EURO results: records, achievements and disappointments that the 2024 championship will be remembered for

Yesterday, the main football tournament of the year, Euro 2024, ended in Germany. The Spanish national team managed to win the European Championship for the fourth time in history, but England lost in the Euro final for the second time in a row. UNN decided to talk about what the European Championship was remembered for - records, achievements and disappointments.

On July 14, Berlin's Olympiastadion hosted what was probably the main football event of the year - the European Championship final, in which England and Spain competed for the main European trophy. 

The road to the final

The Spanish national team played in Group B, which it won confidently, scoring the maximum number of points - 9. The Spaniards' rivals in the group were the winners of the last Euro, Italy, as well as Croatia and Albania. 

In the first match against the Croats, the Spaniards won confidently with a score of 3:0. Alvaro Morata, Fabian Ruiz, and Dani Carvajal scored the goals. The Spaniards scored all their goals in the first half, guaranteeing themselves a comfortable score by the end of the match. 

In the second round, Spain faced Italy. Thanks to an autogol by Italian defender Riccardo Calafiori, the Spaniards won narrowly, 1-0. 

In the final round, Spain also won a narrow 1-0 victory against Albania thanks to a goal by Ferran Torres in the 13th minute. 

In the last 16, Spain faced the debutant Georgian team. For the Georgians, this Euro was their first ever. Despite the complete dominance of the Spaniards in the first minutes of the match, it was Georgia who managed to open the scoring thanks to an autogol by Spanish defender Robin Le Normand. However, the celebration for the Georgians did not last long. At the end of the first half, Red Fury midfielder Rodri equalized the score, and in the second half, the Spaniards confidently managed to bring the score to a crushing 4-1 victory. Ruiz, Nico Williams and Dani Olmo also scored for the Spaniards. 

It is worth noting that despite the fact that Georgia was eliminated so early, the national team still became real heroes for their country. It's worth mentioning that the Georgians managed to confidently defeat the star-studded Portuguese national team 2-0. 

In the quarterfinals, the Spaniards faced the hosts of the Euros, Germany. By the way, German midfielder Tony Cross, for whom this match was the last in his career, fouled Pedra in the 3rd minute of the match. The Spanish midfielder continued the match, but after 5 minutes he realized that he could not continue the game and Spain's coach de la Fuente replaced Pedri with Olmo. 

It was Olmo who scored the goal in the 51st minute of the match, putting his team ahead. In the 89th minute, German midfielder Florian Wirtz equalizes and the match goes into overtime. In the 119th minute, Mikel Merino scored the game-winner off an assist from Olmo. The match ended with a score of 2-1 in favor of the Spaniards. 

So we can assume that if Cross hadn't "broken" Pedry and Olma hadn't come on instead, the match might have turned out differently. 

Before the match, the Spanish striker Joselu, who is a teammate of Cross's at Real Madrid, joked that he wanted to retire Cross in this match. 

"I understand where he's going with this. He has the right to have this wish, and I will do everything in my power to prevent it from coming true," Cross replied to his former teammate. 

In the 1/2 finals, Spain faced the formidable French team. It was the French who managed to open the scoring at the beginning of the match thanks to the efforts of Kylian Mbappe, but the Spaniards managed to equalize the score in 4 minutes and take the lead, setting the final score at 2-1. The goals were scored by Lamin Yamal and Olmo. 

The English national team, frankly, showed anti-football at the Euros, which is why it was criticized not only by football experts but also by fans. The whole game of the English is about "skating" the ball in their own half of the field. One has only to look at the results of the Three Lions team, where you can see either boring "zeros" or a victory with a minimal result. 

In particular, in the first round against the Serbs, the English won with a minimum score of 1:0. The goal was scored by Jude Bellingham. 

In the second round, Gareth Southgate's men drew with Denmark 1-1. Harry Kane scored for the English.

In the final round, in the match against Slovenia, dry zeros were recorded, but such a game of the English did not prevent them from taking the first place. 

In the round of 16, England played Slovakia, the team that Ukraine had played against at this year's Euros. The English managed to snatch the victory only in extra time. In particular, in the 25th minute, Slovakia's forward Ivan Schrantz opened the scoring. In the 90+5th minute, Bellingham equalized the score, taking the match to overtime. In the 91st minute, thanks to Kane's efforts, they managed to pull out a strong-willed victory. 

In the last four against Switzerland, the English again had to play back in the course of the match. In the 75th minute, Swiss striker Bril Embolo put his team ahead. Within 5 minutes, England striker Bacayo Saka managed to equalize the score on the scoreboard, scoring with a long shot from outside the penalty area. 

Regular time ended with the score at 1-1 and the match went to penalty kicks, where the English were more accurate. Swiss defender Manuel Akandji failed to beat Jordan Pickford, which allowed the English to snatch the victory. 

In the semifinal match, England faced the Netherlands. In the 7th minute, Dutch midfielder Xavi Simons opened the scoring, but 10 minutes later Kane equalized the score. Only in the 90th minute of the match, through the efforts of Oli Watkins, who came on as a substitute, did the Dutch manage to snatch a strong-willed victory for their national team. 

Final 

The Spaniards took the lead in the 47th minute with a goal by Nico Williams. In the 73rd minute, the English were able to equalize. Cole Palmer scored with a beautiful shot from outside the penalty area. In the 86th minute, Mikel Oyarzabal scored the winning goal.

It's worth noting that this is the second consecutive final loss for the English. At the last Euro 2020 draw, which was postponed to 2021 due to Covid-19, the English lost to the Italians on penalties in the final. 

Interesting facts 

The Spanish national team became a four-time European champion This is a new record, the Spaniards beat the Germans, who had three trophies. The Spanish team also won silver (1984) and bronze (2020).

Spain first won the Euros back in 1964. At Euro 2008, which took place in Austria and Switzerland, the Spaniards managed to beat Germany in the final. The only goal in the match was scored by Fernando Torres. 

At Euro 2012, which took place in Ukraine, the Spaniards defeated the Italian national team 4-0 at the Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex in Kyiv. 

Spain also set a record for European Championships goals in a single tournament, scoring 15 goals in the tournament. Previously, the record for the most goals scored at the Euros belonged to France, which scored 14 goals at Euro 1984.

As already mentioned, England lost for the second time in the Euro final. In the history of the competition, only 2 teams have lost more often in the decisive match. We are talking about the national teams of Germany and the USSR - they lost 3 matches in which they played for the cup.

Yamal, a forward for the Spanish national team and Catalan club Barcelona, also managed to set several records. In particular, in the first round against Croatia, Yamal came on the field from the opening seconds and became the youngest player in the history of the tournament.

In the same match, Yamal gave an assist to Carvajal and became the youngest author of an assist in the history of the European Championships. In the semifinal match against France, Yamal managed to score a goal, which allowed him to set another unique record - the youngest goal scorer in the history of the European Championships.

Yamal also became the youngest player to start in the Euro semifinals. Thanks to his assist to Williams, Yamal also became the youngest assistant in the history of the Euro finals. In addition, Yamal won the individual award for the best youngest player of the tournament. 

The Spanish prodigy also became the youngest winner in the history of European forums.

Interestingly, Yamal passed his school exams during Euro 2024. Yamal was forced to combine his performances at the European Football Championship with his studies. During Euro 2024, the Spaniard passed the ESO exams (analogous to the Ukrainian State Examination) after graduating from high school. 

Another interesting fact in Yamal's biography is that in 2007, Barcelona players took part in a photo shoot for a charity project of the Blue and Garnet and Diario Sport. The 20-year-old Lionel Messi then got a 5-month-old baby, Lamin Yamal, who won Euro 2024 17 years later. 

Six players scored 3 goals at once - Harry Kane, German Jamal Musiala, Georgian Giorgi Mikautadze, Dani Olmo, Dutchman Cody Gakpo and Slovenian Ivan Šranc

However, the best scorer was the "auto-goal", of which as many as 10 were scored in the tournament. The most goals were scored at Euro 2020 - 11. The trend was set by Austrian Maximilian Weber, who scored the first goal in the tournament in the match against France. They also scored in their own net: 

• Klaus Gjasula (in the match against Croatia);
• Jan Vertonghen (in the match against France);
• Antonio Rüdiger (in the match against Scotland);
• Robin Le Normand (in the match against Georgia);
• Riccardo Calafiore (in the match against Spain);
• Doniell Malen (in the match against Austria);
• Samet Akaydin (in the match against Portugal);
• Mert Muldur (in the match against the Netherlands);
• Robin Granach (in the match against Portugal). 

It is also worth noting that at this year's Euros, Albanian Nedim Bajrami managed to score the fastest goal in the history of European Championships. In the match against Italy, Bayrami managed to score in the 24th second of the match. 

In addition, Turkish defender Merihu Demiral scored the fastest goal in the history of the playoffs in the match against Austria. Demiral scored in the 57th second of the match. 

In addition, Euro 2024 set a record for the number of victories won by a strong-willed team. At the tournament in Germany, nine matches were won after conceding goals.

Prior to that, the most strong-willed victories in a single European Championship final tournament were in 2000 and 2004 - 6 each.

Another unique achievement was set by the Portuguese national team players Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe. Ronaldo took part in the sixth European Championship. It should be noted that Ronaldo first played at the home Euro in 2004. It should be noted that when Ronaldo played his first match at the Euros, Yamal had not yet been born. 

Portugal defender Pepe, having played in a match against France at the age of 41 years and 130 days, became the oldest player in the history of European football championships. 

Also, Portugal goalkeeper Costa followed the example of our Oleksandr Shovkovskyi and became the first goalkeeper to save 3 penalties in the post-match shootout at the European Championships. Shovkovsky is the only goalkeeper who failed to score in the penalty shootout, but at the World Cup. 

More than 10 players aged 35+ played at this year's Euro 2024. In particular, except for Pepe:

• Cristiano Ronaldo is 39 years old;
• Giorgi Loria - Georgia, 38 years old;
• Manuel Neuer - Germany, 38 years old;
• Luka Modric - Croatia, 38 years old;
• Jesus Navas - Spain, 38 years old;
• Juraj Kutska - Slovakia, 37 years old;
• Jan Vertonghen - Belgium, 37 years old;
• Olivier Giroux - France, 37 years old;
• Peter Pekarik - Slovakia, 37 years old. 

It's also worth mentioning our compatriots Andriy Yarmolenko and Taras Stepanenko, who played at the Euros at the age of 34. 

Stepanenko himself responded to critics about his age, physical condition, and whether it was time to end his career, noting that he "was 34 and when we were beating Barcelona, we played matches with England and Italy." 

Ronaldo also said that he has no plans to retire and hopes to play for his national team at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

"I think I will be available for Portugal at the 2026 World Cup," Ronaldo said. 

At the time of the 2026 World Cup, Ronaldo will be 41 years old.

Another interesting fact is that in the group stage match between the Czech Republic and Turkey, referee Istvan Kovacs showed 19 yellow cards and 2 red cards to the players and staff of the teams. Czech national team player Antonin Barak received a red card in the 20th minute, which is also a Euro record.

"Ukrainian footprint"

This year's Euro also featured players who are somehow connected to Ukraine. In particular, Georgian midfielder Giorgi Tsitaishvili had a Ukrainian passport until the age of 21. He also won the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup as a member of the Ukrainian national team, scoring the third goal against South Korea in the final. 

"My grandfather wanted me to play for the Georgian national team. When he passed away, I made the final decision that I would dedicate this to him," Tsitaishvili explained his change of citizenship. 

Also playing for the Polish national team was midfielder Taras Romanchuk, who was born in Volyn but officially received a Polish passport in March 2018.

It is also worth recalling the performances of Ukraine itself. In the first match, Ukraine sensationally lost to Romania 3-0. In the second match against Slovakia, we managed to pull out a strong-willed victory - 2:1, and in the third match we played to a dry draw with the Belgians. 

Interestingly, Ukraine scored 4 points in the group, but still dropped out according to additional indicators: Ukraine lost to all three opponents in the group on goal difference.