If there is one lesson that the Euro 2020 has already imparted to its players, officials, and viewers alike, it is to expect the unexpected.<\/p>\n
Whether we consider the once-in-a-lifetime coinciding of a 70th<\/sup> minute penalty awarded to Russia in Copenhagen, and the decision to disallow Belgium\u2019s 65th<\/sup> minute goal over in Krestovsky Stadium \u2013 or, of course, those 90 odd minutes that did not go to plan for England when they came head-to-head with Scotland for the first time in fifteen years \u2013 the group stages alone have proved that history and rank only take us so far.<\/p>\n In other words, already, the Euro 2020 has exemplified precisely the reason why we follow sports as avidly as we do. That perfect balance of prediction and surprise, of following on from history in one moment and, the rest of the time, of making it right there on the spot.<\/p>\n Of course, Scotland\u2019s unexpected tie with England<\/a> is also just one example of a wider trend in Euro 2020 \u2013 a trend that falls in favor of the so-called underdogs. It is one that has been bubbling since the qualifiers, and which continues to cast a fresh aura of excitement over the upcoming knockout stages.<\/p>\n A more applicable question would likely be, \u2018What hasn\u2019t happened?\u2019 Take, for instance, Finland, who made a strong entrance onto the Group Stage of their first UEFA European Championship, beating both Denmark and Russia 1-0. On Monday night, their luck took a turn against Belgium \u2013 but the door remains open, and you can click here to see quite how much interest Finland is continuing to attract as the Group Stage reaches its final curtain.<\/p>\n Around 3500 kilometers away, Welsh fans entered into the Euro 2020 with a keen sense of apprehension following their strong performance in 2016, which memorably took them all the way to the semi-finals. Of course, it has been no secret that the 2020 team \u2013 led by Gareth Bale \u2013 falls short of what Wales could boast five years ago but, following a landslide victory against Turkey (and a strong resistance against Italy, despite being one man down in the second half) the team have already guaranteed themselves a position in the knockouts.<\/p>\n Ukrainian players, too, are no strangers to the label of \u2018underdog\u2019 \u2013 but the team has demonstrated a remarkable propensity to hold their own against historically stronger teams, and put itself in with a strong chance of advancement.<\/p>\n At this stage: everything, and nothing. The narrative of the UEFA Euro 2020 is has proven itself highly changeable. Matches can change on a dime, expectations can change at a moment\u2019s notice, and fans can rest assured that no two games will be alike as star players from across the continent seek to live up to \u2013 or, in the case of Wales, Ukraine and Finland, to overrule \u2013 past labels, and to stake their claim on the pitch as the competition fast-approaches the UEFA Euros 2020 semi-finals at Wembley<\/a>.<\/p>\n At this precise moment, we can expect to see at least a couple of so-called underdogs making their way into the knockout stages \u2013 and, hopefully, demonstrating quite how worthy they are of a spot in this next stage of the tournament.<\/p>\n Photo by Janosch Diggelmann<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If there is one lesson that the Euro 2020 has already imparted to its players, officials, and viewers alike, it is to expect the unexpected. Is the Euro 2020 Shaping up to Be the Year of the Underdog? Scotland to Ukraine: The Underdogs Provide an Excitement Whether we consider the once-in-a-lifetime coinciding of a 70th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1806,"featured_media":595428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[343],"class_list":["post-595427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-euro-2020"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1806"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":666484,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595427\/revisions\/666484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What Has Happened so Far?<\/h3>\n
What Can We Expect?<\/h3>\n