which started with losing one of their key players in Christian Eriksen for the rest of the tournament. Christian Eriksen had suffered a cardiac arrest on the field while the game was on. Fortunately, he recovered from it. The Danish side ended up losing their first two games and scraped through to the knockout stages. However, this Danish squad showed heart, desire and showed the entire world how mentally strong each of the players, coaches, manager, and backroom staff were as they made it through to the semi-finals of the tournament only to get knocked out by England after giving them a tough fight.
6.STATISTICS:
The leading goal scorers for the tournament are Cristiano Ronaldo and Patrik Schick, with five goals each. They are followed by Romelu Lukaku, Karim Benzema, Harry Kane, and Emi Forsberg, each with four goals. The Swiss International Steven Zuber leads the Assists table with four assists to his name, followed by Pierre Emile HØjbjerg, Luke Shaw, and Dani Olmo, each with three assists. Jordan Pickford leads the goalkeeper’s list for the most clean sheets in the tournament with 5 and is followed by Thibaut Courtois and Gianluigi Donnarumma with 3 each. The tournament has seen a total of 142 goals being scored(penalties have not been considered). The tournament holds a bizarre record for the most own goals scored in a single Euro’s Tournament. Only 20 own goals have been scored in the 16 European championships to date and 11 of those happen to be scored in this edition of the tournament
7.FINAL FIXTURE:
The European Championship final held on Sunday pitted England and Italy against each other. England took the lead with Luke Shaw striking in the 2nd minute, the quickest ever goal in an euro final. Leonardo Bonucci scored the equalizer for Italy in the 67th minute.
No goal was scored after the equalizer and the score remained 1-1 at the end of 90 minutes as well as after Extra-Time.Two outstanding saves by Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma led the country to become European champions by winning 3-2 on penalties.
