Wikipedia wrote:The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, is scheduled to be the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).
The tournament, to be held in 11 cities in 11 UEFA countries, was originally scheduled to take place from 12 June to 12 July 2020. The tournament was postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, and rescheduled for 11 June to 11 July 2021. The competition was postponed in order to reduce pressure on the public services in affected countries and to allow time for the completion of domestic leagues that had been suspended.
UEFA President Michel Platini said the tournament is being hosted in several nations as a "romantic" one-off event to celebrate the 60th "birthday" of the European Championship competition. Having the largest capacity of any of the stadiums entered for the competition, Wembley Stadium in London is scheduled to host the semi-finals and final for the second time, having done so before at the 1996 tournament in the stadium's former incarnation. The Stadio Olimpico in Rome was chosen to host the opening game, involving Turkey and hosts Italy. Originally to be played at 13 venues, two hosts were later removed: Brussels in December 2017 due to delays with the building of the Eurostadium, and Dublin in April 2021 as there was no guarantee for spectators to attend. Spain also changed their host city from Bilbao to Seville to allow an audience at matches.
Portugal are the defending champions, having won the 2016 competition. The video assistant referee (VAR) system will make its debut at the European Championship in this tournament.
Group A (Rome/Baku): Turkey, Italy (hosts), Wales, Switzerland Group B (Copenhagen/St Petersburg): Denmark (hosts), Finland, Belgium, Russia (hosts) Group C (Amsterdam/Bucharest): Netherlands (hosts), Ukraine, Austria, North Macedonia Group D (London/Glasgow): England (hosts), Croatia, Scotland (hosts), Czech Republic Group E (Seville/St Petersburg): Spain (hosts), Sweden, Poland, Slovakia Group F (Munich/Budapest): Hungary (hosts), Portugal (holders), France, Germany (hosts)
From https://www.topendsports.com/events/soc ... inners.htm : There have been nine countries that have won the tournament: Germany and Spain with three titles, France with two titles while Portugal, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Greece have one title each. Spain is the only country to win consecutive titles, in 2008 and 2012.
Year (Host) Winner Score Runner-up 2016 (France) Portugal 1–0 aet France 2012 (Poland & Ukraine) Spain 4-0 Italy 2008 (Austria & Switzerland) Spain 1-0 Germany 2004 (Portugal) Greece 1-0 Portugal 2000 (Belgium & Netherlands) France 2-1 asdet Italy 1996 (England) Germany 2-1 asdet Czech Republic 1992 (Sweden) Denmark 2-0 Germany 1988 (West Germany) Netherlands 2-0 Soviet Union 1984 (France) France 2-0 Spain 1980 (Italy) West Germany 2-1 Belgium 1976 (Yugoslavia) Czechoslovakia 2-2 aet / (5-3) ps West Germany 1972 (Belgium) West Germany 3-0 Soviet Union 1968 (Italy) Italy 1-1 aet / 2-0 replay Yugoslavia 1964 (Spain) Spain 2-1 Soviet Union 1960 (France) Soviet Union 2-1 aet Yugoslavia
Hoping Scotland do well, they have a hard group to get out of but a decent squad that, if Clarke can motivate them, are perfectly capable of delivering a wee shock to England or Croatia.
Looking forward to the tournament but disappointed as I did originally have tickets for two of the Wales games in Baku. A lot of our key players can be quite injury prone so I'm hoping they all come through the end of the season and if so I think we have a decent chance of getting through the group stage.
The 24 team format makes the group stages a bit of a mockery. 24 teams and 16 go through to the next round? How many qualifying matches does it take to get down from 53(?) teams to 24? Might as well make it 32 teams and expand the Nations league.
Had to remind myself of England's group. Croatia again - feels like we've played them a lot in recent years.
I'd put France and Italy as favourites (preferably Italy to win out of the two), then Portugal maybe, then perhaps Spain and Germany, then England, then everyone else.
England have got lots of good players, but I've zero faith in Gary to play to their strengths. I'm predicting dull, slow, turgid stuff with defensive mindsets and either unconvincing 1-0 wins or embarassing draws or losses.