The Euro 2020 semi-finals will be played at Wembley on Tuesday and Wednesday, before the competition's grand final on Sunday.

A dream setting in London for the different teams of this last square.

Almost a century after its construction, the place remains emblematic in more than one respect.

Host of the semi-finals and the final, Wembley will be the terminus of an extraordinary Euro, broken out in eleven host cities but nevertheless favorable to certain teams (almost) at home.

Focus on this XXL stadium in north-west London, a legendary place since the beginning of the 20th century, whose fame goes beyond sport with unmissable concerts at the end of the last century.

It has already welcomed nearly 200,000 people

Built as part of the British Empire Exhibition of 1924-1925, in a place already very popular with Londoners to practice the "Beautiful game", Wembley was completed in 1923. The English football federation has it immediately chosen to host the FA Cup final between Bolton and West Ham.

The brand new stadium was literally assaulted by supporters and the curious.

While the official number of spectators on that day is 127,000, its maximum capacity, it is estimated that more than 200,000 people entered the stadium.

This encounter went down in legend as "The White Horse Final", due to the presence of the mounted police called in to control the crowd which had invaded the pitch, causing a delay of 45 minutes for the match finally won by Bolton 2 to 0.

The last square program at Wembley

Semi-finals

Tuesday, 9 p.m .:

Spain - Italy

Wednesday, 9 p.m .:

England - Denmark

Final

Sunday, 9 p.m .:

Spain OR Italy - England OR Denmark

It was almost demolished the first time ...

At the end of the British Empire Exposition, it was expected that the stadium would be destroyed, but the man in charge of demolishing the buildings, Arthur Elvin, bought the stadium back.

Without a personal fortune - he was selling tobacco at a kiosk during the Expo - he founded a greyhound racing company that stood in the stadium to finance the purchase.

The FA Cup finals, however, continued to take place there each year, as well as a few international matches, although it was not until the early 1950s that it became the benchmark stadium for the team. from England.

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The 1948 Olympics, then the 1966 World Cup, with its dramatic final between England and West Germany, also contributed to its popularization around the world.

Rugby in XIII or XV, boxing, motorcycle races, American football, wrestling or stock car, practically all the sports were right of citizenship in the enclosure, of which the two massive twin towers which framed the main entrance, where the 39 steps leading to the royal box to receive his trophy or his consolation prize, were the hallmarks.

... before really being reborn in 2007

Despite regular improvements, such as the addition of an electric display panel and an aluminum-and-glass roof as early as 1963, the speaker eventually fell short of the needs of its time.

The "football cathedral", as Pelé had nicknamed it, who regrets never having played there, closed its doors in October 2002 and its demolition began in 2003.

The new arena, inaugurated in 2007, belongs to the English Football Association and can accommodate 90,000 spectators, making it the second largest stadium in Europe, after Camp Nou in Barcelona.

The "new Wembley" is an almost perfect circle, 1 km in circumference, surmounted by an arch 133 meters high and inclined at 22 degrees which makes it possible to support most of the roof without having to resort to interior pillars which would obstruct the view.

The enclosure also has a sliding roof which does not close completely, but protects all spectators, and 2,618 WCs, which earned it the enviable title of the best endowed stadium in the world in this area.

Mythical concerts have elevated it to the rank of cultural cathedral

From the 1970s, Wembley also opened up to music and mega-concerts, many of which are part of popular culture. The most famous is undoubtedly the "Live Aid" organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, on July 13, 1985, to raise funds against the famine in Ethiopia and which took place simultaneously in Wembley and in Philadelphia.

Sting, Phil Collins - who sang in London and Philadelphia the same day, thanks to Concorde -, U2, Dire Straits, Queen, David Bowie, Elton John and Paul McCartney, among others, had followed one another on the stage. A year later, to a day or so, the Queen concert in the same stadium, immortalized in a live album and on video, also marked the history of the stadium, as did Michael Jackson's passage in July 1988, with the Prince Charles and Princess Diana in the Royal Box.