Euro 2024: Yamal the Wonderkid, A Touch of Watkins, and Semi-Final Questions

Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. Our latest edition includes some of the most interesting numbers from the semi-finals at Euro 2024.

Semi-finals are traditionally cagey affairs.

Just one match from reaching a tournament’s showpiece and with the eyes of the world on them, players can sometimes put safety first.

It was therefore quite a surprise when both semis of Euro 2024 were level at 1-1 inside 21 minutes. In fact, Spain led France 2-1 after just 25 minutes in Munich, while it took until 89 minutes and 59 seconds for England to edge in front against the Netherlands.

Ahead of Sunday’s final, we look at the heroes for both Spain and England. Lamine Yamal curled in a beautiful and historic strike against Les Bleus, and we dive into the significance of the goal and his performances in Germany. We’ll also take a look at the cameo of the Three Lions’ match-winner Ollie Watkins.

Come with us as we aim to get you hyped for the Euro 2024 final, quiz you on the semis, and see what Copa America captions our brilliant subscribers came up with.

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STAT – Sweet Sixteen

We’ve already discussed in recent editions of SVQ how very old Lamine Yamal is making us feel.

It wasn’t enough to break into the Barcelona first team, or Spain’s senior team all before he turned 17 years of age; Yamal created history on Tuesday as he became the youngest player ever to score a goal at a European Championship.

At 16 years and 362 days old, Yamal curled in a beautiful strike to equalise for Spain against France in their Euro 2024 semi-final, leading to pretty much anyone over that age around the world questioning what they were capable of at 16. Responses on social media ranged from yo-yo tricks to being able to tie shoelaces with a double knot.

Can Yamal do that? Who knows, but he can certainly play football.

He didn’t just break the record, he smashed it. Yamal beat former Switzerland international Johan Vonlanthen’s record by a year and 145 days. Coincidentally, Vonlanthen’s goal also came against France, scoring against them at Euro 2004 aged 18 years and 141 days old.

In fact, Yamal also became the youngest goalscorer at a Euros or World Cup, a record previously held by the great Pelé after his goal for Brazil against Wales at the 1958 World Cup (17y 239d).

It was quite funny to see Yamal playing on the same side of the pitch as Jesús Navas, who at 38 years and 231 days became the oldest ever outfield player to appear in a semi-final at a major international tournament. It was almost like having a dad and lad on Spain’s right side, with Navas having already won the old UEFA Cup twice before Yamal was even born.

Photos emerged after the game of an even younger Yamal being held as a baby by none other than Lionel Messi. There have already been inevitable comparisons made with the Barcelona legend, and those connections were backed up by more data on Tuesday.

Apart from Messi (2022 World Cup), the only other player at the last two World Cup/Euro tournaments with 15+ chances created, 15+ shots and 15+ dribbles is Yamal at Euro 2024.

He turns 17 on Saturday, so could score in a semi-final at 16 and a final at 17 in the same week.

Yamal might not be able to legally watch most horror movies or order a beer, but he’s very good at kicking a football. After all, age is just a number.

VIZ – Watkins Makes an Impact

The viz above could be mistaken for minimalist art.

Ollie Watkins arrived in England’s semi-final against the Netherlands with the score at 1-1 in the 81st minute in Dortmund. Nine minutes, four touches and one goal later, he was the hero for the Three Lions.

Those three touches on the left side of England’s attack are not the belt of the constellation Orion, but the only three touches Watkins had in his cameo that didn’t involve him rifling the ball into the Dutch net.

That dot on the right side of the penalty area is where he fired in England’s winner, sending Gareth Southgate’s men to the final.

Watkins’ winner at 89:59 was the latest winning goal scored in the semi-final at a UEFA European Championship/World Cup (excluding extra-time). It was also England’s only shot on target in the second half of the match.

Remarkably given his brief time on the pitch and otherwise limited involvement, Watkins was handed UEFA’s Player of the Match award after the game. Fair enough, he had scored the winner, but it must surely go down as among the fewest touches had by someone in a game who was then chosen as Player of the Match.

That kind of efficiency is what tournament football is all about, though.

Watkins completed 100% of his passes, all two of them, one to Declan Rice and one to Marc Guéhi, lost his one aerial duel, and didn’t make any tackles.

He scored the winning goal, though, and vindicated his manager’s decision to bring him on for Harry Kane ahead of Ivan Toney, who Southgate had turned to in the last two rounds instead of Watkins.

With England averaging just 11.2 shots per game (with two of them going to extra-time) and having amassed just 5.62 expected goals and seven goals scored, they have reached the final by doing pretty much the bare minimum.

Watkins and his four touches, one goal and one Player of the Match award was therefore rather an appropriate way for them to get through their semi-final.

Can they do it again to win their first men’s major trophy since 1966? You’d be brave to bet against them.

QUIZ – Semi-Finals

Despite there only being two games, we’ve still managed to find you five questions. Answers at the bottom of the page.

1. Spain are the first side to win six games at a single edition of the UEFA European Championship finals. Who are the only team to have won more games at a single edition of either the World Cup or Euros (7)?

2. Randal Kolo Muani’s opener for France against Spain meant he became just the third player to score for Les Bleus in the semi-finals of both the World Cup and Euros after which two legendary French figures?

3. England have reached the final in two of their four major tournaments under Gareth Southgate (also Euro 2020). How many finals did their men’s team reach in their previous 23 World Cup/Euro appearances?

4. Ollie Watkins became just the second Aston Villa player to score for England at a major tournament, after who? Clue: He scored three goals at the 1990 World Cup.

5. Despite allegedly having a disappointing tournament so far, Harry Kane’s penalty against the Netherlands was his third goal of Euro 2024, making him joint-top scorer with five other players. Can you name them?

Stat’s All Folks

We left the Euros to grab our most recent viz for captioning.

Endrick’s pass map showed that he completed just two of his five passes for Brazil as they lost to Uruguay on penalties in the Copa America quarter-finals, one of which came from kick-off.

Our favourite caption came from Tony Parry, who poked fun at his big-money move to Real Madrid by saying: “€60 million doesn’t get you very much these days, does it?’”

We’ll give Tony the benefit of the doubt that his tongue was very much in cheek there. It wasn’t Endrick’s finest game but in fairness he’s only 17 years old and had looked very impressive for Brazil in his first few caps. He will no doubt have the last laugh when he’s banging in goals for Carlo Ancelotti’s side next season.

Our next viz to be captioned is Rodri’s heat map from Euro 2024. The Spain midfielder has been in outstanding form in Germany, so feel free to just be nice about him with your caption efforts.