Euro 2020 post tournament round-up and reaction

Italy kicked the Euros off in style and signed the Euros off as champions but who were the other winners (and losers) from a month to remember?

Teams on the up

England and Spain, both fancied, let no one down and ought to train on given the relative youthfulness of their squads. Both are 10-1 shots for next year's World Cup, barely any different from a month ago.

Italy took the glory yet there is no great appetite for thinking this team on an incredible 34-game unbeaten streak are going to follow up in Qatar. They are 16-1 in a place to rule the world, maybe stemmed from a sense that this was one last hurrah for Chiellini and Bonucci, defenders who appear irreplaceable.

Teams who fell short

Racing Post columnist Didi Hamann repeatedly told anyone who cared to listen that the Germans were a busted flush and he was spot on – they were awful.

They hae not been eased dramatically for Qatar – 12-1 from 10-1 – and that's presumably down to the fact that Joachim Low has exited stage left.

'Nonchalance' comes from a French word so no surprise that Les Bleus do it better than most. However, like England and Spain, they have youth on their side and continue to dispute favouritism with Brazil. File Holland and Portugal under F for flops.

Stars of the tournament

Gianluigi Donnarumma took brightest-star glory although another keeper, Denmark's Kasper Schmeichel, did nothing wrong after his opening gaffe against Finland, when there were clear mitigating circumstances.

Any club team with Kyle Walker on one side of their defence and Leonardo Spinazzola on the other would take some outpacing – both were excellent.

After four games it had all been about Paul Pogba – the problem is France needed seven from him.

Emergingtalent to watch

This was when we should have been waxing lyrical about Jadon Sancho and Phil Foden yet despite being underused by Gareth Southgate – three starts between them – they remain big future stars.

The jury is still out on Sweden's Alexander Isak, Spain's Pedri won young player honours although Denmark's Mikkel Damsgaard had more of an impact and has catapulted to the top of many Premier League clubs' summer shopping lists.

The interesting one will be Kylian Mbappe who had the world at his feet in 2018 but stubbed his toe three years on. It's lazily and easily presumed the future is still bright for the 22-year-old and while it would be over-dramatic to put a squiggle by his name, his progress over the next few years might not be quite as serene as it has been up to now.

Goal of the tournament

There were plenty of good'uns and Cristiano Ronaldo set the bar high when he finished off a sublime 32-pass move against Hungary.

And there's no doubt that for pure temerity nothing will trump Patrick Schick's outrageous wallop over a bemused and back-pedalling David Marshall for the Czechs against Scotland.

Special mentions to Andriy Yarmolenko and Andreas Christensen for wonder strikes they will never forget though Pogba eclipsed them all with his glorious curler for the French against Switzerland, arrogantly toasted in true Cantona style.

Moment of the tournament

These finals could have been defined by that near-tragedy on night two, when Denmark's Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch against Finland after suffering a cardiac arrest. The heroics of so many people that evening ensured that story ended as well as it possibly could have done.

But a weird tournament in so many ways needs to be remembered for the right reasons and Switzerland, dead and buried and being regally humiliated by the French, came back from 3-1 down to draw and win on pens. It made no sense – the perfect epitaph really to a finals which were certainly a one-off.

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