UEFA Euros 2022 Primer
Hooboy, the Women’s UEFA Euros are here and I am pumped to share my thoughts, feelings and observations on as much of it as I can consume, including writing up a preview for friends and fam who might want to follow along.
First warning: my perspective is from the bias of mostly following these professional leagues: WSL (England), UEFA Champions League (Europe) and NWSL (USA). That also means that the majority of my coverage/live-viewing recommendations will be USA/UK based, but I’ll try to include links to other general resources as much as possible.
Second warning: I love this shit and I am mostly doing it for me. That is to say, it might not be the most user-friendly and I’ll maybe ‘go long’ on aspects that aren’t essential to actually watching football. I’ll try to organise things so you can get the basics with optional deep dives, but no promises.
Ok, let’s do this.
Where to Watch
UK: The Beebs
US: ESPN Networks
The WEUROs website also has a page with comprehensive information about coverage globally.
How the Tournament Works
The Euros will take place over the month of July 2022 in England, with the opening match occurring on 6th of July and the final taking place on the 31st of July (here's a link to a calendar share of all of the games if you want to save them). Sixteen teams qualified for the tournament and they’re allocated into four groups, where they will play every other team in their group to determine who moves to the quarterfinals. From that point, it’s a traditional tournament format, with single elimination games reducing team numbers from 8 to 4 (semi-final) to 2 (final). Look, UEFA made some nice graphics to explain.
JK, it’s a bit of a mess (and also now out of date because Russia is no longer included and has been replaced by Portugal), but if you're not bothered by the England branding, here's a nice Euro 2022 wallchart produced by the Lionesses graphics team.
What To Expect
I'll do separate posts about each group, but here's a summary of thoughts on the whole thing, while attempting to avoid big predictions.
Anybody's Tournament
This really could be any team's to win (with the exception of a couple teams who would be incredibly fortunate to make it out of their groups, ahem, N. Ireland & Portugal, ahem). It's going to be competitive and some dominant teams on paper might not make it to the knock-out stages.
Final Four
Based on competitive games and expectations coming in, a semi-final group of England, Spain, Sweden and France would be a safe choice, and a delight to watch.
Based on vibes and potential alone, a final four of Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Italy would have great 'chaotic good energy'. This is also my line-up of dark horses to disrupt things this summer.
Who to Watch
Outside of team/group breakdowns, here are 5 players I'm excited to watch/hope have a great tournament, in no particular order:
Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir (Iceland)
Pernille Harder (Denmark)
Marie-Antoinette Katoto (France)
Aitana Bonmatí (Spain)
Ella Toone (England)
Group Previews
Group A: The Home Draw
Group B: The Group of Death
Group C: The Holders et al.
Group D: The Disruptors
Round Check-Ins
Round 1.5 (Wednesday, 17th July)
Quarter Final Previews
QF1 (England v. Spain) & QF2 (Germany v. Austria)
QF3 (Sweden v. Belgium) & QF4 (France v. Netherlands)
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Ronaldo Reading Transfer Details to Napoli
Italian media on Friday revealed details of Manchester United's offer to trade Cristiano Ronaldo for Victor Osimhen, which has finally come undone.
According to Il Corriere del Mezzogiorno, in recent days there has been a lot of information about the possibility of CR7 returning to Serie A, with Napoli leading the list.
The property is now exposed. Red Devils have made an offer of 80 million euros for the Napoli striker and the Italian club will have to pay 50% of the salary of the Italian striker.
The 10 million transfer because Napoli wanted 10 million euros transfer from Osimhen and Man United did not have the opportunity to increase an offer.
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