Italy, Spain, England and Denmark are gearing up for this week’s Euro 2020 semi-finals.
Here, we take a statistical look at how the four teams shape up, as well as which of their players could still challenge for personal honours.
Sharp shooters
Spain are the tournament’s top scorers with 12 goals, including hauls of five in back-to-back games against Slovakia and Croatia.
That was a European Championship first, going one better than Denmark whose wins over Russia and Wales at Euro 2020 made them the first team to score four in successive games at the competition, and Kasper Hjulmand’s side match Italy for the second-highest tally of 11.
England started slowly but their 4-0 win over Ukraine means Belgium are the only other team with more than their eight goals.
They are also still to concede at the other end and it is now seven consecutive clean sheets for Gareth Southgate’s side including the warm-up wins over Austria and Romania – with Jordan Pickford in goal for all bar the Romania game.
Italy had a run of 11 in a row until they conceded in extra time against Austria, with another following in the win over Belgium to leave them on two goals conceded in the tournament. Spain and Denmark have let in five.
Doing it the hard way
Christian Eriksen ❤️#EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/ZGdZ8k9WiA
Advertisement— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) July 3, 2021
Denmark became the first team ever to lose their first two matches and still qualify for the knockout stage as they overcame the trauma of Christian Eriksen’s collapse against Finland.
While no other team has faced that level of adversity, the semi-finalists have mostly built slowly into form.
Spain lead the way with an average of 67.2 per cent possession – the only team over 60 per cent in the whole tournament – and their 3,856 completed passes is over 800 more than any other team has even attempted but they too have been forced to battle through.
They drew their first two group games and could have been eliminated at that stage had they not beaten Slovakia, and then required extra time in their thrilling win over Croatia and penalties to beat Switzerland.
England were more comfortably, qualifying from their group with a game to spare, but still faced criticism for their performances and in particular the goalless draw with Scotland.
Italy were the only team remaining to win all of their group games, scoring seven goals without reply, and have had the most serene path to this point – though even they were taken to extra time by underdogs Austria in the last 16.
Golden Boot
With the tournament’s leading scorers already eliminated, there is a chance for those remaining to chase the Golden Boot – particularly in the England-Denmark match.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Patrik Schick are the clubhouse leaders with five goals apiece but Portugal and the Czech Republic have already exited the tournament – as have Romelu Lukaku’s Belgium, Karim Benzema’s France and Emil Forsberg’s Sweden to leave those players stranded on four.
England duo Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane have three each, matching their upcoming opponent Kasper Dolberg, while there are nine players left on two goals.
Four of those – Ciro Immobile, Lorenzo Insigne, Manuel Locatelli and Matteo Pessina – come from Italy and will go up against Spain’s Alvaro Morata, Ferran Torres and Pablo Sarabia, while Yussuf Poulsen and Joakim Maehle have netted twice each for the Danes.
