Euro 2024 First Round Review

Now that the opening round of fixtures of Euro 2024 have been completed, it is time to hand out the awards for best fans, most entertaining team, most impressive defensive team, best goal and a summary of Scotland and England’s tournaments so far.


Best fans: Scotland

I think we can all agree that there can only be one winner here. Scotland reportedly brought 200,000 fans to Munich for opening night. That is roughly 1 in 27 people in the whole of Scotland. If England were to bring the same proportion of their population, they would have brought 2,200,000. So two million more. I don’t know if it is just because England isn’t really a footballing nation, but they didn’t come close to bringing the numbers of Scotland. Shout out to Croatia in second place but Scotland take this award.


Most entertaining team: Scotland

This was a tricky one because both Scotland and Germany were involved in the most entertaining game so far, in their SIX goal thriller on the opening evening. Further analysis though shows that it was Scotland who were responsible for making this game so entertaining. Angus Gunn had a massive hand in 3 of the goals on the night and Ryan Porteous was also responsible for providing further entertainment (red cards are often regarded as a measure of how entertaining a game is).
Entertainment is usually measured by number of goals and sendings of. The below graph therefore shows entertainment by team. (goals scored + goals conceded + red cards).

ENTERTAINMENT
I------------------------------------------------------------------
I-------------------------------------------------------SCO------
I------------------------------------------GER-----------*--------
I--------------------------------------------*-------------*---------
I--------HUN----GEO-----TUR-----------*--------------*---------
I--------*---------*----------*-------------*------------- *-----
I--------*---------*----------*-------------*--------------*-------
I--------*---------*----------*-------------*--------------*-------
I--------*---------*----------*-------------*--------------*-------
I________________________________________________


Overall then, the award for most entertaining team has to go to Scotland. Stats don’t lie.


Most impressive defensive display: Scotland (10 men) second half v Germany

A lot of people forget that Scotland were actually drawing the second half vs Germany, despite having 10 men. This was until literally the last kick of the ball. It would have gone down as one of the greatest defensive displays of all time to get a second half draw against the host team and most successful European nation of all time. Very unlucky to lose that second half. A last minute goal should not undo the most impressive 45 minutes ever seen by a team at the Euros though.


Most impressive attacking display: Scotland’s record breaking efficiency v Germany

A lot of teams have been wasteful over the opening round of fixtures. The Dutch come to mind. Multiple opportunities squandered. This is not something we would refer to as impressive. What is much more impressive is how efficient a team are in attack. This award must therefore go to the team with the best goals to expected goals ratio. Looking at the stats here, there can only be one winner. Scotland had an xG of 0.00 vs Germany, yet scored one goal. This is a goals to xG goals ratio of infinity. The most impressive ratio ever recorded in football.

Did you know that Scotland’s LEAST attacking player, Angus Gunn, touched the ball 5 more times than England’s MOST attacking player in the opening 35 minutes of their opening fixtures? (Kane, one touch).
Scotland were therefore the most impressive attacking team as once again, stats don’t lie.



Goal of the tournament: Scott McKenna vs Germany

The chance that was rated as 0.00 in the xG stats. How better to measure how good a goal is than by how difficult the chance was rated? Some have mentioned the ball at this tournament as being responsible for a few worldies but the swerve McKenna got on his header to beat the keeper from such an angle was incredible. It has to be our winner.


Scotland vs England comparison so far:
Two identical performances by the two British teams so far, although one far more entertaining than the other.
Both got a goal and both sat back the majority of the game. Scotland just edge it due to the opposition they were playing and were down to 10 men for the majority of the match.

The awards for the opening round of fixtures seem to be dominated by one team. Hopefully another nation can step up in the second round of fixtures.

Good bye.