Abu Dhabi, September 28 / WAM / With a record goal score and following several exciting surprises, the curtain came down on the activities of the first round of the third edition of the European Football Championship, which cast a shadow over the preparations of many teams participating in the 2022 World Cup in a few weeks.
The activities of this edition opened last June with 4 consecutive rounds, while it was completed through two consecutive rounds during the past few days, which continued with the tournament’s surprises and its distinguished records.
With the conclusion of the activities of the first round on Tuesday evening, the Spanish team booked its place in the semi-finals of the tournament with a dramatic victory over its Portuguese counterpart, who was just around the corner from qualifying for the semi-finals, which will take place in June 2023.
And the Spanish team grabbed the ticket to qualify for the semi-finals by defeating Portugal with a goal scored by Alvaro Morata in the 88th minute, knowing that the equalizer was enough for Portugal to qualify.
With the conclusion of the activities of the first round of the tournament, the goal tally reached 409 goals in 156 matches. The outcome of the group stage in this edition exceeded what was recorded during each of the previous two editions of the Nations League. Where the second edition witnessed 382 goals scored in 168 different rounds of the tournament until the final, while the first edition witnessed 342 goals in 142 matches in various rounds until the final.
The current version is still able to enhance this record of goals scored through the semi-finals and final in the middle of next year.
The Spanish team joined the teams of Croatia, Netherlands and Italy in the semi-finals, which also topped their groups in the first round of the first division of the tournament, which alone witnessed 126 goals, 6 goals less than what was recorded in the first round matches of this division in the last version.
Surprises were strongly present in the results of the matches during the group stage and the arrangement of the different teams in the four groups in the first division of the tournament.
In the first group, qualification was for the Croatian team at the expense of both the Danish and French teams, knowing that the latter was a strong candidate to qualify from this group, especially as it is the title holder as well as the holder of the world title in addition to the team’s ranks of prominent stars in various centers led by the striker Kylian Mbappe.
The interesting thing is that the French team was threatened with relegation to the second division, but it narrowly escaped despite its loss in the last round once morest Denmark, taking advantage of the loss of its Austrian counterpart once morest Croatia in the same round, as the Austrian team was relegated to the second division.
The tournament was also threatened by the loss of the Spanish team, the second party to the final in the last version, and not qualifying for the semi-finals, but the Spanish team narrowly made its way to the semi-finals with an exciting victory over Portugal yesterday evening.
The relegation in the second group belonged to the Czech team following losing 4 consecutive matches, the most recent of which was once morest the Swiss team during yesterday’s match, to keep the Swiss team in the first division.
In the third group, the Hungarian team was the big surprise, as the group topped the teams of Italy, England and Germany before the last round witnessed its loss once morest the Italian team, which ended the Hungarian adventure and saved face by qualifying for the semi-finals following failing to reach the 2022 World Cup and his absence from the World Cup for the second edition Straight.
It is noticeable in this group that the German national team, which won the World Cup 4 previous times, failed for the third consecutive edition to reach the semi-finals of the Nations League, and even occupied the third place in the current edition in its group, following achieving one victory once morest 4 draws and one defeat.
But the German team was not the worst in this group in terms of results, but the relegation belonged to the England team, regarding 15 months following the team won second place in the European Nations Cup / Euro 2020 /.
The England team did not achieve any victory in the group, as it drew in 3 matches, lost the same, and conceded 10 times, while its players scored only 4 goals, to be relegated to the second division.
At the level of Group D, the Dutch team qualified for the semi-finals well following taking the lead in the group with 16 out of 18 points available, 6 points ahead of the strong Belgian team, while the Polish and Welsh teams ranked third and fourth, respectively, so that the Welsh team relegated to the second division following winning one point from the matches The six.
The Dutch national team was the only one among the four qualified for the semi-finals, who maintained its unbeaten record in the group stage, achieving 5 victories and a draw in one match, while no team scored the full mark, whether in the first division or the rest of the competition sections.
The team was also the best offensive player at the level of all participants in the first round, as its players scored 14 goals. Only two teams outperform him in the tournament in general: Turkey (18 goals) and Georgia (16 goals), and each of them competed in the third division and officially ascended to the second division in the new version.
Despite not qualifying for the semi-finals, the Portuguese national team was the strongest defense in the group stage of the first division, as it only conceded 3 times.
The England team was the weakest attacking, as its players scored only 4 goals, while the Czech team was the weakest defense in this division, as it conceded 13 times.
The top scorer in the competition in the first round was not among the stars of the first division, but the Norwegian Erling Halland shared the lead with the Serbian Aleksandar Mitrovic, with 6 goals each.
It is interesting that the same players met yesterday evening in the match between their two teams in the sixth round of the matches of the second division, and Mitrovic scored a goal to lead the Serbian team to a 2-0 victory and promotion to the first division at the expense of Norway.