Ahead of Sunday's Euro 2024 final between Spain and England in Berlin, Sports Mole picks out some of the best pre-game statistics.
The destiny of the Euro 2024 title will be decided in 90 minutes, 120 minutes or from the penalty spot at Berlin's Olympiastadion on Sunday, when Spain and England engage in a battle of the behemoths in an eagerly-awaited final.
The showpiece event marks a third major tournament final between Spain and England over the past year, a sequence which started with the men's Under-21 Euros final, where Lee Carsley's Young Lions triumphed by a goal to nil.
However, Spain's women's team avenged their young counterparts with a 1-0 triumph of their own in the World Cup final, but only after the Lionesses had been crowned queens of Europe, and now their male colleagues bid to achieve kings status.
Both finalists had to come from behind to punch their ticket to Berlin, as Spain recovered from a goal down to defeat France 2-1 in the semi-finals, 24 hours before Gareth Southgate's men dramatically eliminated the Netherlands by the same scoreline.
Here, Sports Mole takes a look at some of the best Euro 2024 final pre-game stats, including team performance, individual feats and head-to-head highlights.
Spain best stats ahead of Euro 2024 final
Spain are bidding to win their fourth senior men's European Championship this weekend, having previously won the 1964, 2008 and 2012 editions. Should they prevail, they would set an outright record of four Euros triumphs, surpassing Germany in the process.Excluding the 2022-23 Nations League, La Roja have won each of their last three major tournaments finals (Euro 2008, 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012) and could become the first European men's team to win four successive World Cup/Euros finals.Spain were the only team to take nine points from nine in the group stage, defeating Albania, Croatia and Italy en route to a first-placed finish in Group B. In addition, Spain were the only side not to concede a goal in the group stage.Spain lost their 100% defensive record against Georgia in the last 16, but it was through a Robin Le Normand own goal. Not until Florian Wirtz's late equaliser for Germany in the quarter-finals did Luis de la Fuente's side concede to an opposition player.Spain have won all six of their matches at Euro 2024; no men's team in history ever previously achieved six victories in one edition of the European Championships.The three-time winners could become just the second men's team to win the Euros with a 100% success rate, following in France's footsteps after Les Bleus won all five games in the 1980 tournament.Spain have scored 13 goals at Euro 2024 so far; should they net twice on Sunday, they will set a new outright record for a single Euros, surpassing France's 14 strikes from the 1984 competition.Spain have won each of their last eight matches in all competitions and have lost just one of their last 18, a 1-0 friendly defeat to Copa America finalists Colombia in March.Spain have won seven of their previous 13 penalty shootouts in major tournaments but lost their most recent one at the Euros, going down to Italy in the Euro 2020 semi-finals.Lamine Yamal's stunning equaliser against France saw him become the youngest-ever Euros scorer at 16 years and 362 days. The Barcelona man had already become the youngest player in Euros history and the first teenager to set up three goals at one edition.Should Yamal play on Sunday, he will become the youngest man to ever feature in a World Cup or Euros final, breaking the record set by Pele (17 years and 249 days) at the 1958 World Cup.Alvaro Morata is Spain's fourth-highest male scorer of all time with 36 goals; if he scores a hat-trick on Sunday, he will overtake Fernando Torres (38) to sit third in the charts.De la Fuente will become the third-oldest manager to lead his side out for a Euros final, after 69-year-old Luis Aragones for Spain at Euro 2008 and 65-year-old Otto Rehhagel for Greece at Euro 2004; both latter managers won the trophy.
England best stats ahead of Euro 2024 final
England are out to win the Euros for the first time as a senior men's team, while also winning their first major trophy in 58 years following their 1966 World Cup success.By beating the Netherlands, England made back-to-back finals of a World Cup/Euros for the first time in their history, after losing the Euro 2020 final to Italy on penalties.The Three Lions have never played in a major tournament final on foreign soil before, winning the 1966 World Cup and losing the Euro 2020 final on home turf at Wembley.England netted just twice in Group C against Denmark, Serbia and Slovenia, contributing to the joint-lowest scoring Euros group in history with seven goals overall, level with Euro 2016 Group C involving Germany, Poland, Northern Ireland and Ukraine.England have won just two of their six Euro 2024 matches in normal time, a 1-0 success over Serbia in their Group C opener before a late 2-1 win over the Netherlands in the semis.England have come from behind to win in all of their knockout matches at Euro 2024 so far; they are the first team in history to reach the final after falling behind in both the quarters and the semis.England have gone unbeaten in their last six European Championship games when conceding the first goal, winning five and drawing once in that sequence.The Three Lions have never lost a match in Berlin, winning four and playing out two draws. Only in Helsinki (eight), Sunderland (seven) and Amsterdam (seven) have they played more times without ever losing.England have only won four of their 11 major tournament penalty shootouts - losing five in a row between 1996 and 2012 - but they have triumphed in three of their last four.Southgate took charge of his 100th match for England in their quarter-final win over Switzerland, becoming just the third man to reach a century of games as Three Lions manager after Walter Winterbottom (139) and Alf Ramsey (113).Southgate has won 14 major tournament matches as England men's manager, the most of any Three Lions coach in history. Excluding Sam Allardyce - who won his only game in charge - Southgate's 63.4% win rate is only below Fabio Capello's 66.7%.However, the 53-year-old could now become the first manager in history to lose more than one men's European Championship final.Harry Kane's penalty against the Netherlands in the semi-finals was his third of Euro 2024 - the joint-most alongside five other players - and his ninth major tournament knockout goal overall, more than any other male European player in history.At 19 years and 82 days old, Kobbie Mainoo became the youngest Englishman to start a major tournament semi-final for the Three Lions in midweek.
Best Spain vs. England head-to-head stats ahead of Euro 2024 final
Spain and England have met on 27 previous occasions, with the Three Lions winning 14 times and La Roja prevailing on 10 occasions, while another three clashes have ended level.Sunday's final will mark the third Euros senior men's meeting between Spain and England. The Three Lions won the first two - a 2-1 victory in the 1980 group stage before a 4-2 penalty-shootout success in the Euro 1996 quarter-finals.However, the former win remains the only time that England have scored in a men's World Cup/Euros contest against Spain, failing to net in their other three.England won their most recent battle with Spain, a 3-2 Nations League success in October 2018. Not since a run of seven straight wins between 1960 and 1980 have they beaten La Roja in consecutive contests.England's 4-2 penalty shootout win over Spain in the Euro 96 quarters was the first of just two shootouts to date where the Three Lions scored all of their spot kicks, the other being this year's quarter-final against Switzerland (5-3).
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