UEFA European Championship records and statistics
This year’s Euros football championship is now fast-drawing to a close, with just four teams remaining in the race for the title. Unfortunately, two of them will miss out this weekend when they will ‘lose’ – be eliminated – in their respective semi-final encounter.
Those in the semis are Spain v France on Tuesday, followed 24 hours later by England against the Netherlands. The final will take place on Sunday, July 14.
As it stands right now, over 100 goals have been scored in the 48 Euro games already played – approximately 2.26 goals per game.
Georges Mikautadze (Georgia), Jamal Musiala (Germany), Cody Gakpo (the Netherlands) and Ivan Schranz (Slovakia) have all scored three goals for their respective countries. And of course Gakpo can still add to his tally.
The biggest win of the tournament so far is Germany’s 5-1 victory over Scotland in the very first group game. The second best is Spain’s 4-1 win over Georgia and third best is 3-0, achieved by Spain (again) v Croatia, the Netherlands against Romania, by Portugal versus Turkey and Romania v Ukraine.
So far a total of 10 own-goals have been conceded – including two by both French and Portuguese players.
Scotland’s Ryan Porteous was the first player to receive a red card (versus Germany in game one) and Mirlind Daku of Albania has also seen ‘red’ in Germany.
The winners of the Euros this year will receive £8 million; the runner’s-up will pick up £5M, while the two losing semi-finalists will each receive £4M.
Fact File;
* Twenty-four teams initially qualified for the finals in Germany, who had an automatic entry as hosts. The participating countries were subsequently split (drawn) into six separate groups of four, with the winners of each group automatically qualifying for the finals themselves in Germany
- Lamine Yamal became the youngest player to feature at a UEFA European Championship game, aged 16 years and 338 days when playing for Spain against Croatia. The previous youngest was Poland’s Kacper Kozłowski, aged 17 years and 246 days in 2021
- Nedim Bajramiset the record for fastest goal scored in European Championship history, netting for Albania against Italy in 23 seconds. This shattered the previous record of 67 seconds set by Russia’s Dmitri Kirichenko in 2004
- Portugal‘s Pepebecame the oldest player to make an appearance at the European Championship, aged 41 years. The previous record holder was Hungary’s goalkeeper Gabor Király who was aged 40 years and 86 days when he faced Belgium in the round of 16 in 2016. Before Pepe, the oldest outfield player was Lothar Matthäus, who won his 150th and final cap for Germany aged 39 years 91 days in 2000
- Cristiano Ronaldo has extended the record for the most tournaments featured in, appearing in his sixth European Championship
- Luka Modrićbecame the oldest player to score a goal at the European Championship, aged 38 years and 289 days. The previous record was held by Austria’s Ivica Vastic, who was 38 years and 257 days when he scored against Poland in 2008
- Kevin Csobothset the record for the latest regular time goal in tournament history, scoring for Hungary against Scotland in the 10th minute after the 90-minute mark
- The final Group F game between the Czech Republicand Turkey broke the record for the most cards (19 – two red and 17 yellow) ever brandished by a referee in a single match. The Czech Republic collected seven of those cards while Turkey received 12. This surpassed the previous record of 10 cards shown in the Euro 2016 final between Portugal and France
- Portuguese goalkeeper Diogo Costasaved three penalties in his country’s shoot-out victory over Slovenia, breaking the European Championship record for most saves in one penalty shoot-out
European football shorts
- Chelsea beat Luxembourg side Jeunesse Hautarange 23-0 over two legs in a European Cup Winner’s Cup-tie in 1971-72. The Blues scored 13 at home and 10 away
- Belgian club FC Anderlecht were the first team to reach three successive European Cup-winner’s Cup finals
- 1-0 was the final score of each and every European Cup final from 1978 to 1983 inclusive
- Roy Mackaay of Bayern Munich holds the record for scoring the quickest-ever goal in a major European game – doing so in 9.45 seconds v Real Madrid in 2007
- Full-back Tommy Gemmill scored Celtic’s goals in both the 1967 and 1970 Europoean Cup finals
- Former AC Milan and Italian defender Paolo Maldini made a record 171 appearances in European matches over a period of 13 seasons: 1995 to 2008
