With Euro 2024 qualifying now over following the play-offs, we recap the stats from across the campaign ahead of this summer’s tournament in Germany.
Euro 2024 qualification is over. With 239 games played and 690 goals scored over a year of qualifiers, 53 nations have been whittled down to 24 finalists at Euro 2024 in Germany this summer.
Here, we look over the key statistics from across the qualification campaign.
Perfect Portugal
Only one team managed a 100% record in qualification for Euro 2024 and that was Portugal, who won all 10 of their qualifiers versus Slovakia, Luxembourg, Iceland, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Liechtenstein.
It’s the first time in history Portugal have gone through an entire European Championship qualification campaign without a single defeat, which bodes well for their quest to secure a second competition title following their success in 2016.
Portugal also ended as the top-scoring team in qualification with 36 goals, but having played two more matches than some other sides, France posted a superior goals-per-game rate (3.63) than the Portuguese (3.60). Nine of their goals came in the 9-0 rout of Luxembourg at Estadio Algarve in September 2023, securing their biggest ever win.
Nil Points
While six nations enjoyed unbeaten qualification campaigns en route to sealing a spot at Euro 2024, spare a thought for the four teams who didn’t manage to secure a single point in the qualifiers.
Cyprus had their worst European Championship qualification campaign since the 1992 qualifiers, as they suffered eight defeats in eight games. The closest they came to winning a point was on Matchday 3, as they lost 2-1 to Georgia despite drawing 1-1 with just six minutes remaining.
This was the first qualification campaign (Euros and World Cup combined) in which Malta failed to win a single point since the Euro 2000 qualifiers. They lost all eight of their matches this time around and only scored two goals, although they did lead Ukraine for 26 minutes in their eventual 3-1 defeat in October 2023.
Granted, not much was expected from either Gibraltar or San Marino in qualifying, but they both ended the campaign with zero points on the board.
San Marino have now played 86 games in European Championship qualification and have only avoided defeat in one of those matches – a 0-0 draw at home to Estonia in November 2014.
Across both World Cup and European Championship qualifiers, Gibraltar have now attempted to win a point in 46 matches. They have failed in all 46, losing every game and being outscored by their opponents 12-220. They were the only nation in the Euro 2024 qualifiers to fail to score a single goal, and only managed two shots on target across their eight matches.
Georgian Joy
Georgia will be the only nation at Euro 2024 to be making their debut at the European Championship. Their penalty shootout victory against Greece in the play-offs secured their spot following a fourth-place finish in Group A behind Spain, Scotland and Norway. They made the play-offs following a successful UEFA Nations League campaign.
They went close to making the last European Championship finals but lost their play-off final against North Macedonia on that occasion. They made no such mistake this time.
The Old & Young
Of all the sides to have qualified for Euro 2024, Ukraine went through qualification with youngest average starting XI age. Across their eight group matches and two play-off games, the Ukrainians had an average starting XI age of just 25 years and 272 days old. Of all 53 teams in qualification, only Bulgaria (24y, 278d) averaged a younger starting XI.
Montenegro had the oldest starting XI on average in the Euro 2024 qualifiers (29y 308d), but considering only the 23 teams to make it through qualification and get to the finals this summer, it was Slovakia (29y 264d) who were the oldest.
Andorra’s Ildefons Lima was the oldest player to make an appearance in qualifying when he was 43 years, 276 days old against Switzerland in September 2023, while Cristiano Ronaldo (38y 284d) was the oldest player to score, netting for Portugal versus Liechtenstein in November last year.
Spanish wonderkid Lamine Yamal was both the youngest player and scorer in the Euro 2024 qualifiers, after he found the net on his debut in the rout of Georgia on 8 September 2023. He was just 16 years and 57 days old at the time, becoming the youngest player to score for Spain in a full international.
Squad Depth
Across the year-long qualification campaign, no nations used as more players than Italy, Spain and Bulgaria (40).
Of the 16 players who played in Spain’s first qualifier against Norway, only five – Álvaro Morata, Dani Carvajal, Fabián Ruiz, Gavi and Rodri – appeared in their final qualifier against Georgia just eight months later.
Twelve of those 40 players scored in qualification for Spain, with only France (14) having more individual scorers across the Euro 2024 qualifiers.
Moldova used the fewest players in qualification (21), while Wales were a penalty shootout away from making Euro 2024 despite using only 22 players across their 10 matches.
Who Has Qualified for Euro 2024?
Albania (Group E Winner)
Austria (Group F Runner-Up)
Belgium (Group F Winner)
Croatia (Group D Runner-Up)
Czechia (Group E Runner-Up)
Denmark (Group H Winner)
England (Group C Winner)
France (Group B Winner)
Georgia (Play-Off Path C Winner)
Germany (Host Nation)
Hungary (Group G Winner)
Italy (Group C Runner-Up)
Netherlands (Group B Winner)
Poland (Play-Off Path A Winner)
Portugal (Group J Winner)
Romania (Group I Winner)
Scotland (Group A Runner-Up)
Serbia (Group G Runner-Up)
Slovakia (Group J Runner-Up)
Slovenia (Group H Runner-Up)
Spain (Group A Winner)
Switzerland (Group I Runner-Up)
Turkey (Group D Winner)
Ukraine (Play-Off Path B Winner)
Euro 2024 Qualifying Top Scorers
Romelu Lukaku’s 14 goals for Belgium during the Euro 2024 qualification campaign is more than any player has previously scored across a single qualifying campaign for a European Championship.
The striker scored in all but one of his eight qualification appearances and was the only player to score four goals in a game.
His four goals against Azerbaijan on 19 November 2023 came from just four shots, with that his second hat-trick of the Euro 2024 qualifiers following three goals against Sweden on 24 March earlier that year. He was the only player to score more than one hat-trick in the Euro 2024 qualifiers.
Euro 2024 Qualifying Most Assists
Portugal’s Bruno Fernandes assisted the most goals in Euro 2024 qualifying, setting up seven for his teammates overall. The Manchester United midfielder also led the way for expected assists (6.1) and total chances created (37).
Enjoy this? Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You can also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.