Euro 2020 - Did You Know?

From 11th June through to 11th July, 24 teams representing their countries will battle it out for the European Championship trophy in the 16th edition of the event. As the tournament gets underway, the guys over at Which Bookie thought it would be good to put together a list of 10 historical facts and stats about the competition.

Fact 1

Euro 2020 will for the first time, be hosted across more than two countries. In fact, matches will be played across 12 different countries including Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Hungary, Romania and Azerbaijan who have never hosted a major international football tournament before.

Prior to Euro 2020, the tournament was either hosted by a single country or spread across two neighbouring countries in 2000 (Belgium / Netherlands), 2008 (Austria / Switzerland) and 2012 (Poland / Ukraine).

Fact 2

No player has scored more goals at the European Championships than Michel Platini and Cristiano Ronaldo who have bagged 9 goals each at the tournament. Ronaldo is set to feature in Euro 2020 and so could quite possibly beat the record over the coming weeks.

Ronaldo also holds the record for the most goals scored at the Euros including qualifying with a total of 40 goals. Sweden's Zlatan Ibrahimović is quite far behind in second place with 25 goals followed by Ireland's Robbie Keane.

Fact 3

Finland and North Macedonia are set to play in their first European Championship. However, a debutant hasn't won the competition since Germany in the 1972 tournament held in Belgium.

Fact 4

Portugal are the European Championship reigning champions having won the competition in 2016. However, did you know that they are the only team to have ever won the tournament without winning a single game in the group stage? Portugal finished 3rd in their group in 2016 and progressed by being one of the highest scoring teams in that position in terms of points.

Fact 5

Germany are the only team to have won all three of their group games in either of the last two tournaments when they beat Portugal (1-0), Denmark (2-1) and the Netherlands (2-1) at Euro 2012.

Fact 6

The most goals ever to be scored in a European Championship match was 9. Amazingly, this was in the opening match of Euro 1960 between France and Yugoslavia (4-5) and the first match ever to be played in the tournament since it started.

• 9 Goals Scored: 1 time
• 8 Goals Scored: 0 times
• 7 Goals Scored: 3 times
• 6 Goals Scored: 6 times

Fact 7

Only one European Championship final has ever been decided on penalties, when Czechoslovakia drew 2-2 with West Germany and eventually won the match 5-2 on pens. However, 50% of Euro finals since 1996 have had to be decided in extra time.

Fact 8

Spain are the only team in Euro history to win the tournament back-to-back. However, Portugal have a chance to equal that record this year after winning Euro 2016.

Fact 9

France have scored more goals in the European Championships than any other team having found the net a total of 86 times. They have also conceded more goals than any other team and have let in 63 goals over the years.

Strangely, just one team also holds the record for both the least number goals scored and least conceded. Norway have scored just one goal at the Euros and also conceded just one which was in their only European Championship appearance in 2000.

Fact 10

No other team has played more games and never reached the final compared to England. The Three Lions have played a total of 31 games in the competition but never made it through to the final round. Could this year be different for them?