The group stage of this Euro was very hectic. Let’s remember what happened in the tournament in the first two weeks.
Mr. own goal
The main character and top scorer! Seven own goals were scored during the group stage, the last of which was scored by Dutchman Malen, who fired into the near corner of his own goal from 11 metres. Players have so far scored a maximum of three goals: that’s how much Georges Mikautadze scored. Five other players have two goals each: Niklas Füllkrug, Ivan Schranz, Jamal Musiala and Cody Gakpo.
The record for own goals was set at Euro 2020; then, during the entire tournament, 11 were scored.
Here we collect interesting statistics about own goals:
Own goal: top scorer of Euro 2024. But in the last tournament he scored more.
nose illustration
Kylian Mbappé
Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
The French national team forward was injured in the first match against Austria. The image was horrifying: blood and a nose that had moved to the side. Mbappé missed the game against Holland, but against the Poles he came out with a mask and even scored his first goal in the Euro Cup. Although it was feared that he would not play until the playoffs.
Choose the most elegant mask:
Classification
10 surprising cases in which football stars played with a mask. Mbappé is in good company
Memes about Martin Adam
Martin Adam
Photo: Getty Images
After the first match of the Hungarian national team, the discussion was not about their defeat, but about Martin Adam: the striker entered the field in the 79th minute and surprised everyone with his size. No matter how many jokes were made about him, but then when he reacted to all the memes, he even became somewhat sad.
“Of course, I’ve seen a couple of posts about me, but I usually laugh at it,” he said at a press conference. – I was born like that, I have that figure. I’m not saying I was that big when I was born, but I have basic physical characteristics, genetics, and I can’t change that. So yeah, that’s all I can say about that.”
A short story about the Hungarian bully:
The meme of the day for Euro 2024 is the huge Hungarian striker. How did you get to the national team?
Lukaku’s disallowed goals
Romelu Lukaku
Photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images
The main one for bad luck in the group stage. The Belgian scored three times, but on three occasions his goal was disallowed after the VAR review. Poor Lukaku!
Selfie with Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo
Photo: Social networks
During the match against Türkiye, a boy ran onto the field and asked Ronaldo for a photo; The Portuguese did not refuse and smiled at the phone camera.
But then another fan came running onto the field, who wasn’t as nice as that guy. He grabbed Ronaldo by the neck (apparently he wanted to hug him), which made the Portuguese very angry. After this, there were more attempts to run onto the field: in total there were up to six runners. UEFA subsequently announced that it would strengthen security measures in stadiums.
It was unpleasant:
The attack on Ronaldo forced UEFA to reinforce security at Euro 2024. Where was the security service?
The terrible injury of the Hungarian
Barnabash Varga injury
Photo: Getty Images
The Hungary-Scotland match was not particularly impressive and it would have been better if it had been that way. Because in the end, Barnabash Varga had a brutal confrontation with Angus Gunn. Almost immediately it became clear that something serious was wrong with Varga: he collapsed on the grass, suffered convulsions, and then lost consciousness. Szoboszlai ran to find the doctors, the rest of the players tried to give Varga first aid, and then covered him with blankets from the cameras and fans’ eyes. It was incredibly creepy: I immediately remembered the last Euro and Christian Eriksen, who suffered cardiac arrest on the field. Varga was fine: he broke the bone in his face, but his life was not in danger.
Criticism of the England team
Harry Kane
Photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images
If there was an award for the most criticized team, England would definitely win it. After each game, the experts said the same thing: the English are playing badly, Gareth Southgate is playing strangely with the players’ positions and, in general, with a squad like that, we should not be happy with leaving the group with five points. but he takes all nine. After Gary Lineker called England’s game against the Danes “shit”, the players went public with their comments in response. And Lineker accused journalists of exaggerating the story.
In general, it’s hot in England!
“I hope I don’t bury the players in the program at age 50.” Kane responds harshly to Lineker’s criticism
Records: most recent to most recent
Lamin Yamal
Photo: Getty Images
Lamin Yamal became the youngest player in the history of the Euro: he debuted in the tournament at the age of 16 years, 11 months and 3 days.
His story:
Yamal sets records and does his homework at the Euro Cup. The story of the best Spanish talent
Albania scored the fastest goal in the history of the Euro: the ball entered the Italian goal in the 23rd second. But Hungary scored the last goal of the tournament: Kevin Chobot scored against the Scots when the score was 99:32.
Ronaldo became the best assist in the history of the European Championship: he has seven assists. He also made him the oldest player to provide an assist in the European Championship: 38 years and 138 days. Cristiano also became the first player to play 19 consecutive games with his team in major tournaments.
Goalkeeper assist
Cohen Castells
Photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images
In the match against Romania, Belgian goalkeeper Koen Castells kicked the ball down the field, after which it was picked up by Kevin de Bruyne and immediately sent to the goal.
Crazy group finishes
Denmark national team players
Photo: Getty Images
In group B, the fate of the Croatians was decided in the match against Italy: to take second place they had to win, while a draw was enough for the Italians. Croatia led almost the entire second half, but conceded in the 90+8 minute! A true tragedy.
But the Croatians were absolutely bad in this tournament:
This Croatia is broken, bring a new one.
In group C, Danes and Slovenes found themselves in an interesting situation: at the end of the last match they had the same number of points (three each), the same goal difference (2-2) and the same number of goals. scored (2). In this case, according to the regulations, disciplinary points are looked at (one – yellow card, three – red card, four – if a red card was shown immediately after the yellow one). The field players of both teams received four yellow cards, but everything was decided by the Slovenian technical director: he received one card while on the bench and it became the fifth for the Slovenian team.
In group D, France was the favorite, but in the last match the French decided to draw with the Poles. Austria had a great time with the Dutch in the parallel match (perhaps it was one of the best matches of the group stage) and finally won. The final line-up was completely unexpected: Austria, first, France, second, Netherlands, third.
Austrian hitmaker:
Are you still laughing at Rangnick? At the Euro Cup it caused a sensation!
Group E put the most pressure: this was the situation before the last round: all four teams could leave the group: three points for each team after two rounds. As a result… All matches ended in a draw and the Romanian team came first! Belgium is in second place, the Slovaks are third and Ukraine has left the tournament.
Group F also turned out brilliant: Georgia only needed a victory in the last round and had to play with the Portuguese. Did this scare Khvichu and his partners? Never! A goal in the first half from Kvara, another in the second from a penalty from Mikautadze, and Georgia is in the playoffs! At the same time, the happiness of the Georgians made them forget another happiness: Hungarian. But it was the Hungarians, who achieved victory in the 90+10 minute of the last match, who overtook the Georgians in the mini table of third-place teams.
In the Euro Cup playoffs it will be like this:
Final lineups for the Euro 2024 playoffs! Who did Georgia beat and who was lucky with the goal?
