Have you been enjoying Euro 2020 so far? Keep the excitement of the games going outside the TV screen, by playing the next Crossword in the series!
Click start to play and learn more about the competing teams and venues. Don’t forget to check out our special coverage of the event.
From Baku, Azerbaijan, to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, this year’s tournament is being played in different countries across Europe for the first time in the competition’s 60-year history. And some of the stadiums hosting the Euro Cup are spectacular in their design and features.
Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena, for instance, is one of the five most sustainable sports venues on the planet – it boasts 4,200 solar panels, its own wind farm, and a rainwater harvesting system for pitch irrigation. The stadium also finds creative ways to use waste. The grass mown from the pitch finds its way to a farm in Amsterdam, where goats produce milk for the Arena’s cheese. Stadium visitors can buy this cheese from the Arena’s shops, eat it in their restaurants, or even sample it from cheese boards in the sky boxes at the stadium!
Another interesting stadium is in Bucharest, Romania, where Ukraine will play against North Macedonia today. The city’s National Arena is built in the style of Rome’s Colosseum, with incredibly steep sides – the steepest under European law.
Russia’s St Petersburg Stadium has a unique design, too. Japanese architects Kisho Kurokawa intended it to look like a spaceship, which explains the large masts atop a flat roof. However, the stadium's construction costs were out of this world, as well. It cost over $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) and was completed eight years after the deadline – it was 548 per cent over budget! Let’s hope it’s worth it, as seven games are being played there, in the Euro 2020.
Which matches are you looking forward to the most? Play today’s Crossword and tell us at games@gulfnews.com.
