Euro 2024 final: Your unofficial viewing guide – BBC Sport

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 you’ve had, that you’re reading this with a startled expression and saying to yourself: “England are doing WHAT NOW?!”

But how to spend the day? Here’s a guide to what you could do before the game kicks off at 20:00 BST live on the BBC (and ITV, of course).

If you wake up at 08:00 BST, that leaves a full 12 hours to kill before kick-off. So if you don’t 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 men’s singles final – and several other doubles, youth and wheelchair finals – take place on Sunday, which you can watch on the BBC or, if you’re 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?

Sunday’s session at the 2024 World Matchplay in Blackpool starts at 16:30 BST, instead of 19:00, to avoid a clash.

Alternatively, you may want to embrace the tension and the nerves and spend all day watching football?

A little tip – maybe just skip through to the 89th minute against Slovakia and start from there.

At Euro 2004, Wayne Rooney was doing what might now be known as a Lamine Yamal – and until he got injured, it looked as if football might have been ‘coming home’. 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 it’s an excellent watch.

Maybe one England game in a European Championship live on the BBC isn’t enough for you on Sunday? Then your luck is in.

England play Lithuania in the Women’s 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.

You’re 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, don’t 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 – with Sainsbury’s 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 it’s near kick-off, yeah?

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 – 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 don’t want people throwing £7 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 ‘footy’, maybe wave a scarf around and all jump around at random times.

If you have children, should you let them stay up? We’re no child psychologists but the answer is yes – if they want to.

England don’t reach many finals – this is only their third at a men’s tournament – so it could be a once-in-a-lifetime moment.

After all, you never hear any of the older generation say they wish they hadn’t watched the 1966 World Cup final because they felt tired the next morning.

Of course if your child has no interest in the football – this author’s boy would sooner watch a spider walk around for two hours than a football game – get them all tucked in before kick-off.

Some schools and businesses are opening slightly later on Monday as a result of the game.

If you are watching with people who don’t usually watch football, get prepared for questions.

We have anticipated some of them and given you some links.

At that stage, the song mentioned “30 years of hurt” because England had last won a major tournament in 1966. That is now up to 58 for the men’s team… but two years since the Women’s European Championship which England won in 2022. However “two years of hurt” isn’t very catchy.

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.

They’re 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 – but turned 17 on Saturday.