RONALDO’S GRAND CUP

The European Football Championship keeping the fans on toes for the whole month was remarkable for a number of innovations and surprises.

For the first time, the final European tournament was contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format used in previous years. It was the first time when even the teams coming third in the knockout phase of the tournament have been qualified for the play-off. This, in fact, drew attention to the last round of matches. Due to these extra games, UEFA has earned an additional €56 million.

The updated procedures have also affected the team of referees. For the first time in tournament’s history, the referees were allowed to show only the yellow card for professional fouls while the injured players would be assisted straight on the field.

Given all of the advantages of Euro 2016, the format of 24 contesting teams introduced by the ex-President of UEFA Michel Platini has already been approved. The FIFA President Gianni Infantino The head of FIFA noted that he would consider the possibility of increasing the number of teams contesting for the World Cup from 32 to 40.

The Albanian breakthrough

For a country playing at the final stage of the European Championship for the first time, Albania has shown quite a good progress in Group A. The national team, which also includes Ansi Agolli of FC Karabakh, ranked third in own group and had a real chance to be in the playoffs but had to leave the group due to the difference of the scored and missed goals. Nevertheless, this outcome is regarded as Albania’s success. The President of Albania has personally awarded the team players. A plaque with their names has been placed at the new stadium in Tirana.

The losers of Euro 2016

Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey have failed to leave their groups becoming the outsiders of the tournament. The Russian team coached by Leonid Slutsky was able to score only one point in three games, which resulted in Slutsky’s resignation.

For Ukraine, the situation was even worse – the team lost all of the group matches, performing well below its capabilities.

The Turkish team has also failed although the coach Fatih Terim was quite serious about the intentions of his team: "Unless we say ‘that’s the end’, nothing comes to an end". Turkey won only one game in the group and failed to be in the playoffs. The lack of Arda Turan’s leadership skills was reconfirmed.

The English fiasco

The loss of the English team coached by Roy Hodgson in the round-of-sixteen to Iceland was a bombshell of the tournament. In fact, the progress made by the team in France thus far is not encouraging. The team obviously needs serious reforms. Therefore, Hodgson's resignation was accepted and the performance of most of the players found to be unsatisfactory.

The leave of del Bosque

The reigning European champion, Spain, has stopped the fight at quarterfinals losing to Italy. The Italian ‘squadra’ coached by Antonio Conte has demonstrated a decent performance at Euro 2016. The principal reason for the failure of the Spanish team though was Vicente del Bosque who has failed to invite many of the experienced players to the tournament and has improperly assembled the team. As a result, he lost his job after the Championship.

Bad luck for Croatia and Italy

The Croatian national team, one of the favorites of the tournament, was knocked out at the round-of-sixteen by Portugal, the next European champion. Indeed, the Croats looked stronger than their rivals but have failed to score in 90 minutes and missed the ball from the Portuguese in extra time.

Italy and Germany have played one of the dramatic games of the quarterfinals. Conte's team lost to the current world champions only on penalties marked with a series of blunders both sides. But the German team was luckier. Conte has left the national team for Chelsea as soon as the tournament was over.

A surprise from Hungary and Wales

Although Hungary was the first team in its group, it was defeated by the Belgian national team at the round-of-sixteen. Nevertheless, the Hungarians have shown an unprecedented performance in all four of the previous games.

Meanwhile, the Belgians, considered by many as one of the favorites of the tournament and expected to be one of the finalists of Euro 2016, have lost to Wales scoring 1: 3 during the quarterfinals.

A real surprise for everyone was the Welsh national team playing at this level for the first time in history. With stellar players Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey, it was quite lucky unless it lost to Portugal during the semi-finals.

An Icelandic phenomenon

The national team of Iceland, a small country with a population of 332 thousand people, became a real discovery of the tournament. Being a newcomer at such a prestigious contest, it has managed though to leave the group as quite a decent team of professionals. Then at the round-of-sixteen, it made a miracle by beating England. Even at the quarterfinals, despite losing to the hosting French team with a score of 2:5, the Icelanders have demonstrated a very interesting game. As a result, Iceland has soared 65 steps in the FIFA rankings list. Overall, the team play, the field vision of the players, the speed of attacks, and the use of standards have shown that Iceland deserved to be one of the best teams of Euro 2016.

The French factor

The host of the tournament has managed to reach the finals. Didier Deschamps’ team has proved to be the first team in all matches, and especially by guaranteeing the victory over Germany at the semifinal. Although the referees have to some extent supported the hosting team, this had not have significant impact on the result since the team’s performance was top notch. But the team could be satisfied only after being the champion of the tournament. However, the French players have come the second of Euro-2016. It is worth noting that Deschamps has managed to change the performance of his team completely. No doubt, two years later the French team will be one of the favorites of the World Cup.

Portugal = Champion

Cristiano Ronaldo and the Portuguese national team have made their dreams come true winning the European Championship for the first time in history, although Fernando Santos’s squad have made it to the knockout phase only through drawing the earlier three group games, as well as the following ones during extra times at the round-of-sixteen and the quarterfinals. They have ultimately become the champions. As rightly noted by Ronaldo, the team does not play for the sake of dry figures and analysis but for the victory. The final game of Euro 2016 is still open for discussions and analyzes.

The French have roughly injured the leader of the Portuguese team Ronaldo in the 24^th minute of the game. But this could not stop him from being a powerful motivator for his teammates even from the sidelines.

Ronald has attracted attention all over Europe acting as a coach in the technical area. It was Ronaldo who told Éder that he would score a goal in that game. His prediction has eventually come true in extra time. Cristiano proved to be a true captain of his team.

Incidentally, Cristiano scored 9 goals at the final stages of the European Championships thus reaching the level of the legendary Michel Platini.

The best player and the symbolic team

Antoine Griezmann was selected the best player of Euro 2016. He has also been awarded the Golden Boot as the top scorer of the tournament scoring 6 goals in seven games.

UEFA has also announced the symbolic team of the tournament. The organizers have agreed on a team of four players from Portugal, three from Germany, and two from France and Wales, respectively.

And here is the final list of players: goalkeeper Rui Patrício (Portugal), defenders - Jerome Boateng, Joshua Kimmich (both from Germany), Pepe and Rafael Guerreiro (both from Portugal), midfielders - Toni Kroos (Germany), Joe Allen, Aaron Ramsey (both from Wales), Antoine Griezmann and Dimitri Payet (both from France), and the forward - Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal).

The next European Championship of 2020 will be partly held in Baku, namely the games of one of the groups, as well as the quarterfinals.