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Next week will begin the fourteenth UEFA-organized European Football Championship. Sixteen of the most powerful national teams of the Old Continent will be hosted by Poland and Ukraine.
As the calendar counts down the final days before the football feast, we invite you to get acquainted with interesting facts from the qualifying tournament about the players and national teams of the tournament.
- The Netherlands was the most productive team in the qualifying tournament with 37 goals. Germans came second (34, M.Klose - 6 matches, 9 goals), Swedes came third (31, Z.Ibrahimovičius - 8 matches, 5 goals). Greek were the least productive - they only scored 14 goals (G.Fetfatzidis 6 matches, 2 goals).
- Danish national team's forward Dennis Rommedahl created 25 goal-scoring opportunities for his team-mates in the qualifying tournament and was unbeatable according to this indicator;
- Wayne Rooney debuted in the England national team in 2003 and has been considered its leader ever since. However, the team achieves the best results when the "Man Utd" forward is not playing: without Rooney, they won 75%, with him - 66% of matches;
- With Rooney playing, the English team won 31 out of 47 matches, and without him, they won nine times and played twice draw;
- Czech Republic's captain Tomáš Rosický performed 251 precise passes towards the opponents' goal in a third of the pitch during the qualifying tournament. This is the best result;
- Klaas Jan Huntelaar was the most productive player in the qualifying tournament with 12 goals. The Dutch national team's member was defeating opponents' goalkeepers every 57 minutes;
- Interestingly, all of Huntelaar's goals were scored inside the penalty area;
- Croatian national team's captain Dario Srna crossed the ball into the penalty area 135 times during the qualifiers. 28% of these passes were accurate, which is a better indicator than that of Portuguese Nani or Russian Andrey Arshavin;
- Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon repelled 92.9% of the opponents' shots on goal. The veteran only conceded one goal in six matches;
- The Italian national team, defended by Buffon and other goalkeepers, only conceded two goals in total;
- Spain's forward Fernando Llorente scored three goals in 235 minutes during the qualifying tournament - on average every 78 minutes. He also sent the ball into the net of the Lithuanian national team;
- Sweden's defender Kim Kallstrom made seven goal-scoring passes - the best result in the qualifiers. Additionally, the "Lyon" player scored three goals;
