Home » It’s Here!
Oh my God, I’m excited! It’s Friday 11th June 2021. 364 days after it was supposed to start, it’s finally here! Euro 2020 kicks off today! I’m like a kid on Christmas Eve.
Tonight, in the opening match we have Turkey playing Italy. Turkey has a squad full of players spread all around Europe, but you’re looking at about West Brom/Brentford level i.e. they’d probably struggle in the Premier League. Italy has a squad based solely in Italy apart from a couple of players each at PSG and Chelsea i.e. probably top six in the Premier League. It should be a walkover for Italy but that’s what so great about football, and especially big summer tournaments. It’s never guaranteed.
The opening game is always a potential banana skin. You only need to look at Cameroon beating Argentina in Italia 90 (with more than a little help from the legend Roger Milla), Greece beating Portugal in Euro 2004 (is it still an upset if they went on to win the whole tournament?), and Senegal beating France in Korea/Japan 2002. Turkey vs Italy could go either way, especially with the tender age of the Turks (hmmm, Young Turks – where have I heard that before?).
Also, what a weekend we have: Wales – Saturday, England – Sunday, Scotland – Monday. I’m feeling positive for the Home Nations. I can see Scotland pulling off a ‘Wales’ and maybe reaching the quarter-finals. It’s going to be great seeing them at a big tournament again, they’ve been sorely missed. And they’ve got some cracking players (Robertson, Tierney, Gilmour, McGinn, McTominay, Christie, Adams). It’d be brilliant to see them doing well.
Wales are always going to be a threat with Bale and Ramsey. And England. Strong team, great form, got to the semis at the last World Cup. Everything is set up for it to be a success. Yet the only thing we can guarantee from England is their capacity to disappoint. Let’s hope this year is the year where they buck the trend.
Anyway, in my last blog post I was wondering who the Player of the Tournament was going to be and, after watching the last two England friendly’s, I’ve made my mind up. I think (and hope) it will be Aston Villa’s tiny shinpad-wearing, huge calved, drop-socked, megastar Jack Grealish. Often a target for horrible fouls because nobody can get the ball off him, he’ll probably end up being crunched by Lovren in the first match and miss the rest of the tournament. Either that or Southgate will play Mount and a team of right-backs instead.
So to celebrate, this week I’ve been working on a piece to celebrate Euro 2020 and Jack Grealish. It’s going to be available in my store later on today, and will hopefully be the first in a series of Euro 2020 pieces that I’ll be working on over the next month. I hope you like it, it’s a slightly different style from my normal work, but I think it works well. And, like I said, I intend for this to be part of a series, if you’ve got any ideas of who to do next, just let me know and I’ll crack on with it pronto.
Oh yeah, one more thing. For the duration of the Euros I’ll be having a sale on my online store. 25% off all products – just use the code ‘EURO2020’ when checking out.
And finally, IT’S COMING HOME!
Today’s boxset: Before We Die (the English one, not as good as the Swedish version in my opinion)
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