Ranking all 24 Euro 2020 away kits: Switzerland to Sweden

Dave Tickner
Euro 2020 away kits

Puma have committed an atrocity but overall these are pretty bloody good actually.

Home kit rankings are here.

 

24. Switzerland
Let’s be clear from the start: you could pretty much just put every version of this Puma template joint last. Awful, awful business. Genuinely don’t know what they were thinking. It looks like a training top, and not even a good training top. Worse still, these weren’t even meant to be the Euro away shirts for these teams. They all had different ones ready to go last year, but now these monstrosities have taken over. Switzerland are therefore officially last because they had the best ‘lost shirt’ and therefore the biggest gulf from that to this. They were supposed to have a lovely kit with a cracking mountain motif. It’s the biggest loss to the world since that Iceland Eurovision song last year. Genuinely gutting.

 

23. Czech Republic
The Czechs come next because they don’t even get their name written in their own language, a fate the Swiss, Italians and Austrians at least avoid. While the kerning on Italy and Switzerland’s shirts is far too spaced out, the Czechs have the opposite problem of it being squashed up touch tight. And look how tiny that crest is. Good grief.

 

22. Italy
At least Italy were allowed all their colours. But the Puma badge and Italy crest side-by-side like that only adds to the training-top aesthetic. Grim.

 

21. Austria
Very, very, very marginally less bad than the others by virtue of being black and having the thin band split in three. Also by sheer good fortune blessed with a name that is the right length to fill the space without a kerning catastrophe. The sublimated badge that runs through the shirt might actually be quite good to be fair. Don’t know, and can’t bring myself to look at these shirts a moment longer to reach a more solid conclusion. On with the rest of the rankings now please.

 

20. Belgium
It’s better than the home shirt. But the pattern adds little other than making the shirt look slightly grubby. That new Belgian FA logo does get slightly more chance to shine here, though.

 

19. Ukraine
The one country who have opted for the straightforward colour flip and we therefore have to assume continuing the Russia-annoying inclusion of Crimea. Again, this shirt just doesn’t seem good enough to make riling up a nuclear superpower worth it. We’re not sure what would, but it’s definitely not this.

 

18. North Macedonia
As far as we know, they’ve restored the sunburst away kit to go with the matching home. The home one is much better, though. We actually much prefer the below rejected new away kit in this colourway, so maybe they’ll mix and match. Who knows. It’s what we would do and that should surely carry some weight.

 

17. Wales
What we have here is a perfectly adequate Australia kit. Next.

Ethan Ampadu Chelsea Wales F365

 

16. Slovakia
Still think it’s actually the home kit. Either way, it’s a bland disappointment. Whether it’s the home or the away, the blue one at least tries to have a bit of fun.

 

15. Turkey
The obvious move here would have been to simply flip the colours of the home shirt completely and sometimes the obvious move is also the correct one. Retaining the red titband from the home kit is fine – it was and is a lovely feature – and the two-tone red is certainly no disaster but it’s hard to escape the thought that this is less than it might have been.

 

14. Poland
Bit of a letdown after the home shirt, but it’s a perfectly serviceable bit of no-frills gear.

 

13. Spain
It’s like Belgium’s away shirt only better. The silver works well.

 

12. Scotland
It looks like it’s made of ice. We feel colder just looking at it. This is the kit Elsa would wear for a bit of five-a-side in Arendelle. Not saying that’s a bad thing.

Che Adams Scotland

 

11. Hungary
The thick green underarm stripe shouldn’t work but does actually elevate this otherwise bland and basic kit. Not bad.

 

10. Denmark
Another lovely hummel top, of course, albeit not quite as strikingly good as the home kit. Bonus points also for releasing a simply glorious third kit inspired by the famous 80s gear. Best thing about it is that it is, in practical terms, utterly useless being the same colour as the home kit. A genuine challenge to the idea that nothing useless can be truly beautiful.

 

9. Russia
Yes. Got the flag right on this one and that’s not all. Really, really solid kit that does nothing flashy but stands out nonetheless. The bands across the gut tie right in with those chunky adidas cuffs and the whole thing works a treat.

 

8. England
Does this maybe if we’re being harsh fall slightly between two stools? Not quite a football shirt, not quite a casual shirt? Nah, that’s harsh. It’s a good shirt and it’s a good colour. Nike haven’t got everything right at this tournament but they’ve not let England down at all.

Ben White England Man Utd
Ben White England

 

7. Croatia
This is a good shirt. Very clever use of the iconic checkerboard in a more subdued yet still striking manner. There are a lot of very good black away kits this year, actually.

 

6. Finland
They’ve got great kits, they really have. Backing up a home kit that makes flag-shagging look good is this smart, almost formal, offering. The Finns might not light up the tournament with their football, but they’re going to look absolutely smashing.

 

5. Netherlands
Button-up-polo-shirt-style shirts designed with casual as much as sporting wear in mind aren’t to everyone’s taste but there are a lot of them at this tournament and a lot of them are pretty good. This black and orange effort falls firmly into that category. Very good indeed.

 

4. France
There are a few stripped-back shirts doing the rounds this summer, but few better than this one. France are going to look the business for their inevitable march to glory over the coming weeks. The blue and white tricolour-forming stripes up the side provide just the right amount of understated oomph to the plain white top. Tres bien.

Paul Pogba, Olivier Giroud and Raphael Varane

 

3. Portugal
Love it. Outrageous colour choice. Outrageous design choice. Somehow all comes together perfectly. Manages to be both bold and strikingly different yet definitely and indisputably a Portugal shirt. It’s great when a gamble comes off like this, it really is. Also a big fan of the way the bottom one of the three big hoops carries on round the back of the shirt. More shirts should continue the pattern on the back. Name-and-number clarity means the other two have to stay only on the front, but the wraparound of the third is an inspired finishing touch. Hopefully we’ll see plenty of this top over the next month because the home one is plop.

Cristiano Ronaldo

 

2. Germany
It’s like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black. Bouncing back from a disappointing home kit with real aplomb are the Germans, who show once again why they can never be written off with a strikingly luxurious number. The badge, adidas logo and stripes are an almost imperceptible dark grey that works wonderfully well, and the only colour at all are the flag-coloured cuffs. Lovely, lovely stuff. Will be slightly spoiled in tournament use by the white names and numbers that will be slapped on it, but I’ve tried and failed to think of any way around that.

 

1. Sweden
Can’t go wrong with pinstripes. That’s an absolute beauty from the Swedes, who taking home and away together have definitely done best out of adidas for this summer. As on the home shirt, it’s the darkness and depth of that navy blue that elevates it. Greatness.

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