Play Football: Champions Cup for Free

The timing of the game’s release is certainly no mean coincidence, as football fans around the continent are already looking forward to a great summer of football.

Football: Champions Cup makes use of classic elements by putting players in the middle of a gigantic stadium, with the semi-transparent reels hovering above the lawn. The seats are full and the crowd is cheering throughout the game.

In terms of immersion, this game does a great job at recreating the uniquely fun atmosphere of a football stadium. Nothing really original per se, but the sleek graphics are worth mentioning.

Before you head to the stadium, pick your favourite team by clicking on its national flag. You have a choice between all the participating European countries, and if you would rather let luck decide, simply hit the dice to pick a country at random.

Now that the game has started, take a look at the reels. There are five of them, displaying three symbols each. Winning possibilities are everywhere on the screen, all you need to do is line up combinations of symbols to trigger a corresponding cash prize. Use the command bar at the bottom of the game screen in order to adjust your bet settings. The arrows will modify your coin value and number of activated paylines on screen. Hit the central button to validate your bet settings and start up the reels.

To maximise your chances to win big, click the Max Bet switch and go all-in on all paylines simultaneously. Taking a bigger risk can lead to larger payouts in the future. Alternatively, the Autoplay mode is there to set the game on autopilot and let the reels spin on their own until you decide to revert to the standard game mode.

The reel symbols in Football: Champions Cup are, unsurprisingly, all related to the world of football.

You will therefore find plenty of Footballs, Gloves, Whistles, Shirts and other iconic elements. Each of them is worth a specific price, and the longest combinations bring the biggest wins to the lucky players.

The paytable also contains a handful of card-related symbols, from number 10 to the Ace. They appear very frequently on the reels to make up for their low payouts.

NetEnd’s Football: Champions Cup contains some extra special reel symbols that can bring a twist to the entire game as soon as they show up on the reels for the lucky players.

The Wild Football icon is the joker of the game. Use it as a placeholder for any other basic symbol listed in the previous section, and your chances to score a big win will increase instantly.

Line up three or more Bonus symbols to launch a penalty shout-out Bonus game. Pick a spot to aim at and score as many goals as you can to defeat the goal keeper and land extra cash prizes as you go.

The Gold Cup Scatter symbol triggers an exciting feature regardless of its position on the reels: the Free Spin Tournament. During those free games, each Wild is worth one goal, the blue Wilds representing your home team. The team with the largest score wins and progresses through the tournament accordingly. Depending on your success, you can win either a bronze, silver or gold extra cash prize at the end of the tournament.

Football: Champions Cup is both nice to look at and fun to play. The NetEnt creation brings high quality graphics and an innovative and realistic gameplay to the table, a guarantee for a fast-paced gaming session.

Football fans are obviously the target audience here, but the game remains accessible to basically anyone with a little interest in both the upcoming European championship and big wins.