Kasper Schmeichel had always found himself in the shadows of his treble-winning father, Peter Schmeichel.
Yet, as Kasper prepared himself for the penalty that could save his Denmark from plummeting out of the Euro 2020, the Premier League goalie had hope…
Could Kasper outshine his father by saving this penalty? Yes.
Did he end up saving the penalty? Yes.
Unfortunately, football is a fickle game. The glory felt by Kasper Schmeichel was short lived as the rebound was scored against him.
Denmark had fallen. England had risen.
English fans were elated by reaching their first final in 55 years. On the other hand, neutrals were frustrated by the “unfair” nature of the penalty and the illegal laser beams that were pointed at the Danish goalkeeper’s eye.
While nothing was done about this during the game, after the match, UEFA fined the English FA around 25,000 pounds.
Unfortunately, throughout the entirety of the tournament, it was a common theme for the English FA to be docked money by UEFA. Prior to the laser incident, the FA were sent a bill of 30,000 pounds for “booing the opposition’s national anthems” at Wembley.
To the English fans, all their action were justified under the pretext, “it is coming home”.
After 51 games, 142 goals, a record 11 own-goals, the Euro 2020 trophy is “coming to Rome”.
Predictions vs Reality
The beauty of football is its unpredictability.
A month ago, I had made some predictions on the outcome of this tournament. While some of my guesses came true, most of them (un-surprisingly) were wrong.
Let’s go down memory lane and reminisce some highs and lows:
Winner: France?
Coming off a world victory, France had a star-studded team and were deemed the favourites by everyone.
Yet, the warning signs of a wayward team were early visible when Griezmann performed an elaborate dance move upon scoring as if he had equalised in the final of the Euros.
In reality, France equalised in the 66th minute against an unknown Hungary side, finishing the game 1-1.
Les bleus dooming fate was sealed when Pogba spent 5 minutes performing various dance moves after making the score 3-1 against Switzerland.
Switzerland responded to those antics by scoring 2 goals in 9 minutes, winning on penalties and securing the biggest shock of the tournament.
For Didier Deschamps, recovery from this shock will require deep introspection.
A lot of journalists have already started analysing the failure of the French. Most have concluded the reason being the clash of egos in a very accomplished team.
However, all spectators can agree that it was NOT a surprise for Italy to win this tournament. Apart from the dubious semi-final match, Italy looked perfect.
Credits to me, I did have the gil Azzurris as my surprise winner…
Roberto Mancini managed to make a machine that could mow down any team without mercy.
Chiesa and Insigne looked deadly upfront. Bonucci and Chiellini were rocks at the back. Jorginho and Verratti were midfield maestros akin to that of Modric/Kroos and Xavi/Iniesta.
Of course, one cannot forget about the player of tournament, the 22-year-old Italian goalie, Donnarumma – a man truly on his way to become an icon.
My bet for player of tournament was Leonardo Spinazzola and I was well on my way to win that bet. Unfortunately, the wingback suffered an Achilles injury barring him out for 4 months – I hope he can recover well and then continue to dazzle the world with his talent.
The failure of Dark Horses and rise of Top Scorers
Turkey. Ukraine. Czech Republic. Denmark.
The above teams were very popular “dark-horses” …
Having won against the Netherlands in the qualifiers, Turkey showed a lot of promise and had a strong team in a relatively easy group. Yet, our great hope was repaid with 3 losses and 1 goal.
The only thing the Turks could contest for in this tournament is the spot for “worst performance”.
On the other hand, Denmark managed to overcome great adversities to reach the semi-finals, becoming the first team in history to qualify 2nd place from the group stage with 3 points.
Ukraine and my personal vote on dark horse, Czech Republic, did clinch a respectable quarter-final spot. However, the main attraction from these teams must be the insane performance of Patrick Schick, earning him the joint-top scorer position and goal of the tournament.
Cristiano Ronaldo was mentioned in my vote for the top-scorer, but I put all my eggs with Lukaku as Belgium were fortuned with easier fixtures. Unfortunately, Romelu fell one goal short of top position.
Although Portugal had very lackluster performance, CR7 showed me why one should not bet against him. With 5 goals and 1 assist, the Portuguese legend snatched the golden boot and still remains a pure goal machine.
Recovery
The 2020-2021 season was a very hectic, action-packed, emotional season. Hence, it was fitting for the Euros to also share these same qualities.
Now that the tournament is overs, fans and players alike look forward to taking a break from football and shifting their attention to economics as clubs start preparing for the transfer window.
Personally, it is refreshing to see that my Euros predictions were not fully accurate. This makes the game much more interesting and increases the emotions that we feel.
Let’s now look forward to the new season with hopes of it serving as much drama as the year prior.
Did your Euro predictions come true? Comment below and let’s start a discussion!