Soccer

Goals galore, records rewritten and super-subs – Euro 2024 stats and facts

The opening seven matches of the tournament have produced 22 goals.

Germany made a free-scoring start
Germany made a free-scoring start (Andrew Milligan/PA)
By Tom White, PA Sport Data Journalist

Euro 2024 got off to an exciting start over the weekend with several of the tournament favourites demonstrating their credentials.

Here, the PA news agency looks at the notable statistics so far.

Tournament trends

  • Germany 5 Scotland 1
  • Hungary 1 Switzerland 3
  • Spain 3 Croatia 0
  • Italy 2 Albania 1
  • Poland 1 Netherlands 2
  • Slovenia 1 Denmark 1
  • Serbia 0 England 1

It has been a high-scoring start to the tournament, thanks in large part to host nation Germany’s opening 5-1 rout of Scotland.

There have been 22 goals in seven games, with Croatia and Serbia so far the only teams not to have scored – curiously, no player has scored more than once.

The average of 3.14 goals per game, if sustained throughout, would be comfortably in excess of the 2.78 last time around or the respective marks of 2.69 and 2.64 at the 2022 and 2018 World Cups and is also higher than the equivalent stage of those tournaments.

That is despite just one penalty goal so far, by Germany’s Kai Havertz, and only two awarded with the other saved by Spain keeper Unai Simon from Croatia’s Bruno Petkovic.

There was only penalty – which was missed – by this stage of Euro 2020, with an eventual total of 17 awarded and nine scored in the 51 games. In the last two World Cups, by contrast, there were five awarded by this stage – three scored in 2018 and four in 2019 – with an eventual 22 successful attempts out of 29 in 2018 and 17 of 23 in 2022.

Scotland’s Ryan Porteous was sent off for conceding Germany’s spot-kick but with 20 bookings so far, or 2.86 per game, the tournament narrowly trails Euro 2020’s average of 2.96 while the two World Cups have seen around 3.5 bookings per game.

Slovenia v Denmark is the only drawn game so far.

Individual achievements

Christian Eriksen scored in his first appearance at a European Championship since the drama of three years ago, at the Covid-delayed Euro 2020, when he suffered a cardiac arrest during Denmark’s opening game against Finland.

Albania scored the fastest ever goal at a European Championship after just 23 seconds against Italy when Nedim Bajrami pounced on Federico Dimarco’s misplaced throw-in and thrashed the ball inside the near post.

Bajrami broke the record of one minute and seven seconds set by Russia’s Dmitri Kirichenko in 2004 against eventual champions Greece – and continued something of a recent trend, after Euro 2020 saw second-minute strikes from Sweden’s Emil Forsberg, Denmark’s Yussuf Poulsen and, in the final, England’s Luke Shaw.

Wout Weghorst continued his record as a Netherlands super-sub, scoring their winner 138 seconds after coming on against Poland – the fastest ever Euros goal by a Dutch substitute, while he has now scored with his last three shots at major tournaments following his extra-time double against Argentina in the 2022 World Cup quarter-final.

The towering striker has also netted in three straight international appearances from the bench, having struck a minute after coming on in the warm-up win over Canada and then in stoppage time against Iceland. Only Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink has previously achieved that feat for the Netherlands, against Thailand, Croatia and Austria in 2007 and 2008.

Spain winger Lamine Yamal became the youngest player in Euros history when he lined up against Croatia aged 16 years and 338 days. Portugal defender Pepe is in line to become the oldest if he plays against the Czech Republic on Tuesday aged 41 years and 113 days.

Harry Kane moved out in front with the most England appearance at major tournaments, 23, breaking a tie with Ashley Cole and Raheem Sterling.