UEFA European Championship 2024: ‘Own Goal’ leads the race for the highest score, Muasiala follows

Georgia took a momentary lead against Spain as Robin Le Normand conceded an own goal in the 18th minute during the Round Of 16 match at the UEFA European Championship 2024. Spain took little time to get back to the game and destroyed Georgia’s defence and ended the match at 4-1. 

However, with Robin Le Normand’s goal, the tournament witnessed a total of eight ‘own goals’ – second highest in the history of the cup and far ahead of the number of individual goals. As of July 1, Germany’s star Jamal Musiala, Ivan Schranz of Slovakia, and Georgia’s Georges Mikautadze are tied for the highest number of goals scored in the tournament with three goals each. There are seven players, including Spain’s Fabian Ruiz, Germany’s Kai Havertz and Niclas Fullkrug, Holland’s Cody Gakpo, England’s Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham, and Romania’s Razvan Marin, who scored two goals each. Since Georgia and Slovakia are already out of the tournament as they lost to Spain and England respectively, it is Musiala who takes his score forward. Meanwhile, France’s Kylian Mbappe, Spain’s Nico Williams, and many others scored one goal in the tournament so far. 

In the UEFA European Championship 2020, there were 11 ‘own goals’. This year, the trend of 'own goal' started right from the beginning. At the opening march between Germany and Scotland, Antonio Rüdiger scored a same-sided goal. However, that could not stop Germany from winning the match 4-1. France clinched their victory over Austria as Maximilian Wöber scored an own goal. Czech’s Robin Hranáč scored an own goal against Portugal as the latter won the match 2-1. Albania’s Klaus Gjasula’s own goal led to a draw against Croatia. Spain defeated its rival Italy 1-0 because of an own goal by Riccardo Calafiori.  Turkey’s Samet Akaydin scored an own goal against Portugal. The Netherlands’s Donyell Malen scored an own goal against Austria. After the group league matches, the trend of own goals continued in the Spain-Geornia match.  

In the Round of 16, France will meet Belgium at 9.30 pm on Monday and Portugal will meet Slovenia at 12.30 am Tuesday (IST). In India, Sony Sports Network will broadcast the matches and the Euro 2024 will also stream live on SonyLiv. You can catch them with OTTplay Premium.