TV review of the European Championship final: Not an evening like any other

TV review

At the beginning there were the Simpsons socks, but at the end things were a bit deflated. Not only because four weeks is a pretty long time even for the hardest-drinking football fan, but also because on this Sunday, July 14, shocking images from the USA dominated the headlines. The “Brennpunkt” about the assassination attempt on the American presidential candidate Donald Trump had initially caused the live broadcast on ARD to start later.

As tragic as the occasion was, the noticeably shortened pre-match coverage was a relief. “Darling, come quickly, Basti is explaining Kyle Walker’s running routes!” – sentences that were probably rarely heard that evening. The question about the emotional state before such an important game was always asked, and that wasn’t exactly premium content either. People would have preferred to watch Zeigler and Köster playing Subbuteo or join in with an early round of pub quiz. Instead, there was a quartet of Esther Sedlaczek, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Almuth Schult and Alexander Bommes, who delivered, like the English in the first half, with commitment but with room for improvement.

The European Championship final also brought with it a rocked-out, old-age mellowness

But never mind. On the last evening, a certain worn-out, old-age mellowness also came to dominate the football experience on television. There are probably more important things than the question of Schult’s maternal feelings when he sees Lamine Yamal. According to Alexander Bommes, he is “an old fart” after his 17th birthday the day before. The joke between Schweinsteiger and Sedlaczek was slowly running out of steam, and it was no disadvantage that the closing ceremony of this European Championship required more airtime before kick-off. A bit of elbow ballet, then the football anthem “Fire” by Leony and OneRepublic, that Eurodance stomper with a stylistic cross between Coldplay and Loona, and the prelude was complete.

At the microphone, or rather, at the microphones in the commentary box with Tom Bartels and Thomas Hitzlsperger, a tandem that delivered as solidly as the Spanish team throughout the course of the European Championship – pointed, close to the action and critical when necessary, such as when the whistles were again blown against Spain’s Cucurella or with a view to the upcoming Club World Cup. Tom and Thomas agreed on both: “It’s just too much!”

After the game, the gang of four finally took over once again. The service was over, the fireworks had fizzled out, and the panel of experts had one foot out the door. When the conversation turned to a possible dismissal of the English coach Southgate, Schweinsteiger went into pros and cons with regard to Harry Kane. Even Sedlaczek’s energetic warnings that they were talking about the coach and not the goalscorer rolled off Basti like wheat beer on a master coach.

End of work for a whole team of experts

So this European Championship ended, exactly one month after the German team’s 5:1 opening victory against the Scots, not only as a football festival as such, but also as a multi-faceted expert and entertainment spectacle. While Schweinsteiger was at least in better form on ARD, much of the limelight belonged to the Spaghetti Ice Cream team on ZDF. Breyer, Mertesacker and Kramer, in a changing line-up including the calmly confident Fritzy Kromp and Kathrin Müller-Hohenstein in the socks mentioned above, were hard to get past. Boring sneakers or pastel-colored pensioner’s fashion, it was entertaining throughout.

On RTL, the duo Elton and Jan Köppen provided a rather flippant counterpoint to the seriousness of the footballing show. And what Kramer and Mertesacker may have lacked in terms of an overly critical view of the German team, Lothar Matthäus made up for as an elder statesman with a sharp analytical scalpel. Not only did Matthäus precisely illustrate what was happening on the field, between the hanging six and second balls, but the record international player was also not afraid to take the wind out of the overly euphorically inflated national team sail – there is still a long way to go on the way back to being a top footballing nation.

In two years, we will see how much of this will be fulfilled at the World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada. With 104 matches in 39 days at 16 venues, the experts will have a lot of work to do. With that in mind, we’ll read each other again on this topic on June 11, 2026 – then kick-off will be in the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. Until then!