Sport

England’s route to the Euro 2020 final mapped out

England has been placed in Group D, alongside Scotland, Croatia, at the Czech Republic.

The Manc The Manc - 11th June 2021

Euro 2020 is finally kicking off tonight.

After a year of postponement due to the pandemic, European football’s flagship tournament gets underway this evening, and will play right through to 11 July.

24 countries will be battling it out for the trophy, including three UK home nations – England, Scotland, and Wales.

Turkey will face Italy at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome for the first match of the highly-anticipated tournament tonight, with Gareth Southgate’s England squad up against World Cup 2018 finalists Croatia in their first match at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 13 June.

Unlike previous tournaments, Euro 2020 will be the first European Championship to be played across the entire breadth of the continent, using 11 different venues.

England has been placed in Group D, alongside Scotland, Croatia, at the Czech Republic.

Every tournament’s group stage tends to have a so-called ‘group of death’, with Euro 2020’s coming in the form of Group F – which features the 2014 World Cup winners Germany, the reigning world champions France, and the reigning European champions Portugal, with Hungary being the somewhat unlucky nation rounding out the group and therefore needing to produce a moment of magic to come out the other side.

But how will England fare in this year’s tournament? How far are they expected to go? Do they stand a strong chance of making it to the final? Which countries will stand in their way?

Here’s everything you need to know about Euro 2020.

24 countries will be battling it out for the trophy / Credit: Flickr

When is Euro 2020?

The tournament officially kicks off on Friday 11 June in Rome, and ends with the final at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday 11 July.

What are the groups?

Group A: Italy, Turkey, Switzerland, and Wales.

Group B: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, and Russia.

Group C: Austria, Netherlands, North Macedonia, and Ukraine.

Group D: Croatia, Czech Republic, England, and Scotland.

Group E: Poland, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden.

Group F: France, Germany, Hungary, and Portugal.

Where are the venues?

  • Amsterdam (Johan Cruijff Arena)
  • Baku (Olympic Stadium)
  • Bucharest (National Arena)
  • Budapest (Puskás Aréna)
  • Copenhagen (Parken Stadium)
  • Glasgow (Hampden Park)
  • London (Wembley Stadium)
  • Munich (Fußball Arena München)
  • Rome (Stadio Olimpico)
  • Seville (La Cartuja Stadium)
  • St Petersburg (St Petersburg Stadium)

What is the fixture schedule?

The Group Stage will take place between Friday 11 June – Wednesday 23 June, the Knockout Phase will then take place between Saturday 26 June – Tuesday 29 June, the Quarter Finals will happen on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 July, the Semi Finals on Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 July, and it’ll all culminate with the Final on Sunday 11 July.

You can check out the fixture schedule in full on the official UEFA Euro 2020 website here.

What’s England’s route to the final?

It’s easy to get carried away with ourselves when it comes to sporting tournaments such as Euro 2020, and it’s only natural for England fans to be looking ahead at the best way for the squad to make it to the final.

They’ve got to make it to the Knockout Phase first though – but how will they do that?

There’s a number of ways the Group Stage could pan out for England that will determine who they face in the knockouts.

This chart that’s been doing the rounds online might make things a little clearer.

England has been placed in Group D, alongside Scotland, Croatia, at the Czech Republic / Credit: Google

Who is predicted to win?

Predictions will always be predictions, but the bookies over at Paddy Power have set the odds for six countries expected to perform well:

  • England 9/2
  • France 11/2
  • Belgium 6/1
  • Spain 13/2
  • Germany 15/2
  • Portugal 15/2

Where can I watch Euro 2020 in Manchester?

Manchester is a city that’s obsessed with football, so understandably, there’s plenty of venues going all out for the Euros this year.

We’ve been inundated with messages over the past few weeks from our loyal audience keen to find out the best places to catch a match this summer, so we’ve knuckled down and done the leg work for you.

If you’re looking for recommendations, you can find 20 of the best spots to watch Euro 2020 in Manchester city centre this summer here.

Featured Image – Flickr

Sport

Gymshark is opening its first standalone northern store in Manchester this weekend

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant Outside the new Gymshark store

A huge new Gymshark store is opening in Manchester tomorrow, and it’s the brand’s first standalone store in the North.

The global sportswear and fitness brand will be setting up shop at the Trafford Centre and taking over a large 7,500 ft space on Upper Peel Avenue with all of its iconic Gymshark ranges, including the massively ‘Vital’ and ‘Power’ collections, as well as some exciting new exclusives for Gymshark Trafford Centre.

The store itself is said to have Gymshark’s ‘increasingly trademark’ look and feel throughout it, including mannequins that are created from the image of real people in the community, different destinations for its hero products, and spacious changing rooms with bespoke lighting.

Unfamiliar with Gymshark? Since it was founded by Ben Francis from his garage in 2012, the brand has gone on to become one of the UK’s greatest business success stories of the 21st century – with more than 20 million people across 200 countries now counting themselves as members of the Gymshark community.

Gymshark is opening its first standalone northern store in Manchester this weekend / Credit: Supplied

The new Trafford Centre will be Gymshark’s first standalone store in the UK outside of London, and follows recent openings in Dubai and Amsterdam, as well as coming ahead of the opening of Gymshark’s first flagship store in the US later this year.

Most importantly, it builds on the brand’s long association with Manchester, as one of the first-ever Gymshark meet-ups was in the city, as well as its first ‘Lift’ event post-COVID.

Gymshark also credits the public’s reception to its space inside Selfridges at the Trafford Centre as one of the driving forces behind its choice to open a permanent store within the shopping centre, calling it ‘nothing short of spectacular’ and adding that the new opening genuinely solidifies Manchester’s role as a ‘big brother’ to a Brummie brand.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Gymshark’s first Northern store to Trafford Centre this weekend, joining our growing athleisure and sportswear offering at the centre,” commented Simon Layton, who is the Centre Director at Trafford Centre.

“We have no doubt that Gymshark will prove immensely popular and can’t wait to welcome them on opening day.”

Read more:

Gymshark is opening at the Trafford Centre tomorrow (Saturday 12 July) with a grand ribbon cutting at 10am, followed by goody bags, refreshments, and merch being handed out for those waiting in line.

There’ll also be different fitness challenges to take part in too, in true Gymshark spirit.

Featured Image – Trafford Centre

Sport

Explaining the ‘Poznań’ and why Oasis fans are doing it at their Live ’25 reunion tour gigs

Danny Jones Danny Jones

The sun is shining, Britpop is back on top and, more importantly, Oasis are BACK – plus, they’ve got thousands of people that aren’t even Manchester City fans doing the Poznań. Here’s why.

Before you jump down our throats, yes, we’re fully aware of what the popular Man City supporter celebration is (including the fact that it’s nicked); however, we have seen plenty of people confused over what it’s all about.

Including a few in our office who couldn’t give a monkey’s about football, which is fair enough.

So, if like lots of other non-footy-obsessed Oasis fans, you’ve also been wondering A) what the Poznań is and B) why people on the Live ’25 reunion tour have been doing it, here’s a brief explanation.

What is the Poznań celebration?

For starters, if you’ve been keeping off social media completely to avoid any spoilers whatsoever, first of all, well done, your willpower is much stronger than ours.

Secondly, if you’ve never seen it before at all, here’s what it looks like:

It came out of Poland, hailing from the place of the same name and popularised by Ekstraklasa (a.k.a. the Polish first division) football team, Lech Poznań, who have been doing it since the 1960s.

As you can see, the group – and in this case, stadium-wide celebration – sees supporters turning their backs on the pitch/the centre of the arena and linking by wrapping arms around each other’s shoulders and jumping up and down in one, massive, continuous wave.

It is quite a striking visual, no question about that.

Why are Oasis fans doing it?

Come on, you must have put two and two together by now.

Manchester City fans adopted this now iconic celebration more than a decade and a half ago, and have been doing it regularly during big games, big scorelines, and big trophy wins, of which there have been a lot since then.

In fact, aside from the Burnage boys being massive Blues, Liam Gallagher himself actually instructed the Cardiff crowds on nights one and two.

It’s actually said to originate from Turkey or Greece, where it is also fairly commonplace, being simply referred to as ‘la Grecque’.

They’ve even used some pretty biblical official photography from the opening weekend of the reunion tour as the cover art for a live recording re-released of ‘Slide Away’.

It might be the coolest album artwork we’ve seen in a while, to be honest.

The history of the Poznań and its connection to Man City

Be it at Wembley for a cup final or at the Etihad Stadium, where the majority of fans saw the supporter stunt for the first time, it’s become arguably even more synonymous with City than its creators.

It was 2010, and the blue half of Manchester was hosting Lech Poznań in the group stage of the Europa League, but despite a 3-1 victory on the grass itself, more eyes were fixed on the stands themselves.

An army of 6,000 loyal Lech Poznań fans travelled for the game and had the ground quite physically bouncing with a shade of slightly darker blue, so when Emmanuel Adebayor wrapped up a hat-trick, the home support decided to turn the jubilation on their opponents and do it themselves.

It was all in good spirit, of course, but it went down a pretty instant hit with City fans and has only grown more prevalent and regular ever since.

Perhaps one of the funniest sights in recent years is Noel Gallagher being too hungover to join in, which also led to one of the coldest-looking images of the songwriter ever, and one that was quickly dubbed a perfect album cover for the next High Flying Birds album or, who knows, maybe another Oasis record?…

Ok, this is still up there in the cover art competition too.

So, yeah: that’s pretty much the long and short of it, we just thought it would help if we quickly explained the Poznań to anyone wondering why Oasis fans have been doing it.

Basically, if it was that big over in Wales, don’t be surprised if you see a literal sea of people flood Heaton Park before turning their backs to the stage, which seems to be triggered once Liam introduces ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol.’ It’ll be interesting to see if Man United fans get involved.

And finally, just imagine how much more epic this is going to be back home in Manchester as we brace for quite possibly the biggest headline gig the region has ever seen…

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Featured Images — TNT Sports (screenshot)/Oasis (via X)

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