Belgium, one of the tournament favorites, opens with a game against Russia in St. Petersburg. Wales plays Switzerland in Baku.
Belgium, one of the tournament favorites, opens with a game against Russia in St. Petersburg. Wales plays Switzerland in Baku. Today’s games Wales vs. Switzerland,9 a.m. Eastern (ESPN) Denmark vs. Finland, noon (ESPN) Belgium vs. Russia,3 p.m. (ABC) Time is almost up for Belgium’s golden generation. The race for the golden boot got started early. A war of the weary: How fatigue could decide the Euros. The games begin in earnest today. Here’s how to watch them. Officially, Euro 2020 started yesterday: the opening ceremony, the fireworks, the first sight of an Italian defender celebrating a tackle. Strictly speaking, though, the first real day of the tournament — when one game seamlessly folds into another, and by the end you have forgotten who played in the first one — is today. Only one of the major contenders is in action. After Wales against Switzerland and Denmark’s meeting with the Euro newcomers Finland, Belgium faces Russia. The fact that the match is in St. Petersburg makes it a far tougher proposition than it might ordinarily be for Belgium, the world’s top-ranked team. But Belgium goes into this tournament with the highest of expectations; if it cannot overcome a Russian home-field advantage, then it will probably not fulfill its ambitions when the games matter more. There is an element of last-chance saloon for this Belgian team. The country has been in possession of a golden generation for almost a decade now — personally, I wrote my first assessment of Belgium’s talent explosion as far back as 2012 — and all it has to show for it, so far, is a couple of semifinals. That is not a bad return for a country of 11 million people, but it still runs the risk of being perceived (rightly or wrongly) as an underachievement. No team other than France is quite as well-stocked across the board as Belgium, even if will run out in St. Petersburg today without the injured playmaker Kevin De Bruyne. Belgium has a miserly defense, a balanced midfield, and a potent attack, led by Romelu Lukaku. And yet no team is quite so, um, experienced. It is possible that this Belgian generation has passed its peak. Certainly, for some members of the squad, this may represent a final major tournament.
