Plenty of own goals and missed penalties and a goal cut that gives hope for more hits than at the 2016 European Championship. After around half of all 51 games, no trends can be read at the European Football Championship, but one or the other tendency can already be guessed after 26 games.
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Own goal flood: Five goals in their own net at a European Championship finals are a record. However, one that Merih Demiral (Turkey), Poland’s goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, Mats Hummels (Germany) and the two Portuguese Ruben Dias and Raphael Guerreiro would have gladly done without. As the first team in European Championship history, the German team owed an own goal and also benefited from an own goal. At the Euro 2016 in France there were only three own goals in the entire tournament.
Penalty misses: Nine times the shooters ran from the point – only four transformed. One of the penalty kicks was a hand penalty, otherwise the referees always punished foul play. At the EM in France only Mesut Özil and Cristiano Ronaldo missed. Eight penalty kicks (excluding penalty shoot-outs) were converted throughout the tournament. This roughly corresponds to the quotas from previous Bundesliga seasons and a nine-year-old doctoral thesis. On average, about 75 percent of all penalties were converted.
Goal cut: Germany and Portugal improved their balance sheet with six goals on Saturday evening. 60 goals were scored in 26 games. That makes an average of around 2.3 per game. In the preliminary round of 2016, the fans were only allowed to cheer 1.92 hits per game. Including the knockout round, this balance was then increased to 2.1, 108 goals in 51 games.
Goal distribution: One point is worth a lot in the battle for third place and the chance of the round of 16, which may explain a cautious start. On the first day of the match there were seven goals in the first half and 21 in the second. In the meantime, this has adjusted, after two match days the ratio is 23 to 37. At the end of the 2016 European Championship preliminary round, 24 out of 69 goals had fallen in the first half. In 2021, more hits are likely to fall in the first part of the game.
Jung is in: Jude Bellingham was happy about his debut with the English at 17 years and 349 days in a 1-0 opener against Croatia. This made the Borussia Dortmund professional the youngest player in a European Championship for at least a few days. “Historically,” tweeted BVB. Kacper Kozlowski from Poland replaced Bellingham again. He was 17 years and 246 days old when he came on against Spain on Saturday. In Spain, Pedri leads the list of the youngest European Championship players since the first group game against Sweden at the age of 18 and 201 days. The youngest German goalscorer at a European Championship is Kai Havertz, aged 22 and 8 days since his goal in the 4-2 draw against Portugal.
Kurzvideos: It’s usually pretty quick. Whistle, the voice in the ear answers, the referee waits or quickly watches the repetition – and decision. The games are actually not interrupted for a long time when the video referee is used.
Home advantage (almost) gone: The home game is one of those things at a European Championship in eleven countries and given the mostly prevailing spectator restrictions. In any case, there have been seven wins in 17 games with a team in their own country. Four times the hosts separated from the opponent with a draw, six times they even lost. (dpa / tf)
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