Euro2020 is here.
It’s actually 2021 and yet the merchandise still says 2020.
So do the Panini stickers and, most likely, so will the engraving on the trophy after
the final, but the tournament has still arrived and it’s still really exciting.
And this is the second part of the story of how the 24 teams qualified.
Portugal made hard work of qualifying.
After a slow start, and with Cristiano Ronaldo chasing the Iranian striker Ali Daei's international
goals world record, Portugal were neck and neck with Serbia.
Ukraine had already won the group and all Portugal need to do was get a point against
Luxembourg to qualify in second.
Which they did.
Ronaldo is still six goals away from equalling Daei's record of 109 international goals.
The true last day jeopardy was found in Dublin and Cardiff.
Ireland had to beat Denmark to qualify, but could only manage a 1-1 draw.
Wales on the other hand had to beat Hungary to leap frog them into second place.
Aaron Ramsey scored twice as they won 2-0 sending the Millennium Stadium wild.
However, the iconic image from the post-match celebration was of Gareth Bale holding a Welsh
flag with “Wales.
Golf.
Madrid.
In That Order” written on it.
The flag mocked the words of former Real Madrid player Predrag Mijatovic who had criticised
Bale with those words in light of his club form.
The Madrid daily sports press was less than impressed, and it wouldn’t be long before
Bale would be loaned back to Tottenham.
There was a myriad of other fascinating stories.
The tiny micro-state of Andorra won its first ever European Championship qualification match
after beating Moldova 1-0.
Turkey was fined 80,000 euros after its players repeatedly performed military salutes during
goal celebrations.
Russia narrowly avoided being excluded from the Euros after the World Anti Doping Agency
had instituted a worldwide ban for its state sanctioned doping programme.
They were only allowed to compete in the Euros because WADA didn't consider UEFA a “major
event organiser”.
And Finland finally qualified for its first ever major tournament, with Norwich City’s
Teemu Pukki scoring 10 goals – a tally only exceeded by Erin Zahavi, Cristiano Ronaldo
and Harry Kane.
After the UEFA Nations League had played out, four groups remained for the final four qualification
spots.
And then Covid struck, postponing the tournament for a year.
At one point it looked like it might not happen at all.
But the play off qualifiers returned, mostly without fans.
Hungary qualified thanks to two very late goals against Iceland that turned the tie
on its head.
Slovakia beat Northern Ireland.
Scotland, who had lost to Kazakhstan in their first qualification match proper, beat Serbia
on penalties after David Marshall saved from Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Afterwards Serbia sacked their coach Ljubisa Tumbakovic, the same Tumbakovic who had started
the qualification as Montenegro coach but was fired after refusing to sit in the dugout
during their game against Kosovo.
The most interesting play off group, though, was group D, where none of the teams had qualified
for a major tournament before.
Belarus was going through an uprising back home.
Kosovo had only lost a handful of games since the end of 2017.
Georgia had a history of club teams shocking the world when it was part of the Soviet Union,
but had achieved little since independence.
And, of course, the newly named country of North Macedonia.
Much was expected of Kosovo because of their sterling performances against England but
the Covid break proved too much.
The same for Belarus.
The final came down to Georgia versus North Macedonia at the Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena
in Georgia's capital Tbilisi, eight months after it was due to have initially taken place.
A single goal won it.
Veteran Genoa striker Goran Pandev scored early in the second half for North Macedonia.
They held on and qualified for their first ever major tournament.
They were they 24th and last team to make it to Euro 2020.