Leading into the EURO 2024. We breakdown some of the most interesting facts during the Qualifiers.
France’s 2-2 draw against Greece signified Antoine Griezmann’s 84th appearance for the French national team. Remarkably, he stands as the only player to have made over 100 starts for a European nation since 2014.
England have benefitted from an own goal in consecutive games (Enrico Pepe in the Malta game, and Jani Atanasov in the North Macedonia match) for the first time since June 2006 vs. Jamaica and Paraguay.
Rico Lewis became the second-youngest Manchester City player to play for England (18 years, 364 days), behind only Micah Richards in 2006 (18 years, 144 days).
Northern Ireland’s 4-0 loss to Finland in the Euro 2024 Qualifiers marked the first instance of them conceding four goals without scoring since their 6-0 friendly defeat to the Netherlands in June 2012. Moreover, it was the first time they experienced such a defeat in a qualifying match for a major tournament (World Cup/EUROs) since their 4-0 loss to England in March 2005.
Spain have won 34 of their last 35 home European Championship qualifiers, only losing 0-1 to Greece in June 2003, and have kept a clean sheet in their last seven home games in the competition.
Lamine Yamal’s goal for Spain was the goal scored after the most passes by the Spanish team in the Euro 2024 Qualifiers (22), and the fourth overall after the most passes in this qualifiers.
Only Turkey’s national team (19) have seen more different players involved in a goal than Spain’s (17) in the Euro 2024 Qualifiers.
England had just two shots in the first half against Malta, neither of which were on target. It’s the first time England have failed to record a single shot on target in the first half of a home international since November 2017 in a friendly against Germany.
San Marino have scored their second goal across the Euro 2024 qualifiers. This goal came versus Kazakhstan to follow a strike in their last qualifier vs. Denmark. They have scored in back-to- back competitive games for the first time since June 2005.
Italy will play their 11th European Championship, only Germany (14) and Spain (12) have qualified more times in the history of the competition – including Euro 2024.
Matteo Darmian’s goal against North Macedonia marked the end of an international goal drought lasting 2960 days since his previous goal for Italy on October 10, 2015. In the history of the Azzurri, only Fabio Quagliarella had a longer wait between two of his goals, lasting 3122 days.
661 goals have been scored in the Euro 2024 Qualifiers across 230 matches.
Norway narrowly missed out on a Euro 2024 spot as they finished third in Group A, with Erling Haaland notably scoring against all the teams in the group except Spain. The Manchester City star managed to net six goals in five matches during the group stage.
Slovenia’s qualification for the Euros marks their return to the tournament for the first time since Euro 2000. Additionally, this upcoming appearance in the European Championship will be the Central European nation’s first in a major international tournament since the 2010 World Cup.
Albania is set to make their second major international appearance at Euro 2024. After their debut in the 2016 edition of the competition, the Red and Blacks secured their spot in the finals in Germany by topping Group E in the qualifiers.
