Goals (and own goals) galore – A statistical look at Euro 2020 so far

Euro 2020’s last 16 concluded on Tuesday evening, with England and the Ukraine securing the last two quarter-final places.

Here, the PA news agency takes a statistical look at the first round of knockout matches.

Manic Monday

There were 14 goals scored in the two last-16 games played on Monday – 3-3 draws first between Spain and Croatia and then France and Switzerland, with Spain scoring twice more in extra time. Switzerland saw off France in the current tournament’s first penalty shootout.

That is the most goals on a day with so few games in any European Championship – indeed, the only higher total came in the four games on the final day of this year’s group stage when Spain again scored five, without reply against Slovakia, Sweden beat Poland 3-2 and the Portugal-France and Germany-Hungary fixtures both finished 2-2.

Spain’s thrilling win over Croatia was the second-highest scoring game ever in the tournament, behind only Yugoslavia’s 5-4 win over France in the semi-finals in 1960.

Denmark previously made history with their 4-0 win over Wales, becoming the first team ever to score four goals in successive European Championship games – only for Spain to then go one better with back-to-back five-goal hauls.

Golden Boot

Portugal’s early elimination leaves Cristiano Ronaldo’s lead in the Golden Boot standings vulnerable to a host of players.

The Juventus forward scored five goals in his side’s three group games, in the process matching Ali Daei’s record as the leading goalscorer in men’s international football, but then exited the tournament in a 1-0 loss to Belgium.

Karim Benzema’s four goals were also not enough to keep France in the tournament and neither was four from Emil Forsberg of Sweden, but Czech Republic striker Patrik Schick remains an active threat on the same total.

England’s Raheem Sterling, Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku and Switzerland’s Haris Seferovic have three, with Robert Lewandowski and Georginio Wijnaldum eliminated with Poland and Holland respectively after also scoring three times.

Antoine Griezmann won the Euro 2016 Golden Boot with six goals and fellow Frenchman Michel Platini scored a record nine in 1984, but Ronaldo’s total would have topped the charts at any other European Championship to date, albeit with fewer fixtures than this year.

But at the other end…

Extraordinarily, Euro 2020 has now seen as many own goals scored as all previous editions of the tournament added together.

Unai Simon’s howler against Croatia saw his unfortunate Spain team-mate Pedri score the ninth own goal of the month – the first of the knockout phase, with the group-stage fun starting early when Italy scored the first goal of the tournament thanks to Turkey defender Merih Demiral.

Pedri’s nightmare moment also provided a neat statistical symmetry – his back-pass was played from 49 yards out, the same distance as Schick’s wonder strike against Scotland in Group D, meaning matching records have been set for the longest goal and own goal in Euros history just a fortnight apart.