Cristiano Ronaldo is still grabbing headlines in the twilight of his career, while Georgia have emerged as the surprise package at Euro 2024. Gary Lemke highlights a few talking points ahead of the weekend’s football.
GEORGIA HAVE TOP SCORER, TOP KEEPER
You can do anything with stats, but some of it can be mildly interesting. After the group stages at Euro 2024, the top scorer with three goals is Georgia’s Georges Mikhautadze, the player with the most shots attempted is Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal (12, with no goals) and the player with the most touches in the opposition box is Belgium’s Jeremy Doku.
The Man City winger has had 29 touches in that zone – without finding the net. The busiest goalkeeper has been Georgia’s Giorgi Mamardashvili with 21 saves. Seems like Georgia have traffic at both ends. They only had 28% possession when beating Portugal 2-0. They’ve got Spain next.
HOW DRAWS HAVE DOMINATED EURO 2024
Those predicting scores as we head into Euro 2024’s knockout stages might want to have a peek at what’s unfolded so far. The trend suggests that we are headed for extra-time, and penalties sometime soon.
The most common scoreline from the 36 games has been 1-1 (9), followed by 1-0 (6), 2-1 (5) and 0-0 (4), Most neutrals and those who don’t follow football too closely, tend to predict 2-1 for any given match. While there have been nine different scorelines so far, we’ve only had three 2-0’s. Just saying …
QUESTION: HOW DID DENMARK FINISH SECOND?
This week’s question, again with the answer at the bottom. In Group C, England topped the table with five points, while Denmark and Slovenia both had three points. Both drew all three pool matches, both scored two goals and conceded two goals and both teams had players with the same number of yellow cards (no reds). So, how did Denmark get given second?
RONALDO CAN’T ESCAPE THE ATTENTION
Seems like everyone wants to get a piece of Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portugal legend who has become the first men’s player to total 50 caps in major tournaments (28 Euros, 22 World Cups). After the 2-0 defeat to Georgia, Ronaldo was heading to the tunnel when a fan jumped, two-footed, from the stand and narrowly missed getting to him to say hello.
Another fan held up a hand-written sign during the match: “Cristiano, can I change my girlfriend for a picture/your shirt?” In the match against Turkey, the action was repeatedly stopped because of pitch invaders, with one getting close enough to the star to put his arm around Ronald’s neck and snap a selfie.
Security with a last moment lunge to stop a fan getting to Cristiano Ronaldo! 😳 pic.twitter.com/hCDy0jeGRe
— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) June 27, 2024
CLICKBAIT THAT GETS PEOPLE ‘TALKING’
There’s plenty of fodder for the tabloids, as we’ve previously mentioned, at Euro 2024. Media companies actually send “news” or “entertainment reporters” to generate clickbait. Among some of the revelations came the news that England’s WAGs were soaked in beer when angry fans threw cups at Gareth Southgate after the draw with Slovenia.
Elsewhere, Anthony Gordon fell off his motorbike and cut his chin, Phil Foden returned home to be with his pregnant girlfriend, a lucky punter won £1,268 with a 92p bet, Germany’s base is infested by a “mosquito plague” and Italy’s Mattia Zaccagni has married the influencer former girlfriend of a teammate, and there’s a child involved. But, who’s the daddy? Oh yes, and Mo Salah has unveiled his shock hairstyle transformation and shredded abs while on holiday.
Anthony Gordon fell off a bike at the England camp 🤕#Euro2024 pic.twitter.com/iur2jKsEv5
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) June 27, 2024
SUPERBRU LEADER FLYING FLAG FOR SPAIN
Hats off to Sjhazbhay who leads the Superbru Euro 2024 global competition heading into the knockout stages. A supporter of Spain and who lives in South Africa, he/she has correctly forecast the result in 23 of 36 games, including 10 exact scores.
However, that in itself shows how tough this tournament has been to call. The leader’s 23 correct calls from 36 games is a touch over six out of 10 (64%) in a tipping competition with 43,000 playing. Clearly, a draw is a popular call of the player – there have been 14 stalemates in the 36 games.
With the #Euro2024 Group Stage now complete, the knockout bracket is officially set 🏆
— Superbru (@Superbru) June 26, 2024
Here is the path to the final for each team ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/3FocsGiJpb
ANSWER: HOW DENMARK FINISHED SECOND
At first glance, I thought the alphabet might have come into play when Denmark were awarded second spot in Group C (both qualified for the knockout stages) after identical group form.
Played three, drew three, scored two, conceded two, players with the same number of yellow and red cards. The deciding factor was Slovenia assistant coach Novakovic Millvoje picked up a yellow on the touchline, which ultimately saw his team have to play Portugal next and not in-form hosts Germany.
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