Italy keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was busier than he had been in four prior matches in the first half of his team’s Euro 2020 quarterfinal, but it was a Nicolò Barella goal vs Belgium that gave Italy the lead in the first half. The Barella goal was so great it cured Ciro Immobile’s leg, the striker miraculously getting up unharmed after having been seemingly shot in the leg moments earlier.
In football, as in life, sometimes it's better to be lucky than to be good. And if you were a decent French-speaking footballer in the first half of the 2010s, there was a chance that Newcastle United's bulging pocket book and obsession with Ligue 1 players would make you a very rich man.
The "French Revolution" began after Newcastle's Premier League promotion in 2010, as the club signed French winger Hatem Ben Arfa and Ivorian holding midfielder Cheick Tioté. Ben Arfa and Tioté were just two of the 20+ French-speaking players Newcastle signed over the next half-decade.
When you look at the Chile national team, one player might appear out of place. Ben Brereton is not your usual Chilean; he doesn’t even speak Spanish, the primary language spoken by the rest of the team. The English-Chilean forward had played with England's U19 and U20 national teams for almost five years before switching to Chile's squad this year for the Copa América.
While the Euros roll on through the knockout rounds, we have plenty of wild fan interactions already. From fans showing up to support their team in the wrong country to pitch invaders wielding rainbow flags, anything goes as fans are enjoying their time back. Football fans were kept from stadiums and fully supporting their teams for over a year by the Covid-19 pandemic, diminished to yelling at screens instead of faces, so we wouldn't expect anything less extravagant than what has been happening. Let's take a look at the best Euro 2020 fans so far.
Christian Pulisic is living the high life this summer.
After winning the Champions League with Chelsea and Nations League with the U.S., the 22-year-old is traipsing around the country in a manner that, honestly, reminds me a bit of Johnny Manziel after he won the Heisman Trophy with Texas A&M in 2012. Pulisic broke ground on new soccer fields in his home state (the Pulisic Stomping Ground) and has appeared on national broadcasts like Good Morning America and the Daily Show.
Belgium forward Romelu Lukaku had fans ask him questions on Twitter and his responses display just why we love him. He replied to dozens of questions, including sharing his biggest motivation and even firing back at some haters, making this thread a must-see. As he lights up the pitch at Euro 2020, we look at the highlights from the Lukaku Q&A to get to know one of our favorite stars even more.
Let’s go ask your questions
Footballers have frequently spoken about how the periods of “rest and relaxation” at major international tournaments are merely a euphemism for being bored out of their collective minds. It’s always a fascinating subplot to a month-long period spent holed up in a resort, doubly so during the time of Covid-19 — when leaving the hotel, or inviting someone inside, is bound to cause a national stir (see: Chile).