It's the big day for all football fans.

Euro 2020 kicks off this Friday evening in Rome with the opening ceremony, just before the first match between Turkey and Italy at 9 p.m.

A Euro different from previous years, organized in 11 European cities and in the context of a pandemic due to Covid-19.

Let's go for Euro 2020!

Eleven cities across Europe are preparing to vibrate from June 11 to July 11 around the European Nations Championships, on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of this football competition.

A postponed anniversary due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which prompted UEFA to postpone the Euro for a year.

Despite the still delicate health context, the organizers maintained the competition with a reinforced protocol to avoid contamination.

Spectator gauges have been set up in the sites hosting the matches, except in Budapest where the organizers undertake to fill their stadium in full.

Information to remember:

  • The opening match between Turkey and Italy in Rome

  • Spectator gauges are installed in the 11 host stadiums

  • France makes its debut against Germany on Tuesday

A strict health protocol

The participating selections must also follow a strict protocol.

Each must respect a sanitary bubble to avoid any contamination due to the virus.

Aware of the difficulty of having no case of Covid during the competition, UEFA has allowed the coaches to call 26 players instead of the usual 23.

However, three players must attend each match in the stands.

The European body also authorizes five changes per team during matches.

Finally, if a nation cannot line up 13 players tested negative after a first postponement of the match, it may be penalized with a defeat by forfeit on the score of 3-0.

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Turkey-Italy, first match of the competition

The first footballing lessons of the Euro will be drawn from the opening match between Turkey and Italy this Friday evening at the Olympic Stadium in Rome (9 p.m.).

Turkey is seen as an outsider in a dense and homogeneous group A.

Always difficult to play, the Turks have three players from Lille in their ranks: defender Zeki Celik, midfielder Yusuf Yazici and above all their star striker Burak Yilmaz.

In front of them, Italy is in full rebirth after the fiasco of its non-qualification for the 2018 World Cup. Coach Roberto Mancini has revived Squadra Azzurra, by very attractive sequences in the game. like Juve defenders Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini, PSG midfielder Marco Verratti or Lazio striker Ciro Immobile, Italy must confirm to the Euro the beautiful promises made for two years.

The France team will make its entry into the competition on Tuesday, June 15 against Germany for the first big shock of Group F.

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A simplified opening ceremony

Italian legends Alessandro Nesta and Francesco Totti will kick off the 16th Euro football in Rome on Friday night, before giving way to Andrea Bocelli and a virtual performance by Martin Garrix, Bono and The Edge. Simplified due to the health context, the traditional opening ceremony will precede the kick-off of Turkey-Italy at the Olympic Stadium by a few minutes.

The two 2006 world champions "will welcome the supporters" of the tournament, while the Italian enclosure has pledged to receive around 16,000 spectators, ie a quarter of its usual capacity. The heart of its ceremony, entitled "Triumph of the Euro", must feature the orchestra of the Italian national police, 24 large balloons inflated with helium to symbolize the teams involved, and a "vertical choreography" mixing dancers and beaters installed on the roof of the stadium. Finally, the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli will perform "Nessun Dorma", taken from Puccini's opera Turandot, before a "virtual performance" by Martin Garrix, Bono and The Edge (U2), authors of the official Euro song, "We Are The People".