Euro 2020/2021

[Liep]

Don't worry I'm pretty sure we're gonna win it.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I feel like it's going to be England winning the Euros at Wembley this year. It's going to be insufferable. 

I am now confident that England will win and the feel-good factor will give the Tories a 5-point boost in the polls 

[Josquius]

Yeah, there's a very serious risk that England might go all the way and of course the gammon will credit St. Brexit.

On that though Belgium whopping England in the final would have something delicious.... Though the shit eaters likely think the same of the reverse 

Btw, I must say it seems slightly unfair for England to have played this game in Wembley, given that the semis and the final will take place there as well. If they reach the final the only game they'd have played outside of it would be the QF.

It's always the case with hosts though.
I guess host cities could have been shuffled so teams are unlikely to ever play at home but that seems a bit wasteful to me.

[The Larch]

Btw, I must say it seems slightly unfair for England to have played this game in Wembley, given that the semis and the final will take place there as well. If they reach the final the only game they'd have played outside of it would be the QF.

It's always the case with hosts though.
I guess host cities could have been shuffled so teams are unlikely to ever play at home but that seems a bit wasteful to me.

No other team with a host city could have played on it by the way the knockout bracket was established (Seville hosted the Belgium - Portugal game, Copenhagen hosted Croatia - Spain and Amsterdam hosted Wales - Denmark), England was the only team who could have played their game from the round of 16 on home soil (as long as they finished 1st in the group stage, which England did).

[clandestino]

Rooting for the Denmark - Spain final while pondering which team to support then.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah, there's a very serious risk that England might go all the way and of course the gammon will credit St. Brexit.

In a way though there's an almost perfect symmetry to that. Harold Wilson always blamed his loss to Ted Heath (which is otherwise inexplicable) on England losing to Germany and being knocked out of the World Cup - and more specifically to substituting Bobby Moore because he felt that gave a sign to the West Germans to pile on the pressure. And the biggest consequence of that election: the UK joining the EEC

It would be a very handy device for a writer.

No other team with a host city could have played on it by the way the knockout bracket was established (Seville hosted the Belgium - Portugal game, Copenhagen hosted Croatia - Spain and Amsterdam hosted Wales - Denmark), England was the only team who could have played their game from the round of 16 on home soil (as long as they finished 1st in the group stage, which England did).

Yeah - it's been noted a lot here that if England won their group it could basically be a home tournament.

Edit: Oh apparently England-Germany was meant to be in Dublin even during the updated covid schedule but Ireland pulled out.

[The Larch]

Edit: Oh apparently England-Germany was meant to be in Dublin even during the updated covid schedule but Ireland pulled out.

That makes sense, but it still seems a bit unfair that England got to play their match at home when everyone else went elsewhere (in fact there was another match at Wembley, the Italy - Austria game, which I guess was the one originally scheduled there).

[Sheilbh]

For sure.

I have been surprised by how much I've enjoyed the Euros. It reminds me of 2018 when I wasn't particularly excited going in but it's then be really fun football in a really surprising way. And pre-covid I thought the multi-city tournament was a bit daft, and with covid happening I wasn't sure if it felt appropriate at all and I was equally unimpressed with the multi-country approach - although I was looking with friends at attending games in the Dublin-Bilbao group

I still kind of think the Seville-St Petersburg/Rome-Baku travel is not a good thing. I thought a better idea would be to basically admit covid has changed everything and run it in one region - so UK and Ireland, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Benelux etc. In part I still think that would have been a better idea not least because as you say England effectively have a home tournament because they won their group which is an advantage no-one else would have desite it being a multi-city/multi-country tournament. Whereas at least if it was just in one country/region that's kind of a given.

I feel like we're sort of between two stools of what UEFA wanted and a single country/region tournament where we've kind of got the worst of both world. I slightly worry we'll have the worst of both so England gets a home tournament, but the tournament still spreads covid round the continent

Just as an aside - very happy that both captains wore the rainbow arband last night. I think that's the first game it's happened and is nice to see.

[Josquius]

Its not like big stadiums are needed due to covid so if could always have been made a home tournament for some weaker nations/a collection of them.
A nordic tournament for instance. Maybe with a Wembley final still.

I totally missed it happening on TV but apparently the Germans were the first after Scotland to kneel with England. So to them for that.
If England do manage to go all the way I really hope they play up this side.

[Sheilbh]

This is quite a lovely moment - and I do grudgingly like Jordan Henderson for stuff like this - and more widely it is very weird being English and having a team you can like and be sort of proud of

Jordan Henderson
@JHenderson
Hi Joe great to hear you enjoyed the game as you should. No one should be afraid to go and support their club or country because football is for everyone no matter what. Thanks for your support, enjoy the rest of the Euros. Flexed biceps Rainbow flag

Joe (they/them) #BLM
@joeywh1te
Also, this is a really small and personal point but today was my first game at Wembley in full makeup and overtly queer (as opposed to just camp). Absolutely no issues from fans and some lovely chats.

Despite being absolutely petrified pre game, really proud of our fans Transgender flag Rainbow flag

Again just utterly unimaginable with England teams of even a few years ago.

[crazy canuck]

Jesus that little German girl was despondent

Seeing some horrid comments on twitter about her -  an example

https://twitter.com/StanCollymore/status/1410068840428544001

https://twitter.com/StanCollymore/status/1410068840428544001/photo/1

[FunkMonk]

Jesus that little German girl was despondent

Seeing some horrid comments on twitter about her -  an example

https://twitter.com/StanCollymore/status/1410068840428544001

People are disgusting, jesus

[Valmy]

It's twitter. It is more surprising when there are not horrible comments about something.

[Josquius]

Sigh. I'm not shocked alas. That image has been splashed about a lot and it was inevitable the cunts would be laughing about it

[crazy canuck]

Sigh. I'm not shocked alas. That image has been splashed about a lot and it was inevitable the cunts would be laughing about it

The thing that struck me was that people in pubs made the comments immediately upon seeing her crying.  And then went on social media to brag about making the comments or to express how proud they were to be in the pub at the time.  It gives a good insight into the sort of thinking that went into the Brexit support.