Euro 2020: A Tournament For Our Times
Words by Dylan Mangan.
Expectations for Euro 2020 couldn’t have been lower. After a season that didn’t seem to take a day off, the tournament felt like it would be the sixth film in a Lord of the Rings/Hobbit marathon. Players were tired after a difficult season in testing conditions, I was tired after trying to keep up with a difficult season in testing conditions. The sheer, oppressive amount of football that’s been on in the past 12 months is unfair to anyone who has been trying to have some sort of life outside of this one silly interest. A month of relentless nonstop football as a denouement to a year of relentless nonstop football? Sure, why not.
Whether you liked it or not, Euro 2020 was happening this year, and the buildup raised questions that were answered throughout the tournament in UEFA’s typical fashion of not actually answering any questions. How would UEFA deal with the logistical nightmare of teams qualifying for matches that would be played in countries their fans couldn’t travel to? By pretending it wasn’t a problem. How would UEFA deal with the obvious political complications brought by rewarding Victor Orban’s far-right regime and allowing full stadiums - with fascist and homophobic banners - during a pandemic? By ignoring the issue entirely before releasing a statement that sounded like it was written by an AI that learned how to think by only analysing the Tory party’s social media. How would UEFA react to the shocking collapse of Christian Eriksen during a match? By giving the teams a quick pat on the back before turning them around and sending them onto the pitch again.
Off the pitch, Euro 2020 was, in many ways, a disaster. It was a seedy tournament run for all the wrong reasons featuring players who were run into the ground, a theme elite football is becoming fond of. The format - since described by UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin as “unfair” - was at best ill-advised, at worst immoral. Everything about how the tournament was organised, and how UEFA behaved, was disgraceful. If you want to see football at its worst, then look no further.
But then they started playing.
From the first game, the football was enthralling, Italy beat most people’s dark horses Turkey 3-0 to start things off, and we never looked back. The group stages brought the colour of a Goran Pandev led North Macedonia and the goal of the tournament from the halfway line by Patrick Schick. They had the drama of Denmark’s recovery from defeats in their first two games to blow away Russia and qualify for the knockout stages riding a wave of emotion. On the pitch, Hungary were excellent in the group of death, scaring both Germany and France before narrowly missing out on qualification. There were only two scoreless games out of 36, and every one was interesting for different reasons.
The knockout stage was the best two weeks of football I’ve ever seen. Individual games can claim to be better, but this might have been the best we’ll ever have. The Round of 16 featured two of the games of the tournament on the same day. Spain vs Croatia was a fever dream of own goals, comebacks, redemption stories, end-to-end drama and high-speed tension. This was Mad Max: Football. Switzerland, usually the blandest team in international competitions, took a shock lead against everyone’s favourites France before conceding three goals of the highest quality. The last ten minutes of the normal time were knockout drama at its best, as the Swiss blew past France to level the game before going through on penalties.
Penalties are both the worst and best thing about football. They are excruciatingly entertaining, and very little else in sport can condense years of narratives and drama into a single kick of a ball. Spain vs Italy in the first semi-final was an incredible game played at an exhilarating pace. Italy had been the best team at the tournament and played one of the favourites Belgium off the park in their quarter final. Spain had been a contradiction of excellence and calamity up to this point, and the general feeling was Italy would win easily. However, Spain played their best game of the tournament, led by the breakout star of the summer, 18-year-old Pedri, a central midfielder somehow reminiscent of both Xavi and Iniesta. They fell behind to a goal from Chiesa before Alvaro Morata equalised. Morata is a tragic figure, who even when he plays well looks like he’s just been told his dog has died. He is a self-fulfilling prophecy of missed chances. And so, when the game went to penalties and Morata was the Spaniard who had to score to keep them in the game, the penalty was missed before it was even taken, and Italy went through.
Italy's rise to the final from the relative ashes of failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup is remarkable in many ways. In November 2017, Italy faced Sweden in a playoff, needing a win to qualify for the World Cup. 1-0 down from the previous leg, and with the game tied at 0-0, manager Giampiero Ventura sent one of his assistants to ready defensive midfielder Danielle de Rossi to be brought on. “Why the hell should I go on?” he responded, “We don't need a draw here. We need to win.” instead pointing towards attacker Lorenzo Insigne, suggesting he was the one they needed. Insigne was left on the bench, and Italy failed to score. Four years on and Insigne is one of the team's best players and leaders. New manager Roberto Mancini revolutionised the way they play, with attacking, possession football now coming naturally to a stereotypically defensive side. Their combination play and determination to control games brought them to the final.
A final that would face them off against England. Plucky little England. Where do you even begin? Perhaps with a line of coke? It was baffling to watch a country slowly losing their minds at the mere idea of success. With each passing win as they progressed to the final English fans became more frenzied, but up until the morning of the final itself joy remained a crucial part of the concoction of drugs and alcohol that fuelled them. A flare up a man’s arse at 2pm on the day of the final signalled things would be different - without red smoke there is no fire. Fans destroyed Leicester Square, caused the evacuation of King’s Cross and turned Wembley Way into an obstacle course of sexual assault and abuse. Wembley itself was breached in a Capitolesque riot and ticketless fans streamed into the stadium. The level of carnage was surprising, but the fact there was some was not. England away fans are notoriously poorly behaved. They are the Viking pillagers of football - they’ll come to your village, have their way and leave. In 2019, England fans rioted in Portugal as they travelled for the Nations League, a competition nobody cares about, so of course they would do the same for a Euros final. The fact that the village was their own was trivial, and England finally experienced what it is like to host the English.
The final itself was a gripping affair set alight by England scoring within two minutes, and for the majority of the first half Italy looked like they had finally met their match. A couple of tweaks from Mancini at half-time, followed by substitutions early in the second half helped Italy regain control of the game and from there, only one team looked like winning. England were starved of chances and the ball, and while Italy were brave in taking off some of their best players and putting faith in their squad, Gareth Southgate checked at each opportunity and seemed afraid to make changes. That fear is what ultimately lost England the game. His decision to bring on Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho with seconds to go, purely so they could take penalties, was baffling. They are two of the most skillful and fastest young attackers in world football, why not bring them on 20 minutes earlier when Italy looked vulnerable and tired? It’s a decision Southgate surely regrets.
We all know what happened in the penalty shootout. Both goalkeepers were amazing, both teams missed, and in the end, Italy were deserved winners. It’s sad that you cannot think about this game without thinking about the aftermath, and the racist abuse faced by Rashford, Sancho and Saka. The objectification of black players is continuous in football. They are used for success and blamed for defeat. There is no quick fix, and no easy solution. It’s sad to see black players constantly abused in their DM’s or tweet replies for no reason other than the colour of their skin. The only positive is the reaction of the England squad. Racists don’t like being called racists, so for England captain Harry Kane to explicitly call them so is a good start at least.
I’ll miss Euro 2020. I opened this article with a quote from Dodgeball, and in many ways the tournament reminded me of the film. It defied expectations in every possible way, both good and bad. It had everything you could want alongside more that you wouldn’t. Watching it felt both painful and enjoyable, and once it was over you couldn’t tell whether you had the best or worst of times. Long live Vince Vaughn, and long live Euro 2020.
