After a gruelling tournament, Italy defeated Serbia in the final of the inaugural UEFA eEURO 2020 to become the champions of European eFootball over the weekend. The team was represented by four players AlonsoGrayfox, Naples17x, Nicaldan and Genoa_Npk02 who showed their mettle throughout the tournament and put on some very impressive displays of top-quality gameplay. The tournament was played on Konami's eFootball PES 2020 on PlayStation.
The Azzurri had shown their class throughout the championship having been beaten only once in the qualifying stages. They defeated Israel in their quarterfinal match before dispatching France in the semi-final with a 2-0 score line in both games.
On their road to the final Serbia managed to push aside Spain and Romania. The final was a closely fought affair despite Serbia getting off to a rough start as AlonsoGrayfox defeated RoksaCzv22 at the beginning of the best-of-five series opener. Serbia levelled proceedings when Kepa_PFC beat Genoa_Npk02 before Nicaldan edged RoksaCzv22 1-0 and Naples17x downed Kepa_PFC with a last-minute goal in a 2-1 victory.
After winning the tournament, Italian player AlonsoGrayFox, said "It was a great emoton. It was incredible to have come to this point, and now we have won it. I cannot express my feelings in words. The decisive game for us was the one against France in the semi-finals. That victory gave us self-confidence. I'm proud to be Italian, and I'm proud to be Sardinian. It's incredible, I still cannot believe we did it – it's a dream."
The Italians will definitely be smiling as not only did they walk away as champions of Europe but also took home 40,000 Euros (R765248) as part of the overall 100,000 Euro (R1913120) prize pool.
The eEURO 2020 championship is now the biggest ever national team efootball competition, with all 55 UEFA national associations being featured. The tournament format was very similar to the traditional UEFA EURO 2020, consisting of a qualification stage before culminating in the final tournament.
Serbia 1-3 Italy (best of five games)
Romania 1-2 Serbia
Italy 2-0 France
Netherlands 1-2 Romania
Spain 1-2 Serbia
Italy 2-0 Israel
France 2-0 Croatia
