The group stage of Euro 2020 in 2021 came to an end on Wednesday as games from Group E and Group F came to a conclusion. In Group E, Sweden won the group with a close 3-2 win over Poland, while Spain clobbered Slovakia 5-0 to finish in second place. Meanwhile, in Group F, Germany advanced to the round of 16 after a 2-2 tie with Hungary, while Portugal and France both advanced to the next round after a 2-2 deadlock themselves.
France won Group F with five points, as they had a record of one win and two draws. Germany and Portugal each had a record of one win, one loss, and one draw. However, Germany gets second place as they beat Portugal 4-2 earlier in the tournament.
Spain’s five-goal win over Slovakia tied for the largest margin of victory in the history of the European Soccer Championship according to uefa.com. It was the fifth time that a team beat their opponent by five goals. The other four times saw the Netherlands beat Yugoslavia 6-1 in 2000, Denmark beating Yugoslavia 5-0 in 1984, France beating Belgium 5-0 in 1984, and Sweden beating Bulgaria 5-0 in 2004.
In the Sweden win over Poland, Emil Forsberg scored only one minute and 22 seconds into the game. That was the second-fastest goal from the start of a European Championship game of all-time. The fastest goal came from Dmitri Kirichenko, who scored one minute and seven seconds into the game in a 2-1 Russia win over Greece in 2004 according to uefa.com. That would be Greece’s only loss in 2004, as they won the championship that year.
Meanwhile in Portugal’s tie with France, Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 109th career goal for Portugal. That ties him with Ali Daei of Iran for the most international goals ever scored by a single player according to Ben Morse of CNN.
The round of 16 games will commence on Saturday. To begin the knockout round, Wales will play Denmark, and Italy will play Austria. On Sunday, the Netherlands will play the Czech Republic and Belgium will play Portugal. On Monday, France plays Switzerland, and Croatia plays Spain, and on Tuesday, England plays Germany, and Sweden plays Ukraine.
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