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L is for Robert Lewandowski. Poland’s top striker tried his best to drag an
underwhelming Polish team through the group stage but, despite three goals in
three games, including a towering header against Spain, the Poles crashed out at
the first hurdle.

M is for Magic Monday. June 28 was one of the greatest days of tournament football
… ever. Spain edged past Croatia 5-3 in a helter-skelter game in Copenhagen,
before Switzerland stunned France on penalties in one of the international games
of the century.

N is for North Macedonia. The tournament’s lowest-ranked team was embroiled in
two controversies. First, Austrian Marko Arnautovic, who is of Serbian
descent, screamed “nationalist” abuse at an ethnic Albanian player from North
Macedonia in the teams’ opening game. Arnautovic was banned for the next match.
Then Greece waded in about a different matter, demanding that North Macedonia
respect a deal between Athens and Skopje and stop using the MKD acronym on its
kit — demanding an acronym with the word “north.”

O is for oranje. The Netherlands, one of European football’s historic powerhouses,
have languished in the international wilderness for years — and the lean times
continued with a tepid 2-0 defeat to the Czech Republic in the Last 16. Dutch
manager Frank de Boer headed straight for the exit, saying the pressure was “not
a healthy situation for me or the squad.”
P is for Michel Platini. The pan-Continental Euros was the brainchild of
the disgraced former UEFA president. Having multiple host cities around Europe
looked like a bad idea at conception in 2012, and a much worse one in a pandemic-
blighted 2021.
Q is for Nations League qualifiers. North Macedonia, Slovakia, Scotland and
Hungary all qualified for Euro 2020 via a new route: the Nations League playoffs.
None made it to the Last 16. And, with the exception of Hungary, none played
particularly well. The disparity in quality doesn’t bode well in case of further
expansion of the European Championships.
R is for rainbow. A spat between the Munich City Council and UEFA over
highlighting LGBTQ+ rights dominated the tournament’s second week. Munich
wanted to illuminate the outside of its stadium in rainbow pride colors for the
group-stage match between Germany and Hungary after Budapest passed an anti-
LGBTQ+ law. UEFA denied the request and was swamped with a wave of criticism
that overshadowed the final round of group games.
S is for Patrik Schick. The Czech forward was one of the surprise stars of the
tournament, sharing the Golden Boot with Cristiano Ronaldo. He left Scotland fans