Analysis

With two matchdays already complete, England's footballing template has been executed perfectly so far at Euro 2020.

First: infinite pre-tournament hype, especially in connection to a burgeoning young star — in this case, Phil Foden. Then, earn some decent results in the group stage without looking overly encouraging on the pitch. Finally, get through to the next round, provide some hope, then lose in heartbreaking fashion late in the game or on penalties.

It's a pattern so often repeated that any England fan worth his salt has put it to memory.

Week 1 of 4 of Euro 2020 brought plenty of goal-mouth action, but also some disappointing performances — especially from some tournament favorites.

While we're only just starting the second matchday of the group stage, it is never too early to make some broad and definitive conclusions about the action that has taken place thus far.

Here are the biggest things I noticed from the opening week of the Euros.

Biggest Takeaways From Week 1 Of Euro 2020

The pre-tourney favorites have been underwhelming — except for Italy (and maybe Belgium)

Looking at North Macedonia's obscure warmups heading into its match against Ukraine, there is no surprise it later lost. As fun as it looked, with the players racing up the pitch and passing the ball between each other using upturned cones, it didn't seem like the appropriate warmup for the Euro 2020 Group C match on Thursday. 

Former Argentinian forward Gonzalo Higuaín had low expectations coming to MLS but now is learning to respect the competition. The 33-year-old exclaimed he expected to play with a cigarette in his mouth, it was going to be that easy.

Through seven matches in the 2021 MLS season, Higuaín has four goals and one assist. He was quoted on Christain Vieri's Twitch live stream a few days ago saying, "I thought I would come to MLS and play with a cigarette in my mouth and instead it is difficult."

FC Barcelona released new home kits for the 2021-2022 La Liga season and they're chaotically terrible. The new shirts appear as if the creators never agreed on a set design and continued the fight throughout the process.

With Barcelona being in severe debt, we should have assumed the new kits would be this bad. They feature verticle traditional blaugrana stripes and a new design inspired by the team crest. With tons of stripes and lots of colors, these kits fail to impress.

Luxembourg is rarely a country that is mentioned in discussions of European football. A victory over the Republic of Ireland and a good performance against Portugal during World Cup qualifiers back in March made a few headlines, but few people outside of Luxembourg understand how far football has come in the country in the last decade.

The build-up to every major international tournament is the same: who has the best striker? Or, this is why x midfielder is going to dominate or why this winger is the key to this country getting out of its group. 

But no one ever talks about the goalkeepers. In such a short tournament, where three matches decide a team's fate, the importance of the goalkeeper becomes magnified. 

So let's give the goalkeepers the spotlight for a little bit, because often they're the ones that end up deciding the tournament.