The UEFA EURO 2020 is kicking off tomorrow at 9pm CLT with a match between Italy and Turkey at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. And in case you missed all the flutter and the drama, we decided to give you a primer on what you need to know before the event.

First off, the tournament will run for exactly a month, ending on 11 July.

If the fans can’t come to the Euros, the Euros will go to the fans: It’s not just Rome. 10 other cities will also be hosting: Glasgow, Seville, Baku, Saint Petersburg, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Budapest, and Munich. Meanwhile, UK’s London will host the semifinals and finals at the historic Wembley Stadium. This new mega distribution of matches was suggested way back in 2012 (back when bats were just inspiration for comic book orphans). And with countries still holding semi-lockdowns and quarantine policies, it should be a nice change of pace to have a global football tournament stop by.

Why is it still called Euro 2020? For the same reason there are all these cities. The event was supposed to mark the 60th anniversary of the tournament. And so, despite covid pushing the event a year down the road, they kept the name.

And what of fan attendance? So far, all 11 cities hosting matches will allow fans to take up only 25-50% of the stadium’s capacity. However, organizers are crossing their fingers that health conditions in the UK will allow Wembley Stadium to be completely filled by the time the semifinals and finals roll in, according to The Telegraph.

A new system is in place this year: Friday’s tournament will be the first in history where 24 teams qualify as opposed to the previous 16-team cup. The new addition in teams has impacted the qualification system, with six groups of four teams each competing in the first round. Then, the top two teams in each group will qualify for the second round of 16 teams. The remaining four teams will be chosen from the teams that finished third in their groups by looking at goal differences, goals scored, number of wins, and fair play. Goal.com has more.

The 24 teams will be divided into the following groups for the first round (we’re getting a ‘save the best for last’ vibe here):

• Group A: Wales, Turkey and Switzerland.
• Group B: Belgium, Denmark, Russia and Finland.
• Group C: Netherlands, Ukraine, Austria and North Macedonia.
• Group D: UK, Scotland, Croatia and the Czech Republic.
• Group E: Spain, Sweden, Poland and Slovakia.
• Group F: France, Germany, Portugal and Hungary.

The fan favorites: Portugal snagged the first place title in UEFA EURO 2016 after beating France in the final. Meanwhile, Spain took home the trophy for the previous two tournaments by gaining the lead with Italy and Germany in the separate finals. All five mentioned countries are fan favorites to win the cup as well as England, Belgium, the Netherlands and Croatia whose teams have some of the biggest names in football and have proved to be a force not to be messed with.

Some players to light a candle for this tournament: A few European football stars will be missing in action during the championship, either because of an injury or because their team failed to qualify for the cup. One of these players is Erling Haalland, the golden boy of Borussia Dortmund, whose valiant efforts on the field did not succeed in pushing Norway to the championship. Jan Oblak, the goalkeeper of Atletico Madrid, will also be MIA after Slovenia failed to qualify. Meanwhile, the list of injured is long and sorrowful, including Virgil van Dijk and Donny van de Beek from the Netherlands, Joe Gomez and Trent Alexander Arnold from the UK, Sergio Ramos and Ansu Fati from Spain, Ivan Rakitic from Croatia, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was meant to represent Sweden after years of international retirement.

Say it ain’t so: French and Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema, who was set to represent France after six years without a cap, had a collision during last night’s game with Bulgaria that could threaten his return to the tournament.

Where can you watch the UEFA EURO 2020? BeIN Sports has paid USD 600 mn to gain exclusive rights to stream the tournament in MENA, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The low price tag on the agreement — which is roughly 25% less than it spent to secure these rights in the last cycle — reflects BeIN’s inability to broadcast in Saudi Arabia, the largest MENA market, due to tensions with Qatar.