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      Euro 2020 Is Over. Next Season Starts Now.

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      The players who battled for the Euro 2020 title will walk away from the tournament and right into a new season.LONDON — Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci had a full day of activities planned. They left England in the small hours of Monday morning, and landed back in Rome together with the rest of Italy’s exultant and exhausted Euro 2020 champions not long after dawn. There, they presented the glinting, silver spoils of their campaign to their public. Chiellini was wearing a crown.From there, Italy’s coach, Roberto Mancini, slipped away to snatch a brief moment with his family, and the players were whisked to a hotel. The team would have the morning to sleep, reporters were told, before gathering once more for a celebratory lunch.Monday afternoon brought a full slate of appointments: Chiellini, the Italy captain, was scheduled to present his teammates to Sergio Mattarella, the country’s president, at the Quirinale at 5 p.m., and then lead them to a reception with Mario Draghi, the prime minister, at Palazzo Chigi an hour and a half later. The country’s authorities, as of Monday morning, were still exploring whether they might squeeze in a victory parade. By Monday afternoon, that, too, had been arranged. Only once all of that is done will Chiellini, Bonucci and the rest of the players be able to draw the curtain on their season. A couple of days later, their other set of teammates — the ones with whom they spend most of their days at their club side, Juventus — will report back for the first day of preseason training.Pool photo by Laurence GriffithsAlberto Lingria/ReutersFor Italy, a whirlwind 24 hours went from photos on the field to a raucous return to Rome and then, after a short nap, a trip to meet the country’s president.Angelo Carconi/EPA, via ShutterstockThe club is not expecting much of a turnout. As well as its two central defenders, Chiellini and Bonucci, Juventus knows that their Italy teammates Federico Chiesa and Federico Bernadeschi will be absent as well.So, too, will the various representatives of Juventus who have been engaged by other nations over the last few weeks: Álvaro Morata, whose Spain side was eliminated by Italy in the European Championship semifinals, and the defenders Alex Sandro and Danilo, part of the Brazil squad that lost the Copa América final a few hours before Italy’s triumph. Adrien Rabiot, Matthijs de Ligt, Cristiano Ronaldo and all of the others have been given an extra couple of weeks’ break, too.They will need it. This summer’s championships — in Europe and in South America — have come at the end of a long and arduous schedule, one that stretches back beyond the start of this season, in September, to the resumption of soccer after the hiatus enforced by the coronavirus pandemic.Many of these players have been playing, with only the most cursory of intermissions, since last June: 13 months of uninterrupted slog, prompting warnings from Fifpro, the global players’ union, various managers and, increasingly, the players themselves not only that they were being placed at risk of injury, but that their workload was too great to expect them to be able to perform at their best.It would be comforting to think, with Euro 2020 and the Copa América — though not yet the Gold Cup in North America — now decided that the slog is over; that soccer has caught up with the three months it lost in the first wave of the pandemic, that everything will go back to normal now. In England, clubs are already planning for games with full stadiums as soon as the Premier League gets underway on the second weekend of August.The reality is a little different. June 30 is the date that, traditionally, marks the end of the soccer year. That is the moment at which contracts expire or renew, when clubs release the players they no longer require, when one season silently turns into the next. It fell, this year, as it so often does, in the middle of a tournament. But as one season bleeds into another, the slog has only just reached its midway point. And for that, soccer has nothing to blame but itself.The first game of the 2022 World Cup is fewer than 500 days away. The tournament, scheduled for the winter to avoid the stifling summer heat in the Gulf, is scheduled to get underway on Nov. 21 next year. Qatar, the host, will be involved in that fixture. Thanks to the delay caused by the pandemic, nobody else is even close to qualifying.Pool photo by Andy RainPool photo by Laurence GriffithsMarcus Rashford, top left, Declan Rice and the majority of England’s players will soon be back in training for the new Premier League season, which starts in the middle of August.Pool photo by Carl RecineIn Europe, most teams still have six qualifying matches to play; several more will have to negotiate a playoff before claiming their places. In Asia, the group stages have yet even to start. Africa, too, is not yet underway, and it has a continental championship to fit in: the Cup of Nations is slated to take place in Cameroon in January. South America’s prolonged qualifying process is a third of the way through: Brazil sits atop the standings after six games, but still has 12 left to play.And in North America, the expanded final round of qualifying will not start until September, with teams set to play 14 games to discover which ones will join Mexico, the region’s only sure thing, in the finals next year. All of that has to fit into a club calendar already squeezed by the timing shift necessary to accommodate, for the first time and contrary to what was originally advertised, a World Cup held in the northern hemisphere’s winter.That will force Europe’s major domestic leagues — the competitions that will provide the bulk of the players for the World Cup — to start the 2022-23 season just a little earlier, in order to allow a monthlong break right in the middle of their campaigns. But that does not mean the forthcoming season will finish any earlier: the Champions League final, the climax of the 2021-22 club campaign, is scheduled for May 28, in St. Petersburg. Once again, what little elastic that can be found will come out of the players’ chance to rest.It is not, in fact, until the summer of 2023 that the world’s elite men’s players will have a summer to rest and to recuperate properly. Most of them, the Europeans and South Americans, anyway. There is another Cup of Nations scheduled for Africa that summer, and a further Gold Cup, too.As ever, it is the players who will pay the price, and especially, ironically, those who enjoy the greatest success. It was hard, at Wembley on Sunday evening, not to be impressed by the composure, the calm, the obduracy of Chiellini and Bonucci, those grizzled old warriors at the heart of Italy’s defense. They have 220 international caps between them.They have been doing this for almost two decades, now. They deserve the pomp and ceremony of an official reception with the Italian president. More than anything, though, they deserve a break. They can have one, now. But they should just make sure they are back at work in two weeks. More

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      Italy’s Victory at Euro 2020 Echoes a Broader Resurgence

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      The national team beat England in the final of the European Championship soccer tournament, and the country wildly celebrated a win that seemed to symbolize renewal after adversity.ROME — The eruption of sheer joy — and car honking and horn blowing and firework exploding and hugging, so much hugging — across Italy on Sunday after its national men’s soccer team defeated England to win the Euro 2020 tournament marked an extraordinary turnaround, not just for a recently beleaguered team, but also for a recently beleaguered country. More

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      The 2020 Euro Finals Goes to a Shootout in England vs. Italy

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      Italy is in a tight huddle and England is a looser one as their coaching staff pick their penalty takers. But the tension ahead of the shootout is palpable. All that work, and it comes down to this.Kane and Chiellini meet with Kuipers for the toss. Kane picks the end on the first coin flip, and chooses the goal in front of the England supporters. Chiellini elects to have Italy go first on the second toss.We’ll just play this straight down the line here now, one by one, so keep refreshing:Domenico Berardi goes first. AND SCORES!Italy leads, 1-0.Now it’s Harry Kane. KANE SCORES! 1-1.Italy 1, England 1.———Belotti for Italy. PICKFORD SAVES!Still tied, 1-1.Harry Maguire. MAGUIRE SCORES!England 2, Italy 1.———Bonucci for Italy. BONUCCI SCORES!Italy 2, England 2.Marcus Rashford now. HE HITS THE POST!Italy 2, England 2. Advantage gone.Pool photo by John Sibley———Bernardeschi for Italy. SCORES!Italy 3, England 2.Sancho up next. SAVED BY DONNARUMMA!!Italy 3, England 2.Italy can win it here.———Jorginho. Who beat Spain. Who takes Chelsea’s penalties. For the win.Watch for the hop.PICKFORD SAVES! He read it and pushed it onto the post!!What a moment!Italy 3, England 2.Bukayo Saka for England.He must score.SAVED!!!!ITALY HAS WON THE EUROS!!! More

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      England vs. Italy: How to Watch the Euro 2020 Final

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      The Euro 2020 final has been a month in the making, and features a showdown of two of Europe’s biggest names: England and Italy.Italy, seeking its first major championship since the 2006 World Cup, and England, which needs to go back 40 years further for its defining moment, will meet on Sunday in the final of the Euro 2020 soccer championship. More

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      Euro 2020: Chiellini, Bonucci and the Joy of Pushing Back

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      The veteran defenders Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci have given Italy the freedom to push forward at Euro 2020, right to the brink of a title.LONDON — There are plenty of stories. Some of them are so far-fetched that, if it were not for the eyewitness testimony or the video footage, the natural instinct would be to assume they are apocryphal. The best of them, though, the most illustrative, is the one about the garlic tablets.In 2014, before Juventus was scheduled to play Roma in a crucial game at the summit of Serie A, Leonardo Bonucci ate a handful of garlic tablets. His motivational coach, Alberto Ferrarini, had given them to him, later explaining that “hundreds of years ago, soldiers ate garlic to keep them strong, healthy and alert.” The tablets were intended to give Bonucci the same traits.There was, of course, another benefit. Ferrarini also told Bonucci to “breathe in the faces of Gervinho and Francesco Totti,” Roma’s star attackers. The ploy worked — Juventus won, 3-2, Bonucci scored the winning goal — and the myth crystallized just a little more. There was nothing Bonucci, like his Juventus and Italy teammate Giorgio Chiellini, would not do in service of victory.Italy’s run to the final of Euro 2020 has, in many ways, highlighted a drastic shift in the country’s soccer culture. Roberto Mancini’s team is young, vibrant and adventurous, designed around a slick and technical midfield and imbued with a bright, attacking style.If it was that vision of Italy that carried the team through the group stage and helped it sweep aside first Austria and then Belgium in the knockout rounds, the team’s semifinal victory against Spain was built on a more familiar iteration: ruthless and redoubtable, cast not in the porcelain image of Lorenzo Insigne and Marco Verratti but the unyielding concrete of Bonucci and Chiellini.It is that Italy that England must overcome, on Sunday evening, if it is to lift the European Championship trophy: the Italy that not only finds pride in its defending but treats it with genuine relish. As Bonucci has previously said, “As a defender, you always like winning, 1-0.”In the tournament’s opening game, with Mancini’s team up by 3-0 on Turkey and cruising to a victory, Chiellini and Bonucci celebrated an injury time goal-line clearance with the sort of vigor more traditionally reserved for last-gasp winning goals.It has been that way for years, of course. Chiellini made his Italy debut in 2004; Bonucci, only two years younger but a much later bloomer, joined him in 2010. Between them, they now have made 219 appearances for their country, the vast majority of them in tandem. They are so inseparable, at both club and international level, that one of Google’s suggested searches for them is: “Are Chiellini and Bonucci related?”They are not, but even they admit they may as well be. “I think I know Bonucci better than I know my wife,” Chiellini has said. Bonucci finds that he does not have to “think about the other things you normally would when playing with someone else; we know each other’s games inside out.”“Giorgio is the type of defender who needs to feel contact,” his former teammate Andrea Barzagli said.Pool photo by Justin TallisBonucci is “more modern,” Barzagli said, better at “reading the game, understanding situations.”Pool photo by Laurence GriffithsWhat makes it work, though, is not that they are similar, but that they are different. Away from the field, Chiellini is sufficiently divergent from his on-field persona that the Spain striker Alvaro Morata’s mother once told him that she was surprised at how gentle, polite and, well, nice he was.He has a degree in economics and commerce. He was co-author of a book on his hero, the Juventus defender Gaetano Scirea. He is, by his own estimation, much more “serene, much more reflective” than he appears. Being captain of both Italy and Juventus brought him a sense of “calm,” he wrote in his autobiography, so that he even felt comfortable toning down his combative style while playing. His broad grin, as Italy’s semifinal with Spain went to penalties, was taken as gamesmanship by his opponents. In reality, he was probably just enjoying himself.Bonucci, the more refined of the two, is also a contradiction. It is he who struggled, early in his career, with self-doubt; who felt the need to hire Ferrarini as a young player. The trainer’s methods were unorthodox — in one telling, he would take Bonucci down to his basement and repeatedly punch him in the stomach, to improve his focus — but, over time, they worked. Bonucci became, as Ferrarini put it, a “warrior.”On the field, the story is the same. Their shared passion for stopping other people having fun might make it seem as if they are cut from the same cloth, but the strength of their partnership is in how little, rather than how much, they are alike.“They understand each other,” said Andrea Barzagli, a former teammate of both men. “When you have been through so many moments together, you know what is happening, how the other one will respond. You can remember what happened in that situation previously, how you dealt with it between you. They compensate for each other.”Bonucci, left, and Chiellini have honed their partnership in years together at Juventus.Stefano Rellandini/ReutersBarzagli, of course, is in a better position to analyze their relationship than most. Until recently, Bonucci and Chiellini were not a pair, but part of a trio, for both Juventus and Italy: Barzagli completed it, until he withdrew first from international contention in 2018, and then retired from playing entirely a few months later.Each one, in that triumvirate, had his own role. In Chiellini’s estimation, he was the “aggressive” one, Bonucci was the “metronome,” and Barzagli the “professor.” “He is always in the right place at the right moment,” Chiellini said.To Bonucci, Barzagli was the “example.” “Andrea is unbeatable in one-on-ones,” he said.Barzagli’s interpretation runs along similar lines. “Giorgio is the type of defender who needs to feel contact,” he said. “He uses his intelligence but also his physical strength to deny a player space. That type of defending is increasingly rare now. It has changed a lot in the last few years. I don’t want to say he is one of the last great Italian defenders, but he is in that tradition.”Bonucci, by contrast, is “more modern,” Barzagli said, better at “reading the game, understanding situations,” the sort of player that Pep Guardiola, the high priest of the modern style of defending, has described as “one of his favorite ever.” Matthijs de Ligt, the Dutch defender who serves as Barzagli’s heir at Juventus, admires his “vision, the accuracy of his long and short passing.” He sees something else in Chiellini. “It looks like he has a magnet in his head,” de Ligt said.Barzagli has not yet decided where he will watch the final on Sunday. Nerves never troubled him as a player; watching games as a spectator, he has found, is a little more stressful. “It is because you can’t do anything,” he said. He might choose to watch in the sanctuary of his own home, rather than with other people, to help him cope with it better.What dulls that anxiety most is the presence of his two former comrades. That they are still here, at the highest level of the game, is testament, in his eyes, to their “professionalism, their dedication, how well prepared they are physically and mentally.“That is their great secret, why they have been able to go on for so long.”Once again, on Sunday, familiarity will bring Italy comfort. Much has changed in front of them, but Bonucci and Chiellini are still there, still celebrating tackles, still enjoying their work.“One thing that maybe Italy knows and other countries do not,” Barzagli said, “is that defenders get better with age. You are always learning. With more experience, you have more solutions. You know what to do in every situation, because you have seen it before. That happens even when you are 34 or 35.” It is what has happened for Bonucci and Chiellini, too. This is a major final, of course, but it is also just another game. It is nothing they have not seen before. More

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      England Celebrates as It Reaches the Euro 2020 Final

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      After 55 years of unsuccessful attempts to reach the final of a major soccer tournament, and after months of sorrow brought by the coronavirus pandemic, England tastes victory.LONDON — England woke up on Thursday with a sensation it had not felt in more than a half-century: Its national soccer team made it to the final of a major international tournament, with the prospect of a first-ever European Championship victory within reach.As England sealed a hard-fought 2-1 win against Denmark on Wednesday night at Wembley Stadium, fans crowded streets and celebrated in pubs, in fan zones set up across the country and at home. Politicians across the spectrum made a rare show of unity as they congratulated the players the nation has hailed as heroes, and England rallied together in a moment of public joy that many said was desperately needed.“Every country has been through some painful 18 months,” said Matt Corby, 30, who was wearing a red England jersey and celebrated with friends at a London pub. “To live this historic moment in England’s football now, after 55 years, it’s beautiful. What a time to do it.”Before its victory over Denmark, England had not reached a soccer tournament final since the 1966 World Cup, which it won. The team, sometimes known as the Three Lions, will now play on Sunday at Wembley in the final against Italy.As fans on Wednesday wept, danced and celebrated in the streets of Newcastle, Portsmouth, Manchester and London — and elsewhere across the country — there was a feeling that it was finally England’s moment, one that previous generations had hoped for for decades.“We would always get to this point,” said Derin Adebiyi, remembering England’s defeat against Germany in the semifinal of the 1996 European Championship.Mr. Adebiyi, as he celebrated in North London, said England had passed its “litmus test.”“This is transcending ideologies and dividing lines, and finally bringing the country together,” he added, praising the team for its performance, but also for taking a knee before every game, as an antiracism gesture. “These moments are so rare and important.”England players took a knee on Wednesday before the match against Denmark at Wembley Stadium.Pool photo by Justin TallisIn a nation that is rived by deep political divisions, and that is still trying to figure out its post-Brexit future, observers lauded the values embodied by a triumphant and diverse squad, led by Gareth Southgate.“The standard of leaders in this country in the last couple of years has been poor,” Gary Neville, a soccer legend and a fervent critic of Conservative politicians, said on Britain’s ITV News after England’s victory.“Looking at that man there,” he added, referring to Mr. Southgate, “that’s everything a leader should be: respectful, humble, tells the truth, genuine.”Mr. Southgate has praised his players for raising awareness about equality, inclusivity and racial injustice.Many on the England squad have been outspoken social justice advocates. Raheem Sterling, who grew up near Wembley Stadium, has been vocal about racism and has championed inclusion causes. Marcus Rashford has campaigned for free meals for underprivileged schoolchildren during the pandemic. Harry Kane showed his support for the L.G.B.T.Q. community when he wore a rainbow armband during the tournament.“We are heading for a much more tolerant and understanding society, and I know our lads will be a big part of that,” Mr. Southgate wrote in letter last month.Although England will most likely face its toughest adversary in the tournament on Sunday, many fans rejoiced with a feeling that the Three Lions had already won, and that their team had rid itself of old demons.“England Make History,” The Times of London declared on Thursday’s front page. “England’s Dreaming,” The Guardian wrote.“Finally,” tabloid newspapers said, while Politico’s morning newsletter included players ratings.Prime Minister Boris Johnson, not an avid soccer fan but perhaps sensing the political benefit of rallying behind a successful team, congratulated the players on Wednesday night for playing “their hearts out.”“Now to the final,” Mr. Johnson wrote on Twitter. “Let’s bring it home.”Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife, Carrie Johnson, celebrating England’s game-winning goal on Wednesday.Pool photo by Carl RecineAbout 60,000 fans attended the game at Wembley, and as the final whistle blew, many more had gathered outside, often disregarding social distancing measures and mask wearing despite a rising number of new coronavirus cases in the country in recent weeks. Fans climbed on buses and lampposts and chanted, “It’s coming home,” and drivers honked their horns until late into the night.London’s Metropolitan Police tweeted that “following the fantastic win by England,” at least 20 people had been arrested during the celebrations.While optimism dominated the news on Thursday, the victory’s aftermath comes as researchers warned in a report that England was facing a rapid growth in coronavirus cases, and that men were 30 percent more likely to be infected.Steven Riley, a professor of infectious disease dynamics at Imperial College London and one of the report’s authors, said changes in social distancing behaviors, like gatherings to watch the games, most likely explained the gap between men and women.The World Health Organization warned last week that the European Championship Games, held in cities across Europe, had driven a rise in cases. At least 60,000 people are expected to attend the final on Sunday in London.England’s remaining pandemic restrictions are set to be lifted by July 19, even as public health experts expect 50,000 daily infections later in the month.Still, many set aside their worries about the pandemic on Wednesday and focused instead on victory, which came after a nail-biter. England’s pregame confidence was quickly tamed by Denmark’s first goal, followed by the frustration at unsuccessful attacks. But when the team’s captain, Mr. Kane, scored a winning goal after 30 minutes of extra time, victory was theirs.Italy now awaits. The team has been unbeaten in 33 games, and will compete in its fourth European Championship final. In Italy, too, a victory would bring some welcomed sense of unity and optimism after years of political uncertainty — and after 18 months of hardship brought by the pandemic.But English fans won’t care. Wednesday’s semifinal had been at times a sketchy and stressful game, and Sunday’s final may well be, too.England had also disappointed many times, said Sarah Barron, 26, as she celebrated in a London beer garden.But this time, she argued, it’s different.“Don’t live in the past,” Ms. Barron said. “This time, it’s coming home.” More

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      Denmark's Christian Eriksen Was Invited to Sunday's Final by UEFA

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      Christian Eriksen and the paramedics who helped save his life after he collapsed on the field during Denmark’s first game at Euro 2020 have been invited to attend Sunday’s final in London by UEFA, the tournament’s organizer.It is unclear if Eriksen or his partner, Sabrina Kvist, who was also invited, will attend Sunday’s final at London’s Wembley Stadium, but at least one of the paramedics said he would go to the game, which might include Denmark — one of the biggest surprises of the tournament.Eriksen has spent the tournament mostly out of public view since his collapse, appearing in a photo from his hospital bed three days after the incident and in another this week taken after a chance meeting with a young fan.A message from @ChrisEriksen8.♥️🤍 pic.twitter.com/WDTHjqE94w— DBU – En Del Af Noget Større (@DBUfodbold) June 15, 2021
      Eriksen was rushed to the hospital on June 12 after his heart stopped and he needed life-saving treatment on the field during Denmark’s opening game against Finland at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen. “He was gone. And we did cardiac resuscitation. And it was cardiac arrest,” Denmark’s team doctor said at the time.One of the paramedics who helped save Eriksen’s life, Peder Ersgaard, told the Danish magazine Fagbladet FOA that he and other paramedics had been invited, and that he was excited to attend the game.Denmark faces England in a semifinal on Wednesday at Wembley. More

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      At Euro 2020, No Semifinalist Is an Island

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      Denmark and Italy borrowed ideas from Spain. Spain has learned from Germany. And England has taken everything it can from anywhere it can get it.LEEDS, England — Kalvin Phillips came home, for the first time, as a fully fledged England international with four jerseys as souvenirs. He had asked his new teammates to autograph one, destined to be framed and mounted on a wall at home. Two others were reserved for his mother and grandmother, as tokens of gratitude for years of support. More