A European summer of football

From St Petersburg to Seville, from Baku to Budapest, Europe’s biggest tournament will celebrate turning 60—or, 61 as it turns out—by being held in cities from as many as 11 different countries.

THE DEBUTANTS It simply had to be a Goran Pandev goal that sent North Macedonia into their first-ever major championship, at Georgia’s expense. Pandev is eight years older than his country itself (torn out of former Yugoslavia in 1991) and the former Inter Milan striker has the most goals (37) and caps (118) for his young republic. The other debutants are Finland, who qualified after Teemu Pukki scored twice in the playoff against Liechtenstein.

Glasgow

London

Seville

Amsterdam

Copenhagen

Munich

Budapest

Rome

Saint-petersburg

Bucharest

Baku

THE RETURN

Liverpool left-back and Scotland captain Andy Robertson was two when his country last played in a Euro, and all of four during the 1998 World Cup—scotland’s last major. The long wait ended when they upset Serbia 5-4 on penalties. The Scots will collectively hold their breath when they take on neighbours and rivals England in Group D.

THE MISSING VIKINGS As the smallest nation at Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup, Gylfi Sigurdsson’s Iceland were popular among neutrals. Their creative and vociferous fans, whose ‘Viking clap’ celebration in particular has been replicated by many fans across the world, will be missed this time.

VAR’S DEBUT Holding the competition across the continent isn’t the only first for this edition. This will also be the first time Virtual Assistant Referee (VAR) makes its debut. So off-side by a hair’s breath, the giant screen flashing goal checks and play being stopped to check whether that penalty was legit—now part of the football viewing experience in Europe’s top leagues—will be seen for the first time as the tournament steps into its seventh decade. Each game will have a quartet of referees chosen from the competition’s pool of 18 to form the VAR team.