After Germany’s 5-1 victory over Scotland in the opening match of the 2024 European Championship, goals continued to fly on this eventful Saturday.
Records were broken as Spain beat Croatia 3-0 and reigning champions Italy came from behind to beat Albania 2-1.
In the other match in Group A, Switzerland also defeated Hungary 3-1, thus ensuring a level playing field in the second round of matches.
The 16 goals scored so far in the first four matches of Euro 2024 are the most scored at this stage in a European or World Cup since Euro 1976.
Using data from Opta, we take a look at some other standout statistics from Saturday’s games in Germany.
Hungary – Switzerland 1:3: Swiss start confidently
Switzerland have lost just one of their last 15 matches in all competitions (W7, D7): a 1-0 defeat to Romania in November 2023, after opening their Group A campaign with a 3-1 win over Hungary.
There were two impressive debut performances from the Swiss: Kwadwo Duah and Michel Aebischer were only the third and fourth players to score a goal on their European Championship debut for Switzerland.
Thanks to their dominance in the first half, both players also scored their first ever goal for the senior national team. For Duah it was his second and for Aebischer his 21st appearance for Switzerland.
Aebischer also set up Duah’s beautiful opening goal in Cologne, making the full-back the first Swiss player to score and provide an assist in a single game at a European Championship.
An impressive first half for Switzerland. Less impressive for Hungary.
Both Kwadwo Duah and Michel Aebischer scored their first international goals, with the latter becoming the first player to both score and assist in a single game for Switzerland at a European Championship.#HUNSUI #Euro2024 pic.twitter.com/wN1wPpipxd
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) June 15, 2024
Barnabas Varga – the fifth Hungarian to score on his European Championship debut – reduced the gap to third place with his seventh goal in his last ten international matches, assisted by Hungary’s ever-reliable Dominik Szoboszlai.
Since the start of 2023, Liverpool midfielder Szoboszlai has been involved in ten goals in 15 international matches (six goals, four assists), but the Hungarian captain could not prevent a familiar European fate for Marco Rossi’s side.
Breel Embolo’s cool last-minute chip sealed the win, meaning Hungary have won just two of their 12 matches at the European Championship (4 draws, 6 defeats), a win rate of 17 percent. Among nations with more than five matches at the finals, only Romania (6 percent) and Poland (14 percent) have a lower win rate.
This victory was also a special moment for Ricardo Rodriguez, who played his 22nd game at a major international tournament (European Championship/World Cup) – more than any other player in the nation.
Spain – Croatia 3:0: Young talents in the spotlight
Spain achieved a clear victory against Croatia in the opening match of the 2024 European Championship and started a European Championship tournament with a victory of 3 or more goals for only the second time after the 4-1 victory against Russia on the first matchday of the 2008 European Championship.
The spotlight was on Lamine Yamal, who became the youngest player ever to appear at a European Championship and crowned his historic performance for La Roja with an assist for Dani Carvajal, who became Spain’s oldest goalscorer at the competition just before half-time at 32 years and 156 days.
With Yamal (16 years, 338 days) and Pedri (21 years, 203 days), Spain is the first team since the match between Germany and the Czech Republic in June 2004 (Phillip Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski) in which at least two players aged 21 or younger have created at least three goal chances for a team in a European Championship match.
Morata, 15 years older than Yamal, finished Spain’s second-highest scorer in major international tournaments with 10 goals, and is just three more short of equalling David Villa’s record of 13 goals.
7 – Only Cesc Fàbregas (8 – 3 goals, 5 assists) was involved in more #EURO Goals for #Spain than Álvaro Morata (7 – 7 goals, as many as Fernando Torres and David Silva). Reference.#Euro2024 pic.twitter.com/dfGTdjuai3
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) June 15, 2024
However, it was not the dominant performance one would expect from Spain, as they had had less possession than their opponents (47 percent) in a competitive match for the first time since the 2008 Euro final, which they won against Germany (46 percent), ending a run of 136 games in which they had more possession.
On the other side of the field, Luka Modric became the oldest player to take part in a European Championship since Lothar Matthäus at 38 years and 280 days, but his experience could not prevent Croatia from suffering its heaviest defeat at a major international tournament after 3-0 defeats to Portugal at Euro 1996 and Argentina at the 2022 World Cup.
The Croatian captain was also only the third European player, after Matthäus (nine) and Cristiano Ronaldo (ten, before the 2024 European Championship), to take part in a total of nine different editions of major international tournaments.
Italy – Albania 2:1: The Azzurri’s nightmare becomes a dream start
As reigning champions, Italy had to fear the worst after conceding the fastest goal in European Championship history – Nedim Bajrami scored after just 23 seconds after Federico Dimarco had gifted him a throw-in.
But Alessandro Bastoni’s equaliser in the eleventh minute quickly calmed nerves. It was the third earliest time at a European Championship that both teams scored a goal, the first time this happened against Spain in the 2016 match against England (sixth minute) and in the 1964 match against Russia (eighth minute).
The turnaround was completed with Nicolo Barella’s tenth goal for the national team and his goal instinct proved once again to be golden: Italy has won all ten games in which he scored a goal.
Although he failed to get on the scoresheet for the Azzurri, Federico Chiesa also impressed: he became the first player at the European Championship to record at least three shots on goal, three successful dribbles (four) and ball wins in the final third on at least three occasions since Denmark’s Mikkel Damsgaard against Belgium in June 2021.
1 – Italy won its debut match in four consecutive editions of the European Championship and the World Cup for the first time in history. Group.#EURo2024 #ITALB pic.twitter.com/ryQiIxxeZN
— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) June 15, 2024
Albania’s goal was the only shot on target of the game, meaning they have now scored in back-to-back matches in the competition for the first time. They now need to secure only their second win of the tournament against Croatia on Wednesday.
The Eagles will be glad to be rid of Italy, having lost all five previous meetings with them in all competitions. However, only three teams have beaten them more often, with Spain, who they face in their final group match, topping that list (eight).