Euro 2020 tournament uniting a continent

The UEFA Euro 2020 football tournament appears to be as detached from reality as its numerically-inaccurate title would suggest.

In the midst of a global pandemic spread by unnecessary travel and close human contact, 24 nations are playing in 11 cities across the continent and beyond, encouraging crowds to travel vast distances and congregate with little concern for trivialities like face-masks.

Even the participants appear to defy orthodox categorisation with a Mario Fernandez playing for Russia, Martin Braithwaite for Denmark, Denzel Dumfries for the Netherlands and Finland fielding a Daniel O'Shaughnessy among a squad which - featuring, as it does, Lod, Sparv, Kauko and Pukki - otherwise sounds like nicknames from a buck's weekend.

Normally every four years, the championships are breaking with tradition twice over, by being held a year late thanks to this coronavirus thing that nobody really worries about and staged all over the place rather than the accepted one or two host countries.

But the result has been a magical fairytale, watched over by a Tasmanian Princess supporting Denmark.

So far it's been a tale of tragedy, comedy, joy, love and heartbreak, but it's also been educational as everyone watching learns that there's a country called North Macedonia.

The most tragic development was the horrific collapse of Danish talisman Christian Eriksen in his country's opening match, although this in turn created the best good-news story of Denmark scoring against the world's no.1 ranked team Belgium at a Copenhagen stadium within earshot of Eriksen's hospital.

Elsewhere there's been much to enjoy, including the enthusiasm of the Scots in Glasgow, excitement of the Hungarians in Budapest, expectation of the Germans in Munich and euphoria of the Spanish in Seville.

Scotland showed the Braveheart spirit by displaying characteristic bravery and fighting spirit before being ritually massacred.

Wales defied geography by winning in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, a mere 5000 kilometres from Cardiff and, technically, not really even in Europe. But with Australia competing in Eurovision, maybe it's best not to point that out.

Arguably the world's best known player, Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, was never far from the headlines, establishing himself as leading scorer at this tournament, all European Championships and even in the history of international football, but still creating the biggest stir with a sensational bit of close control followed by a slick finish to defeat Coca-Cola.

The on-field action has been relentless.

Leading up to the Spain versus Slovakia match, there had been record numbers of missed penalties and own goals. The nations subsequently obliged with the former missing a penalty and latter adding two more comical oggies.

A group containing the last two World Cup winners France and Germany, reigning European champion Portugal and, er, Hungary provided gripping entertainment.

The clichéd "group of death" burst into life in the final match-ups as Hungary reversed 20^th Century history by occupying Germany for longer than they would like.

Only an equaliser six minutes from time saved the Germans as simultaneous results saw Portugal fluctuating between all four positions on the table.

Even the players' names have been a source of fascination with Scottish and Welsh strikers Che Adams and Kieffer Moore respectively named after Cuban revolutionary Guevara and Hollywood actor Sutherland (albeit with a mis-spelling).

However, reports of Dutch teammates Memphis Depay and Virgil van Dijk being named by fans of Elvis Presley and cult '60s puppet show Thunderbirds respectively have no basis in truth.

Historically, the European Championships have been one of the most open tournaments in world sport.

Fifteen previous incarnations have produced no fewer than 10 different champions, with seven one-off winners including unlikely trio Czechoslovakia (1976), Denmark (1992) and Greece (2004).

The planet's top footballing nation Belgium (take that Brazil) plus Croatia, Switzerland, Sweden, Ukraine and - until 2am on Wednesday morning - even England are still hoping to add their names to that honour roll.

The English are due to face their old mates Germany in the knowledge that both semi-finals and the final are destined to be played at Wembley - so at least the players will be well placed to watch whoever gets there.

Maybe they might even wear face-masks while doing so.