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How Italy's Team Of Many Faces Became Euro 2020 Champions
Italy's driver was pulling the bus out of Coverciano one last time when he slammed on the brakes. Checking his side mirrors, he saw a figure in a cream flat cap and Seersucker jacket, cutting a dash for the vehicle. Gianluca Vialli was late again and at risk of spending the weekend of the Euro 2020 final at Italy's training ground as if he were an older version of Kevin in Home Alone. Perhaps he'd been sleeping off the birthday celebrations from the night before. Only the 57-year-old wasn't really holding anybody up.
Ever since Vialli delayed the bus as it departed for the Parco dei Principi in Rome where the team were staying before the curtain-raiser at the Stadio Olimpico four weeks ago, the head of the delegation has always brought up the rear of Italy's travelling party. The 3-0 win it apparently portended over Turkey did not pass unnoticed by Roberto Mancini. A glance at the watch and a "Dov'è Luca?" — where's Vialli? — seemed to bring the nazionale good luck and so a superstition was born, one that would continue throughout the tournament.
It forecast Notti Magiche and on opening night the senses were quickly overloaded when, shrouded in the smoke billowing out from flares and under a sky the colour of a freshly sliced plum, Andrea Bocelli sang Nessun Dorma. It was Italia 90 redux, an aesthetic expressed both in the style of the Azzurri's play and the surroundings as 16,000 fans — the biggest crowd on the peninsula in almost 18 months — made the noise of a full house.
Andrea Bocelli sang Nessun Dorma at the Euro 2020 opening ceremony (Photo: Valerio Pennicino – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)Still elated when the bus turned back into Florence the following day, the players and staff were treated to an al fresco dinner organised by the hospitality manager at Coverciano, Antonio Galardi. A dining table was set up along the bend of the running track that encircles the pitch dedicated to double World Cup-winning coach Vittorio Pozzo, whose unbeaten record Mancini would surpass at the European Championship. Chefs Claudio Silvestri, Flavio Pasini and Enzo Belladonna ordered 20 kilos of steak — they are in Tuscany after all — 130 sausages, nine kilos of prawns and fired up the barbecue for a grigliata.
Nestled in the shadow of the hill where Leonardo Da Vinci is believed to have attempted the launch of his flying machine, the players and coaching staff were about to get stuck in when Galardi accidentally knocked over a glass of red. Rather than getting a grilling for it, Galardi started another ritual. Every time the players sat down for a barbecue over the remaining weeks of the tournament they would religiously dip a finger in their vino as if they were at a communion rather than preparing for a tournament of calcio.
Faith, however, was strongest in Mancini's leadership and his principles. He decided to build the team around the midfield and specifically the skill of Jorginho, Marco Verratti and Lorenzo Insigne, settling on a system at Marassi against Ukraine in the autumn of 2018. "Everyone has learned the philosophy," Jorginho explained. "What the mister wants is up here in our heads. Everyone has the skillset to play this philosophy. The philosophy is more important than who plays: 'We want the ball, we want to find the spaces and go forward'. Whoever is on the pitch tries to keep playing that philosophy."
On the eve of the tournament, no one questioned the hybrid formation or the style Italy adopted. Why would they? The team hadn't lost a game in almost three years and Italy were blowing opponents away. The 9-1 hammering of Armenia was the biggest since 1948 and Mancini went into the Euros on a streak of eight straight wins without conceding. There was little or no dissent when he left Moise Kean and his namesake Gianluca Mancini out of the squad and included Giacomo Raspadori and Rafael Toloi instead. The same was true — for a fortnight at least — when he started Domenico Berardi over Federico Chiesa on the right side of Italy's attack.
Spinazzola in full flight (Photo: Justin Tallis – Pool/Getty Images)Mancini was trusted in a way few Italy coaches have been in the past and that trust was not misplaced. The 3-0 win over Turkey on opening night was the Azzurri's biggest ever at the Euros and they repeated it when they played Switzerland four days later. Leonardo Spinazzola emerged as the tournament's most exciting full-back, speeding down the left as if he were on a Vespa weaving through Roman traffic. Any concerns over the fitness of Verratti were allayed by the breathtaking performances of Manuel Locatelli whose brace against the Swiss figured as one of the highlights of Italy's campaign. The first goal — a long-distance one-two ably assisted by his club-mate 'Mimmo' Berardi — was a goal made in the small textiles town of Sassuolo and only served to enhance the sensation that this Italy team were for real.
Outside the Parco dei Principi after the Wales game, Insigne turned up the volume of his boombox and led the entire squad in a rendition of Un'estate Italiana, the Gianna Nannini and Edoardo Bennato hit that was released before many of the players Mancini picked were even born, a rousing song that provided the soundtrack to Italia 90. It was a tournament that was still clearly on Il Mancio's mind during the 1-0 win over the Welsh.
Already qualified for the knock-out stages, he made eight changes to his team and in between elegantly back-heeling the ball back in play with his patent leather shoes, the suave Commisario Tecnico also used his five substitutes — Salvatore Sirigu, Gaetano Castrovilli, Francesco Acerbi, Bryan Cristante and Raspadori — to make sure 22 members of his 23-man squad will be able to one day tell their grandchildren that they played a major tournament for Italy in Italy. After never getting off the bench at Italia 90, Mancini's own personal experience and regret lay behind a simple but touching gesture that the players involved will never forget.
In the end, Wales were undone by a set-piece designed by a frustrated banker, Gianni Vio, which allowed Matteo Pessina, a Latin scholar and art enthusiast with a passion for Vincent Van Gogh, to make a name for himself at the Euros. The Atalanta midfielder, who did as good a job standing in for Nicola Barella in that game as Locatelli had done for Verratti against Turkey and Switzerland, had initially missed the cut for the squad. Retained on stand-by, he was drafted back in on the eve of the tournament following injuries to Stefano Sensi and Lorenzo Pellegrini. Tuning into the game in a bar in Sardinia, Matteo's nonno was treated to drinks on the house when his grandson ghosted past Joe Morrell to score the only goal of the game.
It wasn't to be Pessina's last either.
In the round of 16, Austria gave Italy a fright almost as bad as the ones Insigne was giving Ciro Immobile at Coverciano. "I've got to keep my wits about me at all times," Immobile said, "Lorenzo's tiny and he can hide anywhere. We were coming back from lunch the other day. I dropped by Verratti's room and he jumped out the wardrobe. He scared me." So too did Marko Arnautovic when the former West Ham striker thought he had given Austria the lead at Wembley. Grazie a dio, the VAR, Stuart Atwell, reviewed the goal and disallowed it for a marginal offside.
Without their captain, Giorgio Chiellini, who had gone off injured against Switzerland, Italy began the second half in a panic and looked like they might go the same way as France and the Netherlands later the same week. But Mancini turned to his bench and selected a couple of substitutes in Chiesa and Pessina who won Italy the game in extra-time. Vialli ran down the steps, ecstatic as Chiesa scored, straight into the arms of Mancini, his friend of more than 40 years, winning the match and the hearts of a nation. Watching it back, Mancini described the feeling as "liberating".
Vialli and Mancini embraced after Chiesa's goal against Austria (Photo: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)The ball for Chiesa's go-ahead goal, an awkward one he somehow managed to bring down with his nose, came from who else but the Umbrian Spinazzola. Spina means thorn in Italian and if you were one of the Azzurri's opponents this summer the side you were bleeding down was almost always his side. Against Belgium, the No 1 ranked team in the world, Italy silenced the doubters who claimed Mancini's Azzurri couldn't be billed as a contender until they had defeated a top side.
In Munich, the Italians showed more faces than the guild of assassins from the island of Braavos in Game of Thrones. We were treated to the new Italy — as showcased by the press from Verratti that led to Barella's goal — and the old Italy — a guilty pleasure no tournament should go without, which coincided with the return of Chiellini who greatly imposed himself the tournament, determined, at 36, to enjoy every single minute of it.
After seeing Spinazzola deny Romelu Lukaku from point-blank range with his heel, Chiellini clasped his hands around his team-mate's neck and looked ready to plant a kiss on his cheek. For a defender like Chiellini, stopping goals is more of a rush than scoring them. Unfortunately for the Roma wing-back, the Talaria of Mercury he seemed to wear stopped mid-flight while he flew past Thorgan Hazard on the attack. Spinazzola's left heel buckled and the tendon of his Achilles snapped.
For the next 21 minutes, Italy used all the tricks in the book to run down the clock. But for Spinazzola, his time at the Euros was heartbreakingly up. Italy rallied around him and wished him all the best. At Coverciano the following morning, every player gave him a hug as he bid them arriverdverci before heading to Finland for surgery.
The team vowed to finish what they had started and wanted him to still be a part of it. A plane ticket with Spinazzola's name on it was waiting if they reached the final and a new song was added to Notti Magiche and Eros Ramazzotti's Piu Bella Cosa Non C'è on the bus rides and flights to and from games. It went like this: "Ole, Ole, Ole, Oleeeeee. Spinaaaaaa, Spinaaaaaa!"
At the end of the penalty shoot-out that decided the semi-final, Insigne pulled on a Spinazzola jersey and again led the team in song. The Neapolitan was becoming a cult figure for more than just conspiring with Verratti to prank their old Pescara team-mate, Immobile. When Italians look back on this Euros, one of the things they will fondly remember is O Tiraggir — the trademark Insigne goal, shuffling in from the left side before curling a shot in at the far post as he did so beautifully against Belgium.
Insigne wears Spinazzola's jersey after Italy's semi-final win against Spain (Photo: Claudio Villa/Getty Images)In the semi-final the diminutive Neapolitan failed to find the sette or seven — the appellation Italians give the top corner. But his outside of the foot pass for Immobile did end in a wonderful goal for Chiesa who, after already emulating his father Enrico by scoring at the Euros, struck again to put Italy in front against Spain. A lightning-fast counterattack began with some brilliant quick thinking from Gigio Donnarumma who had already stopped Dani Olmo and needed to come up big in the penalty shoot-out later on.
Puffing out his cheeks, Bonucci called the game "the hardest of my career" as Spain dominated with 70 per cent possession and made almost a thousand passes. When Berardi wasted a chance to double Italy's advantage, the old adage — gol mangiato, gol subito, miss a goal, concede a goal — was more prescient than ever as Alvaro Morata netted the equaliser Spain's play so richly deserved.
Sat on his sofa back home, with his Achilles now in a plaster cast, Spinazzola felt more nervous than he did when he played, especially as the game went to penalties. When Locatelli missed the first one, the tension mounted even further. When the Sassuolo midfielder trudged back to the centre circle, Chiellini put his arm around him and didn't let go for the rest of the shoot-out. There was nothing to worry about, he said. Everything was going to be alright. How could it not be after Chiellini had made Jordi Alba look so small at the coin toss? The otherwise excellent Olmo then blasted Spain's first penalty into the stands and Donnarumma denied a crestfallen Morata.
Chiellini still not letting go of Locatelli, far right, even after Jorginho's winning penalty (Photo: Carl Recine – Pool/Getty Images)It meant Italy's fate passed through Jorginho's right foot. Known as the Professor around Coverciano, the Champions League winner gave a lesson in how to stay calm under pressure. Jorginho's hop, skip and jump was every bit as daring and cool as Francesco Totti's cucchiaio against the Netherlands in Euro 2000 and Andrea Pirlo's panenka against England at Euro 2012. Bonucci ran over to celebrate with the supporters behind the goal but when he turned to make his way back to the team, a steward mistook the Juventus centre-back for a pitch invader.
As tight as crowd control was, it couldn't stop one fan getting through to pose for a photo with the jubilant Italy players. Piergianni Pisanu, a waiter and shop assistant from Sardinia who lives in London, hurdled the advertising boards, then embraced Mancini's surprised assistant Alberigo Evani and put his arm around Verratti. The Paris Saint-Germain midfield did a double-take, thinking it was Insigne, only to realise the guy next to him was a stranger: "Who the hell are you?" he asked.
Italy returned to Coverciano at 5am the next morning, limbs tired and throats sore from all the singing. As is now tradition, Federico Bernardeschi brought everyone a nice cornetto alla crema — those crisp croissants with the pastry cream filling — and no one went back to their rooms hungry. Everyone got some shut-eye and then hit the Coverciano pool where there were no inflatable unicorns as in the England camp.
Under the supervision of performance director Valter Di Salvo, who worked for Real Madrid and then Manchester United during the Cristiano Ronaldo years, the players stretched out on the water, kept afloat by foam noodles while a team of physios performed joint mobility exercises, acupressure and osteopathic techniques to help Mancini's stars relax and recover. Over the course of the tournament, there were some fairly ruthless Instagram stories of dozing team-mates set to lullabies.
Italy players during a recovery session in the pool after their semi-final win against Spain(Photo: Claudio Villa/Getty Images)When the players opened their eyes, though, it turned out they weren't dreaming after all.
Italy were in the final of the Euros for a fourth time. Match analysts Antonio Gagliardi and Simone Contran crunched StatsBomb data and clipped up England's strengths and weakness for Mancini to present in a video session where he also relayed the findings of scouts Marco Scarpa and Mauro Sandreani. A small selection of Vio's 4,830 set-piece routines were worked on in training. Nothing would be left to chance in the firm belief the England game could come down to the smallest of details. Galardi then stoked up the barbecue one final time, the players dipped their fingers in wine and prepared to fly to Luton airport before spending the eve of the final at the Tottenham Hotspur lodge where Immobile and Andrea Belotti while away their free-time with another Playstation tournament.
Chiellini repeated what he told the players at their pre-tournament get-together in Sardinia. The secret to Italy's success would be a "happy go lucky" mindset and the good kind of "crazy". To think they could win at Wembley in that atmosphere after going behind so early probably was mad. Italy fell behind for the first time at the Euros and for the first half it did feel like football was coming home. But Mancini's changes helped turned the final back in Italy's favour. He brought on Bryan Cristante for Barella to match England better physically in midfield, pushing the half-Canadian high into a position similar to the role he performed at Atalanta rather than the one he plays for Roma. The decision to switch to a false nine with Berardi trading places with Immobile also made the Azzurri so much more unpredictable and England began to look lost.
It was a Cristante flick-on from a Vio corner that led to the equaliser by Bonucci, who leapt on the advertising boardings and did his trademark "wash your mouth out" celebration. Chiesa and Insigne looked like conjuring up a winner in normal time only for both to succumb to injury. The wind was no longer in Italy's sails but nor did it blow in England's direction either and as Chiellini pulled shirts and booted away clearances the game ebbed towards yet another penalty shoot-out. Chiellini won the toss, without repeating the same tactics deployed against Alba, and although Belotti and Jorginho had their spot-kicks saved by Jordan Pickford, the goalkeeper who came out on top was Donnarumma, who showed why PSG are prepared to pay him €12 million a year to move to the Parc des Princes in a few weeks' time.
The sound from Bukayo Saka's shot hitting his gloves reverberated around Wembley as did the echoes of the last time the Azzurri won this competition all the way back in 1968 reverberated. That triumph on home soil helped restore face after the humiliating defeat to Pak Doo-Ik's Korea at the World Cup in England two years earlier. This one redeemed Italy for failing to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in six decades. The squad has come full circle.
Bonucci and a tearful Chiellini tasted the success that eluded them in the 2012 final in Kyiv. Mancini's assistant Daniele De Rossi collected another winner's medal after burying the one he received at the 2006 World Cup with Italy's late kitman "Spazzolino" who was nicknamed the Toothbrush for what he used to clean the players' boots. Spinazzola was sent up first, on crutches, to bow before UEFA's president and receive the honour his efforts so richly deserved.
Vialli's story also continues to inspire. Earlier in the tournament, he was caught on camera staring up at the sky, contemplating the match ahead, when the sweetest of smiles broke out across his face. Diagnosed with cancer two years ago, he has described his ordeal as a journey rather than a battle, one on which he was joined by "an unwanted travel companion". That journey tonight reached culminated in him embracing Mancini once again, the pair of them shuddering with emotion, as their country reclaimed a trophy they last won half a century ago. For him and the other former Samp players on the national team's staff, the ghosts of 1992 and losing the European Cup final to Barcelona here were finally laid to rest.
Mancini after the win against Spain in the semi-final (Photo: Claudio Villa/Getty Images)As for Mancini, his place in the pantheon of Italian football assumes new, ever greater dimensions. He was already a serial winner, having led Samp to their one and only Scudetto then Lazio to a first league title since the 70s. He ended 18 years of hurt at Inter and made Manchester City champions of England for the first time since 1968 — the year Italy last became kings of Europe. But this achievement brings Mancini genuine fulfilment. For all the glory he enjoyed over the course of his club career, it never really happened for him in Italy blue. Not until today at least. On the eve of the final, he said: "Tomorrow I hope as a coach to get the satisfaction I never got as a player."
He is now complete and after hitting rock bottom, Italy are back on top in Europe.
(Photo: Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)
How Italy Has Rampaged Through Euro 2020
The new-look Italy has survived its sternest test.
Since Italy failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, manager Roberto Mancini has rebuilt the national team by emphasizing quick passing, high pressing, and, most of all, goals. The culture shift has worked better than anyone could have dreamed. Italy was on a 31-game unbeaten streak going into Friday's match against Belgium. The advanced numbers approved of its form; the eye test liked its cohesion and the speed with which it drove at the goal after forcing turnovers. Italy flooded opposing nets during the streak, scoring four, five, six, seven, and nine goals at various times. It was the complete opposite of the dour, boring Italy teams that had earned reputations for defensive cynicism and attacking opportunism for generations.
The only caveat was whom all this came against. The best win of those 31 games occurred just two weeks ago against Switzerland, which is ranked 13th in the world by FIFA. Before that, it notched a 1–0 victory in 2020 against a manager-less Netherlands so desperate for a coach it hired MLS (and Serie A and Premier League) washout Frank de Boer a few weeks later. (De Boer stepped down again this week, after Holland lost to the Czech Republic in this Euro Cup's Round of 16.) Italy used one of its warm-up friendlies for this tournament to beat what FIFA's rankings say is the worst national team in the world, San Marino, 7–0. Yes, it looked good, but as they say in the old country, "Italy ain't played nobody, Paolo."
Not anymore. Belgium was the No. 1 team in the world, but they didn't look like it during Friday's Euro 2020 quarterfinal. Italy was easily the better side, pinning the Belgians back for much of its deserved victory. Unfortunately, even as the Italians booked their place in the final four, Friday's win might have proved the apotheosis of Mancini's revamp.
It was a clever bit of Italian pressing that led to the first goal. Belgium tried to play out the back, Italy's midfielder Marco Verratti jumped into a passing lane and slid the ball quickly forward for Nicolò Barella to finish before Belgium could recover. But it was the second that proved just how scared Belgium was of Italy. When Italy's Lorenzo Insigne picked up the ball and steered it around midfielder Youri Tielemans, no one from Belgium's aging backline stepped to him. The defenders all seemed to hope they could get out of the moment without having to stand up to Insigne one-on-one. Mission accomplished, since their hesitance gave him plenty of time to measure a curling shot around Thibaut Courtois without dribbling past anyone else.
But even as Italy had the better first half, there were warning signs. Often the only recourse Italy's aging central defenders had against Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku seemed to be to foul him and hope the refs let it go. Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma made great saves on both Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne. But it was the pace of a different Belgian player—19-year-old Jérémy Doku—that led to the Belgian goal, when he rounded Italian fullback Giovanni Di Lorenzo and was pushed down, earning a penalty for Lukaku to convert.
Belgium had one great chance in the second half to tie it, but the shot bounced off the thigh of the Italians' breakout player this tournament, Roma left back Leonardo Spinazzola.
Spinazzola had been good defensively all tournament, but his biggest contributions have come on the offensive end, bombing down the flank to combine with Insigne and Verratti. Spinazzola went so far and so early that he was often the Italian player farthest forward on the pitch against Belgium. In this sense, Mancini's Italy is calling back to Italy's stylistic heritage—just a different part of it. The same Inter Milan team from the 1960's that gave the world the catenaccio style and Italy its ultra-defensive reputation also introduced the world to Giacinto Facchetti, perhaps the first fullback to be an attacking star in his own right.
There's too much attacking talent on this team for Italy to spend the rest of Euro 2020 on the back foot.
Facchetti's legacy has lived on during Euro 2020. The Netherlands' secret weapon as it ran through its group was right-sided wingback Denzel Dumfries, ghosting late to the far post for easy finishes. Denmark's left wingback Joakim Maehle has been one of its stars of the tournament as the team searched for creativity in the wake of Christian Eriksen's collapse. Portugal appeared bamboozled by the mere concept in its 4–2 defeat to Germany during the group stages; Die Mannschaft's Robin Gosens spent what felt like the entire game unmarked as the Portuguese defense pinched in time and time again. The goal that then knocked Portugal out of the tournament for good was scored by Belgian wingback Thorgan Hazard arriving late and finding the time to wind up a long-range shot. Hazard, Maehle, and Dumfries have each scored twice in these Euros. And the tournament's leading assister so far is the Swiss wingback Steven Zuber.
What Spinazzola has allowed Italy to do is to get all the offensive contributions of a wingback without sacrificing a forward or midfielder for an extra defender. Most international teams with outside defenders that push that high up the pitch—certainly all the ones mentioned above—play three central defenders behind those two to help cover for their forward forays. U.S. Men's national team coach Gregg Berhalter positioned three at the back against Mexico in the Nations League final to provide cover for Sergiño Dest, a valuable offensive contributor who still struggles defensively.
But Italy's legion of midfielders who never seem to turn the ball over allows Mancini's team to keep the line of confrontation higher. It can control the game in its opponent's half of the pitch instead of retreating into its own to regroup, as the more traditional Italian style would demand of it.
Even with the team's history and reputation, the new Italian style shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Italian soccer has been growing more open for years. Last season, the best defensive record in the nation's Serie A league was champion Inter Milan's 35 goals against. In 2017-2018, four teams allowed 30 or fewer. In 2015-2016, Juventus allowed just 20.
While the trend holds broadly true league-wide, no side has done more to turbocharge Serie A in the past several years than manager Gian Piero Gasperini's Atalanta. Despite its mid-level budget—the five teams that spend the most on player wages in Italy all more than double its bill—Atalanta has led Serie A in scoring for three years running, and finished third in the standings in each of those years. Euro 2020 owes much of its shape and cast of characters to Atalanta. Gosens and Maehle both play there currently, often as wingbacks on opposite sides. Spinazzola spent two years there on loan from Juventus before he was sold to Roma. Atalanta central midfielders Marten de Roon and Remo Freuler started in central midfield for the Dutch and Swiss teams, respectively, providing cover for their wingbacks.
At the core of Atalanta's high-powered scheme are passing combinations and player interchanges between the wingbacks and forwards moving away from the congested center of the pitch, forcing central and outside defenders to make hard choices about who's covering where, in search of short crosses or cutback passes from the end line. Those are the same sorts of sequences that have gotten Hazard and Maehle free to score their goals and that have directed so much of Italy's offense through Spinazzola and Insigne.
Italy had the better of Friday's match in large part because Belgium's wingbacks contributed so little in attack, too frightened by the speed of the Italian transitions and the threat of the overlapping Spinazzola to get forward and create these kinds of chances themselves. Belgium's game plan instead was mostly to look for Doku, De Bruyne, and Lukaku on the counter. The only extended period of Belgian attacking came in the game's final 10 minutes.
Unfortunately for Italy, this coincided with when Spinazzola left the game on a stretcher with what has been reported as a ruptured Achilles tendon. Given the game's state, Italy probably would have spent most of the final period defending anyway, but it's almost a little too on the nose that the moment their rampaging left back exited the game, Italy reverted back to its old ways, defending with 10 men behind the ball and turning every bump and tap into an opportunity to hit the deck and waste time, as though Spinazzola alone was the one who unlocked his team's new potential. There's too much attacking talent on this team for Italy to spend the rest of Euro 2020 on the back foot. It has the quality and the players to beat both Spain and whomever comes out of the other side of the bracket. But in a tournament defined by who can get their defenders forward into the best spots, the loss of Spinazzola threatens to make a sensational Italy side that much more ordinary.
Euro 2021: Hosts, Qualified Teams & Your Guide To The New-look European Championship
The European Championship will enter new territory in 2021 with the tournament taking place in a number of countries across the continent.
Originally scheduled to take place in June and July 2020, UEFA was forced to postpone the competition due to the seriousness of the global coronavirus pandemic, which swept the world in 2020.
The idea behind the pan-European event was to stage "a party all over Europe" to mark 60 years since the inaugural tournament (it will be 61 years in 2021) and, for the second time in history, it will feature 24 teams.
With the competition being held in a variety of countries, there was no automatic qualifier, and each of UEFA's member nations had to fight to earn their place at the finals.
The qualification process changed somewhat and the introduction of the Nations League has led to some confusion, but luckily Goal is here to break matters down.
ContentsIn 2021 the European Championship will be held in 12 different venues across 12 different cities in 12 different nations.
Of the 12 venues, all will stage at least three group stage games and a knock-out round tie each. The breakdown of venues and games can be seen in the table below.
Games Country City Stadium Group stage & Round of 16 Denmark Copenhagen Parken Stadium Group stage & Round of 16 Hungary Budapest Ferenc Puskas Stadium Group stage & Round of 16 Ireland Dublin Aviva Stadium Group stage & Round of 16 Netherlands Amsterdam Johann Cruijff Arena Group stage & Round of 16 Romania Bucharest Arena Nationala Group stage & Round of 16 Scotland Glasgow Hampden Park Group stage & Round of 16 Spain Bilbao San Mames Stadium Group stage & Quarter-final Azerbaijan Baku National Stadium Group stage & Quarter-final Germany Munich Allianz Arena Group stage & Quarter-final Italy Rome Stadio Olimpico Group stage & Quarter-final Russia Saint Petersburg Krestovsky Stadium Group stage, Round of 16, Semi-finals & Final England London Wembley Stadium Why is Euro 2021 being held across 12 venues?The decision to expand the European Championship to span the continent instead of being confined to one or two host nations was made by UEFA's Executive Committee in 2012 as a way to mark the 60th anniversary of the tournament.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who was then UEFA General Secretary, explained that "instead of having a party in one country, we will have a party all over Europe in the summer of 2020."
"An opportunity like this, to give many cities and many countries the possibility to host even just one part of a EURO, is certainly an excellent thing, especially in times when you have an economic situation where you cannot expect countries to invest in facilities in the way that such an event requires," said Infantino.
Of course, UEFA and Infantino could not have foreseen that a deadly pandemic would spread across the world in early 2020, something that does not combine well with the concept of hosting a tournament across 12 different countries.
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Where is the Euro 2021 final?The final of Euro 2021 will be held at Wembley Stadium in London, which is the home of the England national team, who finished fourth in the 2018 World Cup. The venue, affectionately known as 'The Home of Football', will also be used for the two semi-final games.
Redeveloped and re-opened in 2007, the new state-of-the-art facility has a capacity of 90,000 and has hosted FA Cup and League Cup finals, as well as the Community Shield.
Wembley (in its former guise) previously staged the final of the European Championship in 1996 when England hosted the tournament. The original Wembley was also used for the 1966 World Cup final.
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Euro 2021 formatAs mentioned above, Euro 2021 will feature 24 teams following UEFA's decision to expand the number of participants from 2016.
The format for the final tournament will be the same as its predecessor Euro 2016, meaning that there will be six groups comprised of four teams.
As with Euro 2016, the winner and runner-up in each group, as well as the four best third-placed sides progress to the round of 16.
When will Euro 2021 kick off?Euro 2021 is provisionally scheduled to begin in June 2021, but the viability of the tournament very much relies on external factors, including the global management of the Covid-19 outbreak.
The decision to postpone the European Championship was made in the hope that other football competitions such as as the Premier League, La Liga and so on will complete their schedule.
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Euro 2021 teamsQualification for Euro 2021 incorporated a new system, whereby the bulk of the teams qualified through the traditional group method and four places are decided through the UEFA Nations League.
The Euro 2021 qualifiers took place from March 2019 to November 2019, with 20 teams having been confirmed automatically:
Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and Wales.
The remaining four teams will be decided during the play-offs, provisionally scheduled for June 2020 should the world manage to stem the spread of Covid-19.
Euro 2021 groups, fixtures & results What is the UEFA Nations League?The UEFA Nations League is a competition for UEFA's 55 members, which ran for the first time in 2018. It consisted of four different divisions (or 'Leagues') and had three stages.
Each League yields a qualifier for Euro 2021, which will be decided via play-offs between the teams that have not already qualified for the finals.
Check out UEFA's handy visual guide to the process below.
The play-off spots are allocated to the winner of each group, but if the winner has already qualified, the berth goes to the next best ranked team - that has not qualified - in that league.
You can read our in-depth explainer for the Nations League here.
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Euro 2021 ticketsThe ticket application process for fans of teams that have qualified via the traditional European Championship qualifying opened in December 2019, while supporters of the teams who win the Nations League play-offs can apply after those games have been decided in June 2020.
Of course, the unforeseen postponement of the tournament until the summer of 2021 complicates matters and UEFA has committed to fully refunding the face value of tickets purchased by those who are no longer able to go to the tournament.
The best thing for supporters to do if they are in doubt or are interested in going is visit UEFA's ticket portal and engage directly with the organisation.
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Who are the favourites to win Euro 2021?France will go into the tournament firm favourites after winning the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba will still be key players within Les Bleus' squad.
The world champions find themselves in a 'group of death' though, with reigning European champions Portugal and former world champions Germany both among the favourites.
World Cup 2018 runners-up Croatia could also be in strong contention to win the tournament, with Euro 2021 possibly being the last major international tournament for many of their golden generation such as Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic, Ivan Perisic, Mario Mandzukic and Danijel Subasic.
Other teams expected to do well are Belgium, Spain and England. Italy and Wales had memorable European Championship experiences last time around and will be hoping for more of the same, while Netherlands will be aiming to return to the summit of international football after a number of years in the wilderness.
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