Who have been EURO 2020's top performers so far?
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
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EURO2020.com checks the metrics to highlight some of the outstanding individuals of the finals to date.
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As the UEFA EURO 2020 quarter-finals approach, plenty of players have been showing their class during the final tournament, but who has been the best?
Here are some of the on-site metrics we have to rank the top performers so far.
Alipay Top Scorer
5 Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) +1 assist, 360 minutes
4 Patrik Schick (Czech Republic) 0 assists, 325 minutes
4 Karim Benzema (France) 0 assists, 349 minutes
4 Emil Forsberg (Sweden) 0 assists, 371 minutes
With five goals, Cristiano Ronaldo could yet end up being the top scorer at UEFA EURO 2020. Of the players on four, only Patrik Schick has made it to the quarter-finals, but three other last-eight contenders – Switzerland's Haris Seferović, England's Raheem Sterling and Belgium's Romelu Lukaku – have struck three. Antoine Griezmann was EURO 2016 top scorer with six goals; Michel Platini scored a record nine at the 1984 finals.
FedEx Performance Zone
88829: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
74277: Patrick Schick (Czech Republic)
67787: Robin Gosens (Germany)
64486: Andriy Yarmolenko (Ukraine)
62771: Luka Modrić (Croatia)
62523: Georginio Wijnaldum (Netherlands)
62420: Pablo Sarabia (Spain)
60986: Thomas Meunier (Belgium)
60595: Joakim Mæhle (Denmark)
60368: Emil Forsberg (Sweden)
The FedEx Performance Zone is tracking players' form for their countries at UEFA EURO 2020, with data fed into a specially designed algorithm to create rankings. Performances in the group stage were weighted equally, while matches in subsequent rounds of the competition are weighted incrementally higher – so eliminated players in the current rankings will likely be outstripped by players featuring in later rounds.
Heineken Star of the Match
2 Romelu Lukaku (Belgium)
2 Denzel Dumfries (Netherlands)
2 Leonardo Spinazzola (Italy)
2 Sergio Busquets (Spain)
UEFA's Technical Observers decide who is honoured, with the official Heineken Star of the Match handed to the successful candidate after full time. An upgrade of the usual Man of the Match award, the bespoke hand-crafted Star of the Match trophies have been months in the making and are hand sanded, painted, polished and finished with the Heineken red star. Only four players have collected two of these thus far.
Just Eat Takeaway.com Fantasy Football top scorers
27: Raheem Sterling (England) – transfer value €9.7m
27: Patrik Schick (Czech Republic) – €8.6m
27: Thomas Meunier (Belgium) – €5.7m
25: Jordan Pickford (England) – €5.7m
24: Andriy Yarmolenko (Ukraine) – €8.7m
24: John Stones (England) – €5.7m
Eliminated players have already been removed from the EURO Fantasy game, leaving Raheem Sterling, Patrik Schick and Thomas Meunier as the star buys, their points totals based on a combination of metrics from individual and team performances. In terms of the competition's best bargains, Denmark's Joakim Mæhle has been extraordinary value for money: 23 points for a miserly €4.7m.
Most distance covered (km)
48.7: Marcel Sabitzer (Austria)
47.2: Albin Ekdal (Sweden)
46.9: Pedri (Spain)
46.3: Remo Freuler (Switzerland)
46.3: Tomáš Souček (Czech Republic)
46.2: N'Golo Kanté (France)
46.2: Jorginho (Italy)
In terms of raw, pounding-the-pitch effort, Austria midfielder Marcel Sabitzer put in more hard yards over the first four matchdays of UEFA EURO 2020 than any other player. Pedri will only have to run a modest 300m (maybe three lengths of the pitch in Saint Petersburg) to move up to second in the rankings in Spain's quarter-final against Switzerland.
Top speed (km/h)
33.8: Leonardo Spinazzola (Italy)
33.8: Loïc Négo (Hungary)
33.7: Kingsley Coman (France)
33.6: Cody Gakpo (Netherlands)
33.5: Daniel James (Wales)
Pace alone cannot win games, but there are plenty of extraordinary athletes at UEFA EURO 2020. It is currently a photo finish between Leonardo Spinazzola and Loïc Négo as to who has put in the fastest sprint of the tournaments. For comparison, Usain Bolt's average speed over the course of his record-breaking 9.58 second 100m run was around 37.6 km/h.
Passes completed
390: Aymeric Laporte (Spain) – 97% accuracy
353: Toni Kroos (Germany) – 90.5%
304: Rúben Dias (Portugal) – 92.5%
301: Mats Hummels (Germany) – 97.3%
297: Jorginho (Italy) – 94.3%
Possession being nine-tenths of the footballing law, players who can successfully circulate the ball are a massive component of successful teams, and Spain defender Aymeric Laporte has been the pass master so far at UEFA EURO 2020, with 390 of his 403 balls finding their target. England defender Reece James (99%) has the best passing accuracy at the finals to date, albeit only making a relatively modest 84 completed passes (out of 85 attempted).
Assists
4 Steven Zuber (Switzerland)
3 Pierre-Emile Højbjerg (Denmark)
Only two players have been credited with more than two assists at the finals; Højbjerg has had a hand in 33.3% of Denmark's nine goals, while midfielder Zuber has provided the killer pass for four of Switzerland's seven.
Most fouled players
13 Álvaro Morata (Spain)
11 Paul Pogba (France)
10 Jorginho (Italy)
10 Koke (Spain)
10 Pedri (Spain)
10 László Kleinheisler (Hungary)
10 Andrea Belotti (Italy)
If being fouled is a kind of back-handed compliment – an acknowledgement that a player cannot be stopped by any legal means – then Spain have a claim to being the best side of the tournament, with three of their players making the most-sinned-against top five.
Balls recovered
38 Stefan de Vrij (Netherlands)
37 Mykola Matviyenko (Ukraine)
32 Manuel Akanji (Switzerland)
32 Martin Hinteregger (Austria)
32 Simon Kjær (Denmark)
There is no conventional measure of 'tigerishness' in midfield, but when it comes to seizing possession, Ukraine, Switzerland and Denmark have the quarter-finals' greatest sappers. Mykola Matviyenko is the highest-ranked ball-recoverer left in the competition, and Andriy Shevchenko's side also have the sixth and joint-seventh-ranked dispossessors in that list: Oleksandr Karavaev (30) and Illia Zabarnyi (29).