By Aneesh Chaudhuri
From eventual champions Italy to England’s implosion and the daring performances of the Danes, here is the tournament’s A to Z moments after the festivities in Wembley came to an end.
Azzurri — The Azzurri won their second continental title after a gap of fifty-three years. They also extended their unbeaten run to thirty-four games. They are the first side to win two penalty shootouts in the same tournament. They came close in 2012 where they lost to Spain in the finals.
Italy’s experienced centre-back pair of Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini was vital. The pair has not lost a game since 2015 when the two have paired as the centre-backs for the national side.
Budapest — Budapest’s Puskas Arena saw a full house during Hungary’s clash against France and Portugal. Empty or only partly full stadiums have become the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic but the Hungarian government had allowed a full capacity crowd at the newly built arena, at the behest of football crazy Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
COVID-19 — A tough format was only made tougher by the pandemic. The protocols were different in every country. More travel meant more vulnerability of getting infected and less recovery time.Many players caught the virus during and before the tournament Jasper Cillessen (Netherlands), John Fleck (Scotland), Billy Gilmour (Scotland), Sergio Busquets (Spain), Diego Llorente (Spain), Dejan Kulusevski (Sweden), Mattias Svanberg (Sweden), Andrey Mostovoy (Russia), João Cancelo (Portugal), and Denis Vavro (Slovakia).
Donnarumma — For the very first time a goalkeeper has won the Euro Player of the Tournament award. The 22-year-old was incredible behind the posts. He played seven hundred and nineteen minutes, conceded four and kept three clean sheets.
Italy conceded only in the Round of 16, letting in a goal for the first time in over a thousand minutes. He was crucial to guide them out victorious of the dreaded penalty shootouts in both the semis and finals.
Eriksen — Denmark Skipper Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch during their team’s lung opener against Finland. This incident sent chills to billions of viewers across the globe.
Experts quickly attended to him and gave him CPR while players formed a human barrier around him. Eriksen was carried out on a stretcher and brought to the nearby hospital. Later the Danish FA confirmed that Eriksen was stable.
Free kicks — The Euros saw just one direct free kick goal. Mikkel Damsgaard gave Denmark the lead over England with a 25-yard stunner. It was also the first goal that England conceded in the tournament.
Goran — North Macedonian football legend Goran Pandev led his nation to their first ever major tournament. Though the nation finished bottom of Group C, their participation itself was historic. Captain Pandev has had a notable career winning the Serie-A, UEFA Champions League amongst many other major club laurels. He scored the nation’s first goal against Austria.
Pandev is Macedonia’s most capped and highest goal scorer. He announced his retirement after their Euro campaign.
Headers — There have been twenty four headed goals scored in this edition of the Euros, the most in a single edition of the competition in its history.
It’s Not Coming Home — It was another let down for England, who continue to search for their first major silverware in the international stage since their 1966 World Cup triumph.
It was a big blow for England who were seeking to win their first ever Euro title. However, a redeemed Italy ended their hopes and dreams in the finals. Despite failing to win, England has plenty of hope again. The national team has been able to unite the nation and the team will be rearing to go again in Qatar 2022.
Joachim Löw — After fifteen long years of serving as the head coach of Die Mannschaft, Löw had decided that the Euros would be his last major tournament with the national team. Germany lost to England in the Round of 16.
Löw had an illustrious career as coach of Germany. He won the World Cup 2014, Confederations Cup 2017 and finished runners up at the 2008 Euros.
Kjaer — The 32-year-old Danish and AC Milan defender showed why he is a leader on and off the pitch. When his dear friend Eriksen collapsed on the pitch, Kjaer ran from one end of the pitch to the other where he stabilized Eriksen’s head and opened his mouth to prevent him from choking on his tongue. This act was vital in saving his captain’s life.
Luis Enrique — For the very first time in Spain’s history, no Real Madrid player had been selected for the Euros. Luis Enrique decided to leave out the likes of Sergio Ramos, Marco Asensio, Nacho Fernandez from Spain’s final list.
While Ramos’exclusion is understandable given his lack of minutes and fitness in 2021, the omission of Nacho is harder to comprehend for Real Madrid supporters, with him having had an excellent season.
Mbappe — Much was expected of French superstar Kylian Mbappe. The 2018 star performer could not showcase the same this Euros. Mbappe got zero goals and just one assist. He took the crucial fifth penalty against the Swiss which was a poor effort and was saved by Yann Sommer.
Mbappe had a feud with teammate Olivier Giroud prior to the France’s opener. It is also alleged that teammate Adrien Rabiot’s mother had a word with Mbappe’s father to speak to Mbappe as Mbappe was too arrogant and not a team player.
Neil Diamond — English fans adopted Neil Diamond’s classic ‘Sweet Caroline’ as their unofficial anthem this Euros. It was first played by the DJ in Wembley Stadium after the team’s resounding win over the Germans. The English fans went berserk as they sang the love song, joined by a few German fans as well. The song has been popular in England with Cricket and Boxing.
After the Semi Final win over Denmark, England manager Gareth Southgate and the whole England squad stayed on the field singing the song along with the fans.
Own Goals — Euro 2020 has produced the highest amount of own goals. With eleven own goals, Euro 2020 has now surpassed the total own goals scored at every previous edition of the tournament combined. The opening goal of the tournament was in fact an own goal by Mehri Demiral of Turkey.
Patrik Schick — The Czech forward had a dream run in the Euros this summer. He scored five goals alongside Cristiano Ronaldo.
Schick perhaps scored the goal of the tournament against Scotland at Hampden Park. He spotted the goalkeeper off his line, launched a shot from just inside the halfway line, and gave his team a two- nil win.
Quarter-Finals — Two goals from Harry Kane, one for Harry Maguire and a first international goal for Jordan Henderson destroyed Ukraine’s dreams of a semi-final spot. This was England’s biggest ever win in the knockout stages of the Euros.
Remo Freuler was sent off in the 77th minute for his tackle on Gerard Moreno. Extra Time was needed but with 10-men, Switzerland held Spain to 1-1. However, Spain held on to their nerves as they beat Switzerland 3-1 on penalties.
Denmark’s impressive run continued as they got the better of Czechs, the Danes had gone from strength to strength since the trauma of their opening game.
Italy reached the Euro 2020 semi-finals with a 2-1 win over Belgium goals from Nicolo Barella and Lorenzo Insigne in the first half settled a thrilling encounter against the number one-ranked team in the world.
Ronaldo — The Portuguese striker scored 5 goals and delivered 1 assist, winning his first ever Golden Boot award in the tournament. He has overtaken Platini (9) as the highest scorer in the history of the competition with 14 goals.
Ronaldo is the only player to take part in five Euro editions since 2004. He also equaled Iranian Ali Daei’s record of 109 international goals.
Skillzy — The official mascot of the UEFA Euro 2020 was described by UEFA as a “larger-than-life character inspired by free styling, street and panna culture”. The mascot was unveiled in March 2019.
The freestyle-loving humanoid is intended to be an interactive mascot who unites football fans from various countries and cultures.
Twelve Cities — Amsterdam, Baku, Bilbao, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Glasgow, London, Munich, Rome, Seville and St Petersburg were the cities chosen for Euro 2020, as the format changed for the first time from just one or two nations hosting games as a celebration of its 60th anniversary.
Uniforia — Uniforia by Adidas was the official match ball of the tournament named after unity and euphoria that the tournament strived to bring. Euro 2020 took place across 11 nations and the Uniforia was designed to celebrate this inclusiveness.
VAR — For the very first time, VAR has been used in the UEFA Euros. The remote officials based at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland had direct communication with the match referee and officials for all matches.
We Are The People — UEFA Euro official anthem ‘We Are The People’ by Dutch DJ Martin Garrix was released in May. It also featured Bono and The Edge. The song is accompanied by an official music video starring all the three artists. The song fits the theme of UEFA Euro 2020, ‘Unity’.
Xenophobia — Austrian forward Marko Arnautovic’s goal celebration against North Macedonia sparked controversy. Arnautovic, whose father is Serbian, was accused of yelling an anti-Albanian slur during the goal celebration. UEFA found him guilty and he was awarded a one match ban. Similarly a young German girl was subject to online abuse after Germany lost to England.
UEFA also opened an investigation into Hungary’s matches against Portugal and France in Budapest. Before Hungary’s match against France, Hungarian fans marched to the stadium displaying a banner calling on players to stop taking a knee to protest racism.
After England’s defeat to Italy in the penalty shootouts, Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jordan Sancho were all subject to vile racist abuse on social media. The Football Association and Prime Minister Boris Johnson have strongly condemned the incident meted out by the fans.
Yann Sommer — The Swiss No.1 pulled off the most heroic performance of this year’s European Championships. Over the 120 minutes of the game against Spain, Sommer made 10 saves, the record for the most saves by a goalkeeper in Euro 2020. He also stopped Mbappe’s shot in their historic win over World Champions France in the Round of 16.
Zlatan — The star studded Euros saw one of the finest stars, Zlatan Ibrahimovic missing out due to a knee injury he sustained late into the season with AC Milan. Five years into his retirement, the Swedish football icon announced his comeback to international football but could not take part in the Euros.