Image Courtesy: Olympics

"It's either Coming Home or Going back to Rome."

It would probably be the most discussed line for the last one week as we prevailed to the last stages of Euro 2020 which became one of the most exciting Euros ever.

Road to Final:

As we saw there were a lot of upsets during the first phase of knock out rounds as we prevailed to the quarter final stage.

Here we saw Italy the eventual champions come up against the World's number 1 side Belgium where we saw two quick first half goals from Nicolo Barella and Lorenzo Insigne gave Italians a great advantage. 

Though Lukaku brought one back from the penalty spot but it was all what they scored as they went out of the tournament losing 2-1, and Italy prevailed to the semi final stage.

On the other quarter of this half we saw in form Spain came against the giant slayer Swiss side. 

After having an early goal lead it was the Swiss side who brought parity and after being reduced to 10 men it was the Swiss goalkeeper cum captain Yann Sommer who kept them alive in the game creating a record of the most number of saves in a Euro game.

But it all got in vain as in penalty shootout it was the Spanish goalkeeper Unai Simon who saved 3 spot kicks to get through the semi finals to meet Italy which was a repeat of Euro 2012 finals.

On the other half it was Czech Republic came up against the resilient Danish side where Denmark dominated the game to crush the Czech dream after winning the game 2 goals to 1 to continue their own dream run into the semis to repeat the glory of 1992.

In the last Quarter final we saw the favorites English side came up against the dark horse of the tournament Ukraine and eventually it was an one sided affair.

The English side just thrashed Ukraine 4-0 where the Captain Harry Kane scored a brace to seal the victory to meet the Danish side in Semis to form a dream semis in the Wembley arena.

The Last Four:

Now the London the Capital of Great Britain was the focal point of the tournament as the last three matches were scheduled to happen at the Wembley Stadium.

The first match saw the arch rival Italy go up against the Spanish side, the Italians dominated the proceedings and at the one hour mark the young sensation Federico Chiesa scored a stunning goal to give Italy the lead.

It was during the last quarter of the game when the Spanish armada came down heavily to break the Italian resilience as at the 80th minute Morata scored to prolong the game into extra time.

It ended all square even after the extra time. Hence we go to another penalty shootout where both the team failed to score in the first attempt. 

But after 3 rounds of successfully hitting the target it was again Alvaro Morata who went on to miss his penalty whereas in the other hand the Champions League Winner Italian midfielder Jorginho scored a stunning child blooded spot kick to book Italy a place in the finals.

In the other semi final we saw the surprise of the tournament Denmark go up against the mighty English side who were confident as they were playing in their own homeground. Though it was a hard fought yet entertaining encounter to say the least.

During the half hour mark the most part of Wembley became completely silent as the Danish scored the first goal to get a surprising less against the flow of the game. But the own goal from the Danish captain helped England to get parity.

Eventually the match went to extra time and a soft yet controversial penalty decision gave an opportunity to the English side to give them a slender lead and eventually it helped them to reach their first ever Euro finals.

The Grand Finale:

The stage was set with two giants and a billion dollar to dream to unfold as the chants of "It's coming home" was inevitable throughout the Wembley Stadium while on the other hand the chant of "it's coming back to Rome" was increasingly developing.

The city of London was following strict movement restrictions from 48 hours before the finals because of the post match brawl that happened after England's semi final win. Metropolitan Police was on high alert and on the day of the final the mob again went out of control.

The nervous yet confident Wembley crowd erupted with a overwhelming joy when the Manchester United left back Luke Shaw scored the fastest ever goal in the Euro finals history to give England an early lead; yet the whole country's slogan became more intense.

After the first 30 minutes of English dominance it was the resilient Italians who were dominating the proceedings as they went on to test English goalkeeper Pickford numerous time.

And it was around the 74th minute when the Turin need centre back Bonucci scrambled his through to get the ball over the goal line to level the scores.

Off we go to the ultimate showdown of this ultimate final as it went to the penalty shootout. It was the Harry Kane coming on to convert the first attempt to equally out Berardi's first attempt.

The drama began from the 2nd round of the spot kicks as the substitute striker Andre Bellotti missed his kick while the United captain Maguire scored to give England the lead. It was the experienced Bonucci who levelled it when the big English collapse started as Marcus Rashford went on to miss his penalty.

Following his counter part Sancho missed the next penalty while Bernardeschi scored to secure an advantage for Italy. It was all up to Jorginho to score and secure victory but the football good has other plans as Pickford clinched the shot to give England another slender hope.

Though it was the player of the tournament Donnarumma who saved the last penalty of Arsenal's Saka to clinch the European Championship for Italy. And the minority of Wembley Stadium which were the Italian supporters erupted with joy and happiness.

Italy the Champions of Europe:

As we say rising from the ashes like a phoenix it was like that a fairy tale ending to a very hard fought couple of years.

When in 2018 Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup so many football pundits thought it was the end of footballing greatness of Italy but the man named Roberto Mancini took over and turned the tides as he built his own styled Italian style which was drastically different from the historical Italy sides.

The team was energetic it was aggressive it wouldn't just sit and absorb pressure it rather was a very attacking side having a lot of potential and room for improvement.

It went 34 games straight unbeaten to clinch the Euro title which is Italy's second ever Euro title which they won after 53 years, it was the longest ever gap between becoming champions of the tournament surpassing Spain's 44 years wait from 1964 to 2008.

Say No to Racial Hatred:

As we saw a lot of young English players and especially the black players are getting bullied and racially advised by their own fans making them mentally disturbed.

With the likes of Rashford Sancho Saka missing the penalty have just turned the uproar up a notch as they've become the main point of blame with all kinds of criticism which in never deserved.

Rashford's off field works that he did for unprivileged people helping them with food and other necessary supplies as well as helping different NGOs to come up was something everyone cheered up for but some toxic so called fans still went on to personal attacks on his social media handles shows their mentality.

Sports is about winning and losing but it has never been about hatred and racial abuses. So keep supporting your players and Say No to Racism.

Written by: Gourav Chowdhury