Rome: Somehow it seems appropriate that Italy, the first country in Europe that was overwhelmed by the Coronavirus pandemic, is hosting the opening game of the European Championship, even if Euro 2020 is kicking off in 2021.
The biggest crowd to gather in Italy for a year and a half will witness an Azzurri squad aiming for the title play a Turkey team aiming to spring a surprise on Friday at Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
We've been waiting a year for this European Championship and we can't wait to experience hearing 15,000 people singing the national anthem, veteran Italy defender Leonardo Bonucci said.
Soccer with fans inside the stadium is a different sport.
After embarrassingly failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, Italy won all 10 of its qualifying matches for Euro 2020 and enters on a 27-match unbeaten run.
We want to go all the way, Bonucci said.
Other national teams have more experience but we can play with anyone. We don't have a (Romelu) Lukaku or a Cristiano Ronaldo. Our strength is the team. Turkey took four points off France in qualifying, including a 2-0 win over the World Cup champions, and lost only one of its matches to finish second in its group.
Being in this tournament and playing in the opening match makes us proud, Turkey coach Senol G nes said.
In every opening game there are surprises and I hope we can also spring one.
The matchup also features some political undertones after Italian Premier Mario Draghi labeled Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a dictator in April. Turkey summoned Italy's ambassador to protest, and a presidential spokesman demanded that Draghi retract his words. Draghi, however, did not issue a public apology or retraction.
Draghi is not expected to attend the match since he'll be in Britain on Friday attending a G7 summit. Erdogan is also not expected to attend.
Wales and Switzerland, the other two teams in Group A, meet in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Saturday. This year's tournament is being played in 11 cities scattered across the European continent.
The Italian government decided that the Stadio Olimpico can be filled to 25% capacity for the four games it will host.
That amounts to a maximum of 15,948 spectators. Ticket-holders need to show one of three documents to enter the Stadio Olimpico: either a certificate from Italian health authorities showing they have been vaccinated against COVID-19, another document from Italian health authorities showing they have recovered from the Coronavirus within six months, or a negative test result issued within 48 hours of kickoff.
While more than 2,000 tickets for the opening game were sold in Turkey, many of those fans are not expected to travel to the match.
Fans arriving at the stadium will have their body temperature measured by thermal scanners, and anyone with a fever or other Coronavirus symptoms will be ushered to a quarantine area.
The protocols seem like a small price to pay after Italy became the epicenter of the pandemic in Europe in early 2020, as cities like Bergamo struggled to keep up with the sick and the dead. There have been more than 125,000 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the country and more than 4 million people infected, including many members of Italy's squad both players and coaches.
A full house doesn't mean a full stadium for this year's Coronavirus-impacted European Championship.
All 11 host cities from Glasgow to St. Petersburg, and Sevilla to Bucharest have agreed to allow at least some fans into their stadiums for Euro 2020 matches. Restrictions related to the pandemic, however, could still affect the final numbers even with the tournament set to open on Friday in Rome.
The most should be in the east, with Budapest, Baku and St. Petersburg expected to fill between 50% and 100% of capacity.
In Hungary, that means a possible 68,000 fans the full stadium capacity for the Puskas Arena could be there to watch matches involving the host nation taking on both Cristiano Ronaldo and European champion Portugal, and Kylian Mbappe and World Cup champion France.