EURO 2020 quarter-finalists names correctly

Only eight teams left and one of them is England; no excuse for not saying the rest of the names right.

EURO 2020 Player Pronunciation Video
The presence of plenty of foreign players at the top levels of football in the British Isles has done something to raise locals' awareness that not all names can be pronounced as if they were English.

Familiarity and the elimination of 16 of the original 24 teams has made pronouncing the UEFA EURO 2020 players' names a little bit easier, but our mission to simplify complicated-looking foreign names for English speakers continues.

BELGIUM
Tee-bo Cor-twa
Tee-bo Cor-twa
AFP via Getty Images
Some names are pronounced the Flemish way, and some the French way.

Toby Alderweireld – Al-der-way-reld
Michy Batshuayi – Bat-shoe-a-yi
Timothy Castagne – Cast-an-yuh
Thibaut Courtois – Tee-bo Cor-twa
Thomas Meunier – Muh-nee-ay
Thomas Vermaelen – Ver-mah-len

CZECH REPUBLIC
Accents on vowels indicate where the pronunciation should be stressed (so ‘Tomáš’ is more like ‘Tom-aash’ for English speakers). An 'š' is a 'sh', a 'č' is a 'ch', but 'c' is more like a 'ts'. And 'ř' is a bit like 'rj' in English.

Jan Bořil – Yan Borjil
Ondřej Čelůstka – Ondjay Chell-oost-ka
Adam Hložek – H-lozhek
Tomáš Holeš – Hollesh
Pavel Kadeřábek – Kadder-jah-beck
Aleš Matějů – Alesh Mattay-oo
Jiří Pavlenka – Yeer-zhee
Jakub Pešek – Pesheck
Petr Ševčík – Shev-cheek
Tomáš Vaclík – Vatz-leek

DENMARK
Pierre-Emile Hoy-byer
Pierre-Emile Hoy-byer
UEFA via Getty Images
That ‘æ’ character is widely misunderstood among English speakers, while a ‘g’ tends to be much softer than it looks.

Simon Kjær – Care
Pierre-Emile Højbjerg – Hoy-byer
Jonas Lössl – Yo-nass Lussel
Joakim Mæhle – May-leh
Frederik Rønnow – Rern-oh

ENGLAND
All pretty simple.

ITALY
The commonly-made mistake is to pronounce a 'ch' like an English 'ch' – it is more like a 'k'. Lorenzo Insigne is a tough one to get spot on – linguists may note that his 'gn' works like a Spanish 'ñ'.

Federico Bernardeschi – Ber-nar-desk-ee
Giorgio Chiellini – Jor-joe Key-eh-lean-ee
Federico Chiesa – Kee-ay-sah
Alessio Cragno – Cran-yo
Lorenzo Insigne – In-sin-yuh

SPAIN
César Ath-pili-coo-et-a
César Ath-pili-coo-et-a
UEFA via Getty Images
Getting it right is tough for the uninitiated, but the following pronunciations may get you a bit closer. César Azpilicueta's Chelsea team-mates famously nicknamed him 'Dave' to avoid the difficulty of saying his surname.

César Azpilicueta – Ath-pili-coo-et-a
Sergio Busquets – Boo-skets
David de Gea – De-hay-eh
Diego and Marcos Llorente – Lorentay

SWITZERLAND
In addition to Switzerland's mix of native languages – French, Swiss German and Italian – the prominence of players with Albanian, Kosovar and Turkish roots makes things even more exciting.

Eray Cömert – Jo-mert
Breel Embolo – Brail
Becir Omeragic – Bess-eer Omer-adjitch
Fabian Schär – Share
Xherdan Shaqiri – Jer-dan Sha-chee-ree
Granit Xhaka – Jakka

UKRAINE
Transcribed – like Russian – from the Cyrillic alphabet, Ukrainian is notably easier to pronounce. Names largely sound like they look in print. The number of 'y's might throw some English speakers, so it's worth noting that they can generally be treated as English 'i's. An 'iy' is approximately the same as an English 'ee' – hence 'Andriy' = 'Und-ree'. A 'ts' sounds like it does in 'tsunami'.

Heorhii Sudakov – Georgie
Viktor Tsygankov – Tsee-gan-koff

Belgium vs Italy: UEFA EURO 2020 match background, facts and stats
Wednesday 30 June 2021

Italy have held the edge over Belgium in their past meetings, with the Red Devils' only competitive win against the Azzurri coming in the 1972 EURO quarter-finals.

Italy's Giorgio Chiellini  and Belgium's Axel Witsel in action at EURO 2016
Italy's Giorgio Chiellini and Belgium's Axel Witsel in action at EURO 2016
Getty Images
Italy and Belgium meet in the second UEFA EURO 2020 quarter-final chasing a place in EURO history. With both teams having won their last 14 UEFA European Championship matches, the victors at the Football Arena Munich will set a new competition record, a mark they both currently share with Germany.

• While Italy have won 14 of the sides' 22 contests, including group games at UEFA EURO 2000 and 2016, Belgium prevailed in the teams' only previous EURO quarter-final, in 1972 when they ultimately finished third.

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• Both sides won their section with maximum points at UEFA EURO 2020, Italy finishing first in Group A and Belgium coming top of Group B, before hard-fought wins in the round of 16. Italy needed extra time to see off Austria 2-1 at Wembley on 26 June; Belgium edged past holders Portugal 1-0 in Seville the following day.

• Both teams were knocked out in the quarter-finals of UEFA EURO 2016.

• The winners of this tie will play Switzerland or Spain in the semi-finals at Wembley on 6 July.

Previous meetings
EURO 2000 highlights: Italy 2-0 Belgium
• Belgium's record in 22 meetings with Italy is W4 D4 L14; W1 D2 L3 in competitive games.

• The sides' most recent meeting came in the UEFA EURO 2016 group stage, goals from Emanuele Giaccherini (32) and Graziano Pellè (90+3) giving Antonio Conte's Italy a 2-0 Matchday 1 win in Lyon against a Belgium side coached by Marc Wilmots. That helped the Azzurri finish top of Group E, level on six points with runners-up Belgium, who also progressed. Ten members of Belgium's UEFA EURO 2020 squad played in that encounter as opposed to just three from Italy's.

• That was the nations' third meeting at the EURO final tournament, a goalless draw in Turin in 1980 enabling Belgium to reach the final at the hosts' expense. Twenty years later Italy helped to eliminate the UEFA EURO 2000 co-hosts in the group stage with a 2-0 victory in Brussels, Francesco Totti and Stefano Fiore scoring.

• The nations' last friendly – and first since May 2008 – took place in November 2015, Belgium coming from behind to defeat Italy 3-1 in Brussels. Jan Vertonghen, Kevin De Bruyne and Michy Batshuayi scored for the hosts in reply to Antonio Candreva's early strike.

• Belgium's sole competitive triumph against Italy came in the quarter-finals of the 1972 UEFA European Championship. They prevailed 2-1 in Brussels after a goalless draw in Milan to eliminate the holders.

EURO facts: Belgium
• This is Belgium's second successive UEFA European Championship final tournament and their sixth EURO in total.

• The Red Devils' biggest achievement to date was reaching the final of this tournament in 1980, when they lost 2-1 to West Germany in Rome.

• In 2016, Belgium's first EURO finals since they co-hosted UEFA EURO 2000 with the Netherlands, a team coached by Wilmots finished second in Group E and beat Hungary 4-0 in the round of 16 – their biggest EURO finals victory – only to suffer a 3-1 quarter-final defeat by Wales.

• This time round, Roberto Martínez's side won all ten of their qualifiers to finish first in Group I, increasing the number of countries to have reached the finals with a perfect record to eight, Italy also having achieved the feat in the UEFA EURO 2020 preliminaries. Of the previous six to have won every qualifier, however, only Spain (2012) went on to win the tournament itself.

• The 9-0 win against San Marino on 10 October 2019 is Belgium's biggest UEFA European Championship victory.

• Belgium were the top scorers in qualifying overall with 40 goals in their ten matches. Fifteen different Belgium players found the net in qualifying.

• The Red Devils conceded only three goals, the joint best record along with Turkey.

• Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne both provided seven assists in qualifying, fewer only than the Netherlands' Memphis Depay (eight). Hazard scored five goals to De Bruyne's four; Romelu Lukaku managed seven goals and four assists.

• Belgium have extended their winning run in the competition to 14 at the final tournament. They beat Russia (3-0) and Finland (2-0) in Saint Petersburg either side of a 2-1 comeback victory against Denmark in Copenhagen to finish six points clear at the top of Group B, before Thorgan Hazard's 42nd-minute goal at the Stadium La Cartuja Sevilla proved enough for them to see off Portugal in the round of 16.

• That 1972 success against Italy is Belgium's only win in a EURO quarter-final; they lost to the Netherlands in 1976 (0-5 a, 1-2 h) and Wales in 2016 (1-3).