Russia and Germany are the finalists for the first EURO after some intense semi-finals, where the seeds and main EURO favorites won.
The semi-final between Russia and Ukraine started amazingly for Ukraine who won the first 5 matches against their russian rivals. That was a huge surprise but it is said that the great teams emerge in the most complicated moments and Russia, being a great one, was not going to surrender so easily. They immediately forced a tiebreaker match in every one of the 5 revenge matches! That comeback was confirmed later by 4 victories in the decisive matches which led to a final score of 4-1 for team Russia. The only player who earned 1 point for Ukraine is Jubjic who defeated one of the most feared player in the field, Someone_you_know (ranked 10th ELO on BGA).
Russia prevailed, suffering and giving all its energy, showing that the level of the EURO is very high and does not allow any kind of overconfidence.
United Kingdom vs Germany was marked by the really high level showed by United Kingdom’s team during the competition who had defeated Russia in the groupe stage and followed its streak by also defeating a very strong Poland team in the quarter-finals.
For its part, Germany was quite irregular in the group stage which almost cost them the qualification. Fortunately for them, they were back on track and faithful to their real level in the quarter finals defeating quite easily Netherlands. That gave them back confidence before facing United Kingdom. Victory was ensured quite easily after Nocebo, Navarre79 and MeepleWizard won immediately 2 straight matches to secure 3 big points for their team. The 2 reamining games wouldn’t change the result anymore, Germany defeated UK with a final score of 4-1.
So the great final is now set between Russia vs Germany, where the favorites reached this final stage, avoiding obstacles. The best thing about this final is that its looks really undecided and that making a prediction is really tough. Russia has proven to be strong and expeditious in almost all their matches meanwhile Germany arrives with its machinery rolled and at full power.
The only confrontation between Russia and Germany was in the 2020 WTCOC World Cup semi-final where Russia won 3-2 in an exciting and dramatic duel.
Ukraine and United Kingdom will battle for 3rd and 4th place. These two teams already met in the group stage with a narrow 3-2 victory for Ukraine.
Good luck to everyone!