It's crept up on us but there's only a few days till Euro 2021 kicks off across Europe. My youngest and I are excited and pleased the first England match is a weekend afternoon, meaning we'll be able to watch it together. My other 2 boys don't seem bothered at all, but I'll be trying to get them to join us.

I know we have a football thread, but last World Cup it was good to have a thread to talk about all the excitement. I'm hoping it's a good year, the last World Cup was genuinely the most exciting one I've ever watched, so many great matches and upsets! I'm not sure what England's chances are this year, but I think we've got as good a chance as any - we had a brilliant World Cup run, and the players have only had more experience since then.

I'll try to keep this thread updates with scores from the games.

(If any of our overseas friends would like their team highlighted, please just let me know).

So anyway...

GROUPS

Group A: Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, Wales

Group B: Belgium, Russia, Denmark, Finland

Group C: Ukraine, Netherlands, Austria, North Macedonia

Group D: England, Croatia, Czech Republic, Scotland

Group E: Spain, Poland, Sweden, Slovakia

Group F: Germany, France, Portugal, Hungary


FIXTURES
GROUP STAGE

Friday 11 June
Group A: Turkey (0) vs (3) Italy (20:00, Rome, BBC)

Saturday 12 June
Group A: Wales (1) vs (1) Switzerland (14:00, Baku, BBC)
Group B: Denmark (0) vs (1) Finland (15:00, Copenhagen, BBC)
Group B: Belgium (3) vs (0) Russia (20:00, St Petersburg, ITV)

Sunday 13 June
Group D: England (1) vs (0) Croatia (14:00, London, BBC)
Group C: Austria (3) vs (1) North Macedonia (17:00, Bucharest, ITV)
Group C: Netherlands (3) vs (2) Ukraine (20:00, Amsterdam, ITV)

Monday 14 June
Group D: Scotland (0) vs (2) Czech Republic (14:00, Glasgow, BBC)
Group E: Poland (1) vs (2) Slovakia (17:00, Dublin, ITV)
Group E: Spain (0) vs (0) Sweden (20:00, Seville, BBC)

Tuesday 15 June
Group F: Hungary (0) vs (3) Portugal (17:00, Budapest, ITV)
Group F: France (1) vs (0) Germany (20:00, Munich, ITV)

Wednesday 16 June
Group B: Finland (0) vs (1) Russia (14:00, St Petersburg, BBC) Group A: Turkey (0) vs (2) Wales (17:00, Baku, BBC)
Group A: Italy (3) vs (0) Switzerland (20:00, Rome, ITV)

Thursday 17 June
Group C: Ukraine (2) vs (1) North Macedonia (14:00, Bucharest, ITV)
Group B: Denmark (1) vs (2) Belgium (17:00, Copenhagen, ITV)
Group C: Netherlands (2) vs (0) Austria (20:00, Amsterdam, BBC)

Friday 18 June
Group E: Sweden (1) vs (0) Slovakia (14:00, St Petersburg, BBC) Group D: Croatia (1) vs (1) Czech Republic (17:00, Glasgow, BBC)
Group D: England (0) vs (0) Scotland (20:00, London, ITV)

Saturday 19 June
Group F: Hungary (1) vs (1) France (14:00, Budapest, BBC)
Group F: Portugal (2) vs (4) Germany (17:00, Munich, ITV)
Group E: Spain (1) vs (1) Poland (20:00, Seville, BBC)

Sunday 20 June
Group A: Italy (1) vs (0) Wales (17:00, Rome, ITV)
Group A: Switzerland (3) vs (1) Turkey (17:00, Baku, ITV)

Monday 21 June
Group C: North Macedonia (0) vs (3) Netherlands (17:00, Amsterdam, ITV)
Group C: Ukraine (0) vs (1) Austria (17:00, Bucharest, ITV)
Group B: Russia (1) vs (4) Denmark (20:00, Copenhagen, BBC)
Group B: Finland (0) vs (2) Belgium (20:00, St Petersburg, BBC)

Tuesday 22 June
Group D: Czech Republic (0) vs (1) England (20:00, London, ITV)
Group D: Croatia (3) vs (1) Scotland (20:00, Glasgow, ITV)

Wednesday 23 June
Group E: Slovakia (0) vs (5) Spain (17:00, Seville, ITV)
Group E: Sweden (3) vs (2) Poland (17:00, St Petersburg, ITV)
Group F: Germany (2) vs (2) Hungary (20:00, Munich, BBC)
Group F: Portugal (2) vs (2) France (20:00, Budapest, BBC)


KNOCKOUT STAGE

Round of 16

Saturday 26 June
1: Wales (0) vs (4) Denmark (17:00, Amsterdam)
2: Italy (2) vs (1) Austria (ET) (20:00, London)

Sunday 27 June
3: Netherlands (0) vs (2) Czech Republic (17:00, Budapest)
4: Belgium (1) vs (0) Portugal (20:00, Seville)

Monday 28 June
5: Croatia (3) vs (5) Spain (ET) (17:00, Copenhagen)
6: France (3) vs (3) Switzerland (4 vs 5 PEN) (20:00, Bucharest)

Tuesday 29 June
7: England (2) vs (0) Germany (17:00, London)
8: Sweden (1) vs (2) Ukraine (ET) (20:00, Glasgow)


Quarter-finals

Friday 2 July
QF1: Switzerland (1) vs (1) Spain (1 vs 3 PEN) (17:00, St Petersburg)
QF2: Belgium (1) vs (2) Italy (20:00, Munich)

Saturday 3 July
QF3: Czech Republic (1) vs (2) Denmark (17:00, Baku)
QF4: Ukraine (0) vs (4) England (20:00, Rome)


Semi-finals

Tuesday 6 July
SF1: Italy (1) vs (1) Spain (4 vs 2 PEN) (20:00, London)

Wednesday 7 July
SF2: England (2) vs (1) Denmark (20:00, London)


Final

Sunday 11 July
Italy vs England (20:00, London)

Nice work!

Excellent work!

Bet365 have Scotland to win outright at 200/1.

Scotland: “...So you’re telling me there’s a chance? YAS!”

Brighton's Ben White is in the England squad!

Ah cool - replacement for TAA?

That's right.

But also - despite being only Brighton's third best English central defender (behind Dunk and Webster) - he is better than Mings and Coady...

Looks good! Reminds me a bit of Callum McGregor, though he is a defensive midfielder.

If I’m reading it right, the winner of our group will (likely) face Germany, France or Portugal in the following KO stage. Could be a sore one!

ratsoalbion wrote: ↑June 7th, 2021, 3:45 pm That's right.

But also - despite being only Brighton's third best English central defender (behind Dunk and Webster) - he is better than Mings and Coady...

Initially I was disappointed TAA wasn't replaced by James Ward-Prowse as I think we're light in midfield, espeically with Henderson not being match fit, but then when I thought about it, neither is Maguire and I would rather be playing White than Mings who has me very concerned.

Feel free to highlight Germany

I'd love to see Hungary do well, but let's be realistic here, especially considering who else is in their group...

Turkey v Italy tonight. Early predictions?

I think Italy should win this without much fuss but I think Turkey will come out swinging. Both teams to score: Turkey 1 - 3 Italy.

By the way, do not ever use any of my predictions on a bet, I’m infamously poor at this.

Turkey are always good for a surprise result but Italy tend to be conservative in their approach so I can’t see it being a goal fest. A boring 2-0 Italy with an early set piece or penalty followed by 80 minutes of negative keep-ball then a counter attack from a substitute to make it look acceptable.

I’m going to be doing a culinary tour of Europe since I can’t actually travel or attend any of the games. So tonight will be Turkish mezze with a peroni. It could get difficult with countries like North Macedonia.

I'd heard that Mancini had got Italy playing some more progressive stuff these days so I was hoping we get to see some of that tonight. Turkey have some decent players so I'm hoping for a decent match tonight. I will go for 2-0 Italy but I think it will be a good match.

Predictions for the below:
Winner: France
Top Scorer: Lukaku
Best Player: Kante
Dark horse: Ukraine
Biggest shock: Germany out in the group stages

Winner: Switzerland
Top scorer: lukaku
Best Player: Bruno Fernandez
Dark Horse: Poland
Biggest shock: France out in group stages

I doubt any of these will come true but I thought I’d swerve away from the obvious.

Winner: England
Top scorer: Kane
Best Player: Ronaldo
Dark Horse: Wales
Biggest shock: Argentina turn up and demand a game.

Paddy Power offered me ten million to one. I'd be mad not to!

If anyone offers you ten million to one for anything, you get the quid on that!

One sided first half. Turkey aren’t offering much but Italy look happy to ping it into a box of short strikers. Bit strange. In saying that the save from Chiellini’s header was good goalkeeping!

Nice to see Mario and Luigi having a day off.

Turkey 0 - 3 Italy

Expected more from Turkey but Italy were brilliant. Looking forward to seeing Wales and Belgium tomorrow.