UEFA EURO 2020:

This year’s European Championship saw Europe’s strongest sides take each other on in a 24-team tournament. The tournament had everything from late drama in the knockout stages, to Eriksen’s unfortunate event which will be explained and major upsets where underdogs surprised. A detailed introduction to this tournament was done in the latest edition of Valley Times.

Firstly, Christian Eriksen’s incident needs to be addressed. The Danish midfielder scared the whole world as he suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch during Denmark’s opening game in Copenhagen against debutants Finland. Viewers watched the scarring scenes live as they hoped it wasn’t what it looked like. Thankfully, Christian is now fine and as of the time of writing this he seems to be returning to football sooner than many had expected.

The group stages didn’t bring too many surprises, as teams that were expected to head onto the next stage were able to do just that and teams which were the weakest did not make it through. Debutants like North Macedonia and Finland got knocked out while teams in very favorable groups like Belgium and Italy were able to make it through at the top of their respective group.

The knockout stages included some surprises with Czech Republic knocking out a very underwhelming Netherlands team. The team lead by Louis Van Gaal did not look very promising leading up to the campaign and their early exit showed just that. The Switzerland vs France game also proved to be surprising with the Swiss team edging the French in an intense penalty shoutout with Kylian Mbappé missing the last crucial kick.

The final saw an Italian side taking on England, who were playing at home in Wembley, London. The match was very tight and entertaining, proving to be worthy of such a high importance match. The match was taken to pens where Italy was stronger and were able to lift the trophy in the end. Throughout the tournament English fans were convinced that it was “Coming Home”, in the end, it was “Coming Rome”.

Copa America 2021:

The Copa America is another continental competition that also occurred this summer. It included 10 South American teams with a similar structure to the one in Europe. From the two 5 team groups, 4 went through to the knockout stages. This competition brought a lot less media attention as it includes fewer teams, and overall, not as much quality of football through the lack of top-quality players and nations.

This competition had Messi’s face all over it as he dominated the tournament from start to finish. He had the most goals, most assists, most dribbles among other stats. This was his competition, and it was with great success that he was able to lift the trophy at the end. This was Messi’s first international trophy with Argentina, and it completes his trophy cabinet as this was the missing piece to a very impressive career.

There weren’t too many surprises in this tournament. A few players are worth highlighting such as Luiz Diaz and Neymar. Brazil met Argentina in the final where they fell short as Di Maria scored the goal in a 1-0 victory for the Argentines.