France were eliminated from UEFA Euro 2020 after a devastating Round of 16 loss to Switzerland in Bucharest. After the match ended 3-3, Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer produced a fantastic save against Kylian Mbappe to give his club a 5-4 penalty shootout win against the World Cup champion. With this result, Switzerland advanced to the quarterfinals where they will face Portugal.
However, France still have another opportunity to qualify for the European Championship by reaching the final stage of the 2019 Confederation Tournament. The top three teams will qualify while the fourth-placed team will need to play a two-leg playoff against one of the winners of the third-place playoff. The winner of this tie will also qualify. If France finish fourth at the Confederation Tournament, then their place at EURO 2021 would be given to either Romania or Bulgaria depending on how many points each country finishes with.
As it stands, France are out of both tournaments and will have to wait until 2024 to try and qualify for another tournament.
The French Football Federation (FFF) announced on March 17, 2015 that they had decided not to proceed with Jérôme Valcin as coach for EURO 2021. Instead, the FFF have appointed former captain Laurent Blanc as manager to lead the team at the tournament in Europe.
Defending champions Portugal were eliminated from Euro 2020 on Sunday night in Sevilla by Belgium. Ronaldo took a spectacular freekick in the first half, but it was saved by Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois' dive. The Red Devils had several golden chances to equalize late in the game but failed to capitalize.
Portugal was one of the eight countries that entered the competition at its inception in 2009. It is also one of only two nations to have never been defeated during the opening round (the other being France). Portuguese football legend Eusebio called it "a gift from heaven" when his team beat Germany 1-0 in their first match of the tournament.
The European Championship has been won by five different nations since its inception. All of the winners so far have been full members of UEFA.
Portugal is known for its beautiful beaches and high standard of living. The country is also an economic powerhouse with large industries including car manufacturers, computers, and pharmaceuticals.
However, Portugal has not achieved much at international level. It has never qualified for the knockout stages of a major tournament. It finished third in its group behind France and England at the 1958 World Cup. Portugal also came third in its group at the Euro 1996 tournament.
There are plans to build a new stadium in Lisbon which will be able to hold 60,000 people.
The Euro 2016 champions Belgium eliminated Portugal from the 2021 Euros in the Round of 16. The Euro 2020 quarter-finals are arrived. Another eight nations were eliminated from the 2021 Euros in the Round of 16, including defending champions Portugal and heavyweights Germany.
These are the seven countries that did not make it to the Euro 2021 semifinals: France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland. France and Italy were eliminated by Belgium and Poland by Russia, respectively. Spain was defeated by Germany in a playoff after both teams finished with identical records (6 wins, 1 loss). Sweden was knocked out by Czech Republic in a play-off after both teams ended with equal points (5 wins and 3 losses). Switzerland was ousted by Turkey in a playoff after both sides had tied on points (3 wins and 3 losses).
Germany and Portugal will face off in the final at UEFA's European Championship Stadium, St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland on June 12. The winner will represent Europe at the 2023 FIFA World Cup in Canada.
Both Germany and Portugal have multiple players who can take the place of those who missed out on Euro 2021. Germany's national team is led by Bayern Munich captain Philipp Lahm while Porto's Rui Patrício is the captain of Portugal's side.
France hopes to add the European Championship title to their World Cup crown this year, but first they must defend the trophy they won three years ago in Russia, as qualification for the 2022 event in Qatar begins on Wednesday. France are ranked second behind Argentina in the latest FIFA rankings, just one point behind them.
The French team has been successful in recent world cups, having won the cup in 1998 and 2002. But they were disqualified after their captain, Patrick Vieira, refused to come off the field during the match against Italy due to political tensions between France and Italy. France went on to win that match 3-0.
Italy was not allowed to advance to the next round of the tournament at the time, so the disqualification did not result in France being banned from future events. However, France was suspended by Fifa for one year starting in September 2002. The ban was reduced on appeal by the French sports court to four months starting in January 2003.
France is scheduled to play its first game back from suspension on August 26th when it takes on Scotland at Stade de France. The winner will advance to the next stage of the qualifying process while the loser will drop down to the second place group where they will face Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland for a spot in the quarterfinals.
The Euro 2020 UEFA European Championship football tournament will be played in 12 or 13 host cities across Europe, with the Euro 2020 final to be played at Wembley Stadium, London, England on July 12, 2020. At Euro 2016, Portugal became the current European cup winners, beating France 1-0 at the Stade de France stadium on July 10th 2016. Before that, Italy was the last winner when it beat Germany 4-3 on a penalty shoot-out after their semifinal match ended in a 1-1 draw.
The host nation will be determined during the UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying campaign, which will start in February 2019. As well as the host country, the other three places at the finals will be decided through separate competitions: the UEFA Nations League and UEFA Champions League play-offs. The four nations who finish in the top two of their respective leagues will qualify for Euro 2020.
Below is the list of winners at each previous Euro tournament:
Euro 1984 - France
Euro 1988 - Spain
Euro 1992 - Sweden
Euro 1996 - Denmark/England/Germany/Italy/Netherlands/Spain/Sweden/Turkey/USA
Euro 2000 - Italy/France/Germany/Hungary/Netherlands/Spain
Euro 2004 - Germany/Italy/Spain
The Euro 2020 final will take place on July 11, 2021. The Euros competition was postponed a year owing to the COVID epidemic, but it kept its original branding to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the UEFA European Championships. As well as France, other countries that have been confirmed as participating are Belgium, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.
The host country is decided by an election held every two years. Poland hosted the tournament in 1988 and 2012. For 2020, a special procedure was used to decide who will be the host nation: the first candidate to meet the required criteria will be named host nation. These criteria include being a member state of the EU, possessing at least one stadium capable of hosting matches of the European Championship and having a population of less than 100 million people. France met all the requirements and was thus chosen as host nation.
Why do we call them the Euros? The name "Euros" comes from the French word for "euro", which is why some people also call these events "Eurogames". However, it was never the intention of the organizers to have multiple games during one event. Instead, the term "European Championship" was used because it was felt that this title would be more appealing to fans around the world.
Copyright © 2020 - 2023 Sportsmanist Inc.
