Key Takeaways and Talking Points From Euro 2020
What did we learn from this era-defining competition?
Over the course of 31 days, there were 142 goals, 11 own goals, six red cards, 23 runners-up and one champion.
Italy bested England 3–2 on a penalty shootout, after 120 minutes failed to separate the teams at Wembley.
A remarkable and dramatic tournament finished when Gianluigi Donnarumma saved Bukayo Saka’s penalty. The 22-year old stood up and basked in the triumphant glory of what he had achieved as his teammates rushed to celebrate with him.
The Italians bookended this journey that we all went on together, opening the tournament with a convincing 3–0 win over the people’s dark horses Turkey.
In the 49 games that took place in between Italy’s beginning and end, so many other storylines unfolded before our eyes.
Expectations were generally quite low going into the competition, but the reality is that Euro 2020 was one of the best international tournaments for a long time.
Here are some of the key takeaways and talking points from a wild four weeks.
International Football’s Still Got It.
Whenever the club season gets interrupted for qualifiers/Nations League/friendlies there is a severe negative reaction.
The quality of football usually pales in comparison to that of the elite level of the club game. Managers don’t have the same tactical acumen, nor do they have nearly the same amount of time to implement a cohesive style of play into a team they only see for two weeks at a time.
However, the turgid end to the 2020/21 club season now looks even worse compared to the exciting football we saw across Europe this Summer.
The obvious highlight was, of course, the Monday of Spain’s 5–3 win over Croatia and Switzerland’s dramatic defeat of World Cup holder France, which finished 3–3 after 120 minutes.
It’s hard to argue against that being the best day of tournament football in the history of the sport, it was really that good.
The quarter finals also featured the magnificent Italian 2–1 win over Belgium. This was a match fit to be a final. As was Italy’s penalty shootout win over Spain, which finished 1–1 after 120 minutes.
The knockout rounds of recent international tournaments have been too cagey and filled with nervous energy. This was all shed during the 15 games that whittled 16 teams down to just Italy. Only one finished 0–0 after 90 minutes and none went to penalties goalless.
Some of the strikes were magnificent, Paul Pogba, Federico Chiesa and Karim Benzema were at the heart of some of the best goals of the competition. It was a knockout round to savour.
The Format isn’t everything.
For all the praise of this tournament, none would’ve expected it to happen during a 24-team European Championship.
The 2016 edition, the first with this many teams, was a largely terrible four weeks. There were nice storylines, such as Iceland and Wales’ run and Portugal finally winning an international trophy. However, the football was poor and too many games were far too uninteresting to even remember now, five years later.
Rob Harris of the AP reported ahead of the final that UEFA are considering changing the format again, for 2028, to increase the competition to 32-teams.
While 32 is a more streamlined number, more fitting for this kind of competition, this tournament proved that 24-teams wasn’t the problem in 2016. Frankly, the final 16-team edition in 2012 was just as poor.
If the teams are good enough, then 32 will make for just as exciting a Summer as experienced this year.
Rory Smith of the New York Times pointed out that the next eight best teams that failed to make Euro 2020 weren’t all that bad. The likes of Norway, Northern Ireland and Slovenia all could’ve contributed just as much as North Macedonia or Turkey did.
Spain’s Run to the Semis was as good as any Dramedy on TV.
Spain’s tournament got off to a dramatic start before the competition even began. A positive covid test for Sergio Busquets meant the team all had to train in individual bubbles until negative tests could all be returned. Busquets himself had to isolate for two weeks to recover.
At one point, it looked like the U21s were going to take the first team squad’s place, just to be safe.
Then, when Spain finally played Sweden in their opening game, it really set the tone for what was to come.
The Swedish frustrated Spain to a 0–0 draw, one of only two goalless draws of the entire group phase. Alexander Isak bullied the Spanish defence, but couldn’t find the goal on the break to steal the result.
But it was Alvaro Morata’s performance at the other end that caused the biggest stir. The Atletico Madrid striker’s inability to just put the ball in the goal, despite setting himself into the perfect position to best do so multiple times, was the running gag that made this the best sitcom on TV.
Their entire run to the semi finals mixed the comic with the sublime. No game better summed this up than their 5–3 second round victory over Croatia.
The opening goal, Pedri’s 40-yard pass back, miscontrolled by goalkeeper Unai Simon, being turned into his own goal caught everyone by such surprise that the camera operators almost missed it live.
UEFA and the Spanish FA must surely be considering entering it up for nomination at the upcoming awards season. Morata’s performances especially were up there with all of the best seen on primetime TV.
Spain re-grouped and finally looked to have asserted themselves as a force to be reckoned with by going 3–1 up by the second half against Croatia. However, a calamity ensued in the final 10 minutes that brought the game to extra time.
Spain survived the scare only to go one step further against Switzerland, who they only bested on penalties.
It wasn’t until their final game, against Italy, that Spain finally played their best game. This was the match that showed they were truly the real deal. Even Morata had his crowning moment, scoring the equaliser. And yet they were the ones eliminated on penalties, Morata destined to miss the crucial kick.
The script-writers couldn’t have finished it any other way.
Gareth Southgate is Good, but maybe not Great — not yet.
England reached their first ever European Championship final. It was the nation’s first final at a major tournament since the 1966 World Cup, a whole 55 years ago. Three years prior the team reached the semi finals of a competition for the first time since 1996, and first time at a World Cup since 1990.
This was all achieved under Gareth Southgate. The team itself is filled with extremely talented players, but that has been true of many England teams in the past.
Yet it was Southgate who managed to steer them towards consecutive deep runs at international level. It wasn’t Sven Goran Eriksson, not Fabio Capello, nor was it Roy Hodgson.
Southgate is the most successful England manager since Sir Alf Ramsey and deserves a massive amount of credit for that.
However, the final against Roberto Mancini showed the extra level the Englishman needs to find to get the country over the line, to win a major trophy.
Southgate left the likes of Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane on during extra time, while Mancini took off Lorenzo Insigne and Chiesa for fresh legs in the final 30 minutes. Chiesa did go off hurt, but a lesser manager would’ve kept him on the pitch in order to take a penalty.
Mancini even went so far as to take off Marco Verratti, who was arguably the most influential player on the pitch up to that point.
Meanwhile, Southgate saved his subs for the 119th minute, to bring on two players just for the purpose of taking a penalty. Neither player got a feel for the game, missed their penalty and now everyone is left wondering what could’ve happened if they had come on sooner.
The game was there to be won, especially with Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini on yellow cards during extra time. However, Southgate never dared to take the risk even when the bigger gamble was hoping to win a penalty shootout.
Given his own history with penalties, it makes the decision all the more baffling.
For England, the hope will be that Southgate learns from this and makes more proactive substitutions in the bigger moments. You never know, it might just pay off.
