Your unofficial Euro 2024 final viewing guide
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Published
You may have spotted that England face Spain in the European Championship final on Sunday night.
It seems unlikely this article is the first notice youâve had, that youâre reading this with a startled expression and saying to yourself: âEngland are doing WHAT NOW?!â
But how to spend the day? Hereâs a guide to what you could do before the game kicks off at 20:00 BST live on the BBC (and ITV, of course).
How do you escape the nerves?
If you wake up at 08:00 BST, that leaves a full 12 hours to kill before kick-off. So if you donât want to obsess about the game all day, what can you do to take your mind off it?
Maybe a nice spot of tennis on the TV? The Wimbledon menâs singles final â and several other doubles, youth and wheelchair finals â take place on Sunday, which you can watch on the BBC or, if youâre out and about, listen to BBC Radio 5 Live.
Cycling fan? You could follow the Tour de France, with live text coverage on the BBC Sport website.
Or if cycling is indeed your jam, you could go out for a bike ride yourself. Or a nice walk in a park?
If you just want a chilled out day, then how about a Sunday lunch at the pub?
You could also watch the darts?
Sundayâs session at the 2024 World Matchplay in Blackpool starts at 16:30 BST, instead of 19:00, to avoid a clash.
Want to embrace football? How do you get in the mood?
Alternatively, you may want to embrace the tension and the nerves and spend all day watching football?
You can watch highlights of all of Englandâs and Spainâs Euro 2024 games in one place on the BBC iPlayer.
A little tip â maybe just skip through to the 89th minute against Slovakia and start from there.
You could read a number of European Championship features we have written on the BBC Sport website here.
Or if you would like to watch a documentary to avoid clicking on something new every few minutes, we have one on the Greek side who ground out a lot of unspectacular wins (sound a bit familiar?) on their way to winning Euro 2004.
At Euro 2004, Wayne Rooney was doing what might now be known as a Lamine Yamal â and until he got injured, it looked as if football might have been âcoming homeâ. Watch a doc on that here.
We also have a documentary on Kylian Mbappe, despite him scoring one penalty and breaking his nose at this tournament. But itâs an excellent watch.
On the iPlayer documentaries tab, you also have the option of watching various World Cup programmes.
Maybe one England game in a European Championship live on the BBC isnât enough for you on Sunday? Then your luck is in.
England play Lithuania in the Womenâs Under-19 version. That one kicks off at 15:00 BST and is live on the BBC iPlayer.
BBC Radio 5 Live build-up starts at 12:00 although it will focus on Wimbledon between 13:00 and 18:00.
And then coverage of the game starts on BBC One and the iPlayer from 18:30 BST.
Be organised with your snack shopping
Youâre going to want to be prepared with your snacks and drinks.
You should not need us to tell you how to buy them as hopefully you have existed in the world long enough to know.
But just in case, if you live in England or Wales, donât forget big supermarkets can only open for six hours on a Sunday and must close by 18:00 BST and often close by 16:00.
Many other shops will close earlier than usual too â with Sainsburyâs and Tesco announcing their smaller shops will shut at 19:30 so workers can watch the game.
So if you want to make a dart to get in some cans or crisps as Gary Lineker and co are building up to the game, it might be too late.
Because this is the 21st Century, you can probably order online to get some food in. But maybe leave a tip if itâs near kick-off, yeah?
Where to watch the game?
Now the question is: Do you watch the game on your own, with your family or get all your mates round?
Factors in this are whether you have a family or you have friends. And whether they want to watch the football with you.
You might like to watch the game down the pub â but crowds are likely to be big so you might need to get there early to grab a good spot.
You can go and watch it in a big venue such as Boxpark, or at one of the many fan parks being set up around the country especially for the game.
If you fancy going out to watch the game and donât want people throwing ÂŁ7 beers over your head, then you might find your local pub a drier venue.
If you stay at home, maybe you could watch it with a few people like they do on TV. Make sure to call it âfootyâ, maybe wave a scarf around and all jump around at random times.
If you have children, should you let them stay up? Weâre no child psychologists but the answer is yes â if they want to.
England donât reach many finals â this is only their third at a menâs tournament â so it could be a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
After all, you never hear any of the older generation say they wish they hadnât watched the 1966 World Cup final because they felt tired the next morning.
Of course if your child has no interest in the football â this authorâs boy would sooner watch a spider walk around for two hours than a football game â get them all tucked in before kick-off.
Some schools and businesses are opening slightly later on Monday as a result of the game.
Anything else?
If you are watching with people who donât usually watch football, get prepared for questions.
We have anticipated some of them and given you some links.
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âWhatâs coming home?â
âFootball is coming homeâ for England as the country invented the sport apparently. Comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner sang it in a song 28 years ago to mark Euro 96.
At that stage, the song mentioned â30 years of hurtâ because England had last won a major tournament in 1966. That is now up to 58 for the menâs team⊠but two years since the Womenâs European Championship which England won in 2022. However âtwo years of hurtâ isnât very catchy.
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âWhy are their holes in their socks?â
âSo they can put their feet into them,â would be a HILARIOUS answer to that. But theyâll probably be talking about the holes ripped into the back of them â so you could tell them itâs to âmaximise blood flow to their muscles and in particular their calvesâ.
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âWho is this fella in a room watching on the telly?â
If theyâre not looking in a mirror or at you when theyâre asking that, you can tell them thatâs the video assistant referee, and then groan as everybody does at the mention of VAR.
England did get a penalty thanks to the technology in the semi-final against the Netherlands, so maybe just save up the moaning until the first day of the Premier League season actually.
Or until a Dani Carvajal cross hits a stray England arm in the box and the referee goes to the monitor.
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âHow old is this Lamine Yamal guy?â
Theyâre not going to ask that because the TV pundits and commentators will mention his age every few minutes. The Spain winger was 16 when he became the youngest Euros player and scorer ever â but turned 17 on Saturday.