FAIR PLAY AT THE EUROS: On average there were only 25 fouls per match, which is the lowest number since records began in 1980. There were only three sending offs in the whole tournament, with the only straight red shown to Shane Duffy in their round of 16 match against France.
YOUNG AND OLD: Italy’s starting eleven in their opening match against Belgium were the oldest that have ever played at a EUROs, with an average age of 31 years and 169 days. The 40-year-old Hungarian Gabor Kiraly became the oldest player to play in a European Championship. The goalkeeper overtook Lothar Matthäus (39 years and 91 days, EURO 2000). Portugal’s Renato Sanches on the other hand, became the youngest player to score a goal in a EUROs knockout round, when he scored in the quarter-final against Poland at the age of 18 years and 316 days. At the age of 18 years and 327 days old, the recent Bayern Munich acquisition also became the youngest player to play in a final. He overtook his teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, who ran out in 2004 at the age of 19.
STRONG DEBUTANTS: in Iceland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Slovakia, four of the five EUROs debutants reached at least the round of 16. Only Albania went out in the group stage. Iceland lost in the quarter-final against hosts France, and Wales managed to march through to the semi-finals, where they had to admit defeat to eventual champions Portugal.
BAVARIAN SEMI-FINAL: During the semi-finals, Bayern Munich still had eight players in the competition, for three different teams – significantly more than any other team. Only in the Welsh squad, were there no Bayern players to be found. Along with the six German players from Munich, were Kingsley Coman from France and Renato Sanches from Portugal in the penultimate round. The latter has been able to call himself a European Champion since Sunday.
The European Championship in France came to an end on Sunday. 51 more or less high-quality games over 31 days. Some of the favourites were knocked out early on, the world champions were unlucky in the semi-final, and in the end, Portugal were the surprise winners. DFB.de have examined the tournament’s statistics and discovered a few interesting points and new records.
STRONG RECORD: Germany have reached at least the semi-final in all of their last six major tournaments (World Cup 2006, EURO 2008, World Cup 2010, EURO 2012, World Cup 2014, EURO 2016). No other European team has ever managed that. This brings Germany’s total number of semi-finals in major tournaments to 20 – nine more than any other team.
SOLID DEFENCE: For the first time since EURO 1996, Germany came through the group stage without conceding a goal. During their 0-0 draw with Poland, the opposition did not even have a shot on goal – the last time this happened was during their 2-0 win over Denmark in the 1998 European Championship. Manuel Neuer had not conceded for 557 minutes in a major tournament, until Italy scored in their quarter-final encounter. This broke the old record of 553 minutes, held by Spain’s Iker Casillas.
GERMAN EVER-PRESENTS: Bastian Schweinsteiger made his 18th EUROs appearance when he played in the semi-final, and in this tournament he broke Philipp Lahm’s Germany record of 14 appearances. Internationally, only Cristiano Ronaldo has got more EUROs games to his name (21). Right at the start of the tournament, Joachim Löw broke Berti Vogts’ record (11) for the most games by a manager at European Championships. He is currently on 17 matches.
UNFORTUNATE HOSTS: Although France reached the final undefeated, the Equipe Tricolore lost their first tournament match on home soil for 56 years, as they fell to a 1-0 defeat after extra time to Portugal. France had the tournament’s top goalscorer in their ranks for the first time in 32 years, with Antoine Griezmann scoring six goals. The last time was at EURO 1984, when Michel Platini bagged nine goals in total.
EXCEPTIONAL RONALDO: Cristiano Ronaldo is not just a record-holder because of his 21 appearances. The Portugal star is also the only player to score in four different European Championships, and the only European to score in seven major tournaments. Ronaldo now has nine EUROs goals to his name and has therefore caught up with record goalscorer Michel Platini. The attacker had the most shots on goal by a long way (45) – followed by Antoine Griezmann (28). Twelve teams had less shots on goal collectively at EURO 2016 than CR7 alone.
TOP TEAM FIGURES: France scored the most out of any team with 13 goals, and also had the most shots (124). Germany didn’t just play the most passes (4073 – success rate of 88 percent), but they also had the most possession of all 24 teams (67 percent). Die Mannschaft’s top player was Toni Kroos with 757 touches of the ball and 593 successful passes. No team has ever had numbers as good as this at a EUROs. Croatia were the best at head-to-heads in the tournament, winning 61 percent of all challenges. Iceland had the best chance conversion of the tournament with 23 percent. The islanders were also the only team to score in every match.
EURO 2016 FLOPS: Ukraine were left as the only team at EURO 2016 to not get a single goal or point. This happened most recently to Denmark in 2000. Northern Ireland had the least amount of shots on goal (22). The average number of goals per game was 2.12, which is the worst at a European championship since EURO 1996 (2.06). For the first time since 1996, no team managed three victories in the group stage. The eventual champions Portugal didn’t manage a single win in the group stage, with all three of their matches ending in a draw. Therefore, they only made it through to the round of 16 in third place.
FAIR PLAY AT THE EUROS: On average there were only 25 fouls per match, which is the lowest number since records began in 1980. There were only three sending offs in the whole tournament, with the only straight red shown to Shane Duffy in their round of 16 match against France.
YOUNG AND OLD: Italy’s starting eleven in their opening match against Belgium were the oldest that have ever played at a EUROs, with an average age of 31 years and 169 days. The 40-year-old Hungarian Gabor Kiraly became the oldest player to play in a European Championship. The goalkeeper overtook Lothar Matthäus (39 years and 91 days, EURO 2000). Portugal’s Renato Sanches on the other hand, became the youngest player to score a goal in a EUROs knockout round, when he scored in the quarter-final against Poland at the age of 18 years and 316 days. At the age of 18 years and 327 days old, the recent Bayern Munich acquisition also became the youngest player to play in a final. He overtook his teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, who ran out in 2004 at the age of 19.
STRONG DEBUTANTS: in Iceland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Slovakia, four of the five EUROs debutants reached at least the round of 16. Only Albania went out in the group stage. Iceland lost in the quarter-final against hosts France, and Wales managed to march through to the semi-finals, where they had to admit defeat to eventual champions Portugal.
BAVARIAN SEMI-FINAL: During the semi-finals, Bayern Munich still had eight players in the competition, for three different teams – significantly more than any other team. Only in the Welsh squad, were there no Bayern players to be found. Along with the six German players from Munich, were Kingsley Coman from France and Renato Sanches from Portugal in the penultimate round. The latter has been able to call himself a European Champion since Sunday.
