UEFA Euro 2020 final
The UEFA Euro 2020 final was an association football match that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, England, on 11 July 2021, to determine the winners of UEFA Euro 2020. It was the sixteenth final of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial tournament contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA to decide the champions of Europe. Originally scheduled for 12 July 2020, the match had been postponed along with the rest of the tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. The match was contested between Italy, in their fourth Euro final, and England, in their first ever Euro final, and just their second final at any major tournament, after the 1966 FIFA World Cup final.
In front of a crowd of 67,173, limited by COVID-19 restrictions, with an estimated global audience of 328 million, England's Luke Shaw opened the scoring in the second minute of the match, the fastest and earliest goal ever scored in a European Championship final. Leonardo Bonucci – who was later named the man of the match – scored an equaliser midway through the second half. With the score 1–1 after extra time, England gained a 2–1 advantage in the penalty shoot-out after two kicks each, but their last three takers all missed, and Italy won 3–2.
This was Italy's first major title since the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and their first European Championship since winning it on home soil in 1968; in terms of European Championship titles, it put Italy level with France on two titles, and one title behind Spain and Germany. England became the third nation in the 21st century to lose the European Championship final on home soil, following Portugal in 2004 and France in 2016. After the match, England's unsuccessful penalty takers were subjected to racial abuse on social media, which was investigated by the Metropolitan Police. The event was also marred by crowd disorder as roughly six thousand ticketless England supporters fought police and security in attempts to breach the stadium.
Background
was the sixteenth edition of the European Football Championship, UEFA's football competition for national teams, held between 11 June and 11 July 2021 in eleven cities, all in different countries from each other. Qualifying rounds were held between March and November 2019, in which fifty-five teams were divided into ten groups of five or six, playing each other on a home-and-away round-robin tournament basis. The top two teams in each group qualified for the finals, along with four additional teams, determined by a combination of their 2018–19 UEFA Nations League performance and a series of play-off games. In the finals, the 24 teams were divided into six groups of four with each team playing each other once within the group. The two top teams from each group along with the four best third-placed sides advanced to a knock-out phase.Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe during 2020, the tournament was postponed to summer 2021, while retaining the name Euro 2020 and using the same host venues. Alongside special rules regarding COVID-19, UEFA also allowed more substitutions than had originally been planned and implemented video assistant referee for the first time.
Before the tournament, England were considered by bookmakers to be second favourites to win it, behind France; Italy were seventh favourites and were described by Evan Bartlett of the i newspaper as "potential dark horses". The two sides were ranked fourth and seventh, respectively, in the FIFA World Rankings released before the start of the tournament. Both are former FIFA World Cup champions, Italy winning four times, most recently in 2006, and England winning once, in 1966. However, Italy had failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the first time they had missed the tournament since 1958. England, meanwhile, finished fourth at the tournament, their best finish since 1990. Italy won the European Championship in 1968 as the hosts; England's best performance in the competition was to reach the semi-finals twice, in 1968 and 1996. In the previous European Championship, Italy were eliminated in the quarter-finals on penalties to Germany, while England went out in the round of 16 after a shock defeat to newcomers Iceland.
Italy had previously played in three European Championship finals; they beat Yugoslavia in 1968 after a replay, lost to France in 2000 via a golden goal and lost to Spain in 2012. They entered the final on a 33-match unbeaten run, the third-longest in international football history behind the 35-match streaks of Brazil and Spain, having last lost 1–0 to Portugal in the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League on 10 September 2018. Italy were also on a 27-match unbeaten run in competitive fixtures, only behind the 29-match streak of Spain from 2010 to 2013.
The final was England's first at a major tournament since the 1966 World Cup, the only other final they had reached. England also became the third nation of the 21st century to play in a European Championship final as hosts after Portugal in 2004 and France in 2016. Both previous hosts lost their respective finals, Portugal against Greece and France against Portugal. In the 20th century, three host countries made it to the final and all won – Italy in 1968, Spain in 1964 and France in 1984. Despite the final taking place in London, Italy were the "home team" for administrative purposes.
England and Italy had previously met 27 times, their first encounter taking place in 1933, a 1–1 draw in Rome. Before the final, Italy had won ten of these meetings, England eight and nine were draws. Their most recent meeting was a 2018 friendly in London, also a 1–1 draw. Italy won three of their four competitive meetings at major tournaments: in the group stage of UEFA Euro 1980, the third place play-off of the 1990 FIFA World Cup and the group stage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup; the fourth, in the quarter-finals of UEFA Euro 2012, finished as a draw, but Italy won the subsequent penalty shoot-out. England were considered as slight pre-match favourites by bookmakers.
Venue
The final was played at Wembley Stadium in London. On 6 December 2012, UEFA announced that the tournament would be held in multiple cities across Europe to mark the 60th anniversary of the UEFA European Championship, with no host teams qualifying automatically. Wembley was chosen as the venue for the semi-finals and final by the UEFA Executive Committee on 19 September 2014, having been selected by acclamation after the finals package bid of the Allianz Arena in Munich was withdrawn. After winning the hosting rights, London's standard package bid for group stage matches and an earlier knockout match was withdrawn. The UEFA Executive Committee removed Brussels as a host city on 7 December 2017 due to delays with the building of the Eurostadium. The four matches initially scheduled to be held in Brussels were reallocated to London, leaving Wembley with seven tournament matches. This was later increased to eight matches, as Dublin was removed as a host city on 23 April 2021, as the city could not ensure spectators would be able to attend due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its round of 16 fixture was reallocated to Wembley.Wembley Stadium opened in 2007 on the site of the original stadium, the demolition of which took place between 2002 and 2003. Owned by the Football Association, it serves as England's national football stadium. The original stadium, formerly known as the Empire Stadium, opened in 1923 and hosted matches at the 1966 FIFA World Cup, including the final, which saw hosts England beat West Germany 4–2 after extra time, and at UEFA Euro 1996, including the final, in which Germany defeated the Czech Republic. Wembley also hosts the annual FA Cup Final. Wembley's hosting of both the semi-finals and the final remained subject to UEFA and the Government of the United Kingdom reaching an agreement over quarantine rules for fans and VIPs. The Puskás Aréna in Budapest was seen as the prime candidate to replace Wembley, should it not be able to host the final. Despite this, UEFA remained confident that Wembley could host the final. On 22 June, the British government altered the COVID-19 pandemic regulations in London to allow 75% of the stadium's capacity to be used, meaning that 60,000 spectators were expected to be present at the final as long as they could show proof of having been tested or fully vaccinated. Special permission was also granted for up to 1,000 fans to fly in from Italy to watch the game. Special conditions applied to the supporters from Italy, including being tested for COVID-19 before arrival, not being in the country for more than 12 hours, using dedicated transport and being in segregated seating at Wembley.
Route to the final
Italy
Italy qualified for the tournament as qualifying Group J winners, having won all ten of their games, and were drawn in Group A along with Switzerland, Turkey and Wales; being one of the host nations, Italy played all three group games at home at Rome's Stadio Olimpico. Italy opened the tournament with a 3–0 win over Turkey, Turkish defender Merih Demiral scoring an own goal to give the Italians the lead in the 53rd minute, before Ciro Immobile and Lorenzo Insigne scored two further goals. Italy then beat Switzerland with another 3–0 win, Manuel Locatelli scoring twice and Immobile scoring the last goal to seal a place into the round of 16 with a game to spare, despite captain Giorgio Chiellini suffering an injury. In their third group game, Italy beat Wales 1–0 with Matteo Pessina scoring the only goal in the first half to ensure the side finished with a perfect record in the group stage. The result meant Italy were the first team in European Championship history to win each group stage match without conceding.In the round of 16 played at Wembley Stadium, Italy struggled against Austria, who had finished second in Group C. Austria's Marko Arnautović had a goal ruled out for offside in the 67th minute, and it was only in the first period of extra time that Italian substitutes Federico Chiesa and Pessina each scored a goal to give Italy a 2–0 lead. Despite Saša Kalajdžić, an Austrian substitute, salvaging a goal for his team in the second half of extra time, Italy held on to reach the quarter-finals.
Italy's quarter-final match was against the top-ranked team in the FIFA World Rankings, Belgium, and was played at Munich's Allianz Arena. Nicolò Barella beat Thibaut Courtois to score in the 31st minute, before Insigne doubled their lead in the 44th minute with a powerful strike; Belgium's Romelu Lukaku then converted a successful penalty during injury time of the first half. Despite an Achilles tendon injury in the second half to Leonardo Spinazzola that ruled him out for the rest of the tournament, Italy once again held the scoreline to eliminate the Belgians. The victory set a new record for the longest European Championship winning streak at 15, including both qualifying and the final tournament.
Italy returned to Wembley to face Spain in the semi-finals, the fourth consecutive European Championship in which the two sides met. In a tight game dominated by possession football, Italy got the breakthrough from Chiesa after 60 minutes; 20 minutes later Álvaro Morata equalised for Spain to make the score 1–1. No further goals were scored in extra time, resulting in a penalty shoot-out; both Locatelli and Dani Olmo failed to score the first penalties for their respective sides, before Gianluigi Donnarumma saved Spain's fourth kick from Morata. Jorginho then scored the subsequent penalty to take Italy to their first European final since 2012.