This piece on the proliferation of own goals at Euros appeared in The Guardian on 4th July
When Jan Vertonghen deflected Randal Kolo Muani’s shot past Koen Casteels in the 85th minute of Belgium’s Last 16 match, he became the ninth player to register an own goal at Euros 2024. That was France’s third goal in four matches and it was the second own goal from which they have benefitted. After the Last 16 matches were completed, apart from own goals, the joint top scorers – Cody Gakpo, Georges Mikautadze, Jamal Musiala and Ivan Schranz – have three goals each. Indeed only one team have scored more goals collectively, the hosts Germany with ten.
In the last two tournaments there have been twenty own goals, which is a ratio of one every five matches. That is remarkable considering there were only nine in the first fifteen European Championships, between 1960 and 2016, a ratio of one in over thirty matches and none until the fifth tournament. It all started with Czechoslovakia’s captain Anton Ondruš who scored the first during the 1976 semi-final against the Dutch. Dubbed the ‘Beckenbauer of the East,’ Ondruš had already scored at the right end, putting the Czechs 1-0 up in the first half before slicing into his own net with a wild hack at the near post that flew past Ivo Viktor with only seventeen minutes remaining – https://bit.ly/3RTotI5. The Czechs went on to beat the Netherlands 3-1 after extra time before Ondruš lifted the trophy after defeating the West Germans in the Final courtesy of Antonin Panenka’s famed spot kick.
There was a gap of twenty years before the second own goal, which arrived at St. James Park as the Bulgarian Number 9 Lyuboslav Penev diverted a Youri Djorkaeff free-kick into his own net. Although there were fewer matches in the early years, this does not explain the massive divergence in numbers between the two most recent tournaments and those that preceded them, so what has happened?
The awarding of own goals used to be the responsibility of the referee and in March 2008, a Uefa committee addressed the issue as the then president Michel Platini commented: “There has been a lot of debate over deflected goals and whether they should be awarded to the player who originally shot at goal or the player who got the last touch. We want to clear the issue up and have the same rules at every match.”
Platini said referees would be told to award a goal to the player who intended to score, provided the ball was already heading towards the net when the deflection occurred. Off-target shots diverted into the net would be attributed to the player who deflects the ball. Platini acknowledged the guidelines were already being observed informally by most referees but it would be formally “codified” immediately for all matches it organised, including the European Championships. Since then Uefa also decided it was time to take charge themselves and relieved match officials of the burden of apportioning blame.
If there has been a swing towards awarding own goals more readily recently then the last two World Cups would reflect this increase, but again this is not the case. Although the 2018 World Cup did have twelve, which is twice as much as the previous record set in France in 1998, at the 2022 tournament there were only two in the 64 matches played. With fourteen out of a total of 54 own goals, the two most recent tournaments have produced just over a quarter whereas the last two Euros, with seven matches remaining, have already produced 69% of the overall total.
In searching for some sort of rationale about the exponential increase Opta checked the notion that there might have been more crosses in the 2020 and 2024 Euros, but that did not stack up. With an average of 32.1 crosses per game at Euro 2020 and 33.8 at Euro 2024 (as of the end of the Group stage), the lowest average at a Euros before these two most recent tournaments, since records began in 1980, was 38.4. The lack of crosses might be linked to the increasing usage of inverted wingers, who are more likely to cut inside and shoot than cross from out wide. But if that was the case there would have been more own goals in the Premier League and although there were a joint record number of 49 in 2023/24 season, the previous record was set in 2013/14 long before the concept of inverted wingers existed.
Looking for logical explanation as to why own goals have become so prevalent, maybe it’s the way teams are setting up that leads to more deflections, which have been responsible for eight of the nine that have come from close-range shots in crowded boxes. The recent trend of sitting back to hit the opposition on the counterattack has encouraged teams to defend deeper, in low blocks, with two prime examples of the sheer number of players leading to accidental rebounds. When Calafiori knocked it into his own net against Spain there were ten Italians in the penalty area, similarly with Vertonghen’s there were eight Belgians in the box.
Some point to the change in approach to goalkeeping as they are expected to play out with their feet so have to include ball passing ability to their attributes rather than shot stopping. But again none of the own goals have arisen from a keeper being too adventurous or misplacing a pass.
Maybe it is down to sheer misfortune and there are two occasions, both in the last tournament, when luck was in short supply. Against Germany, Cristiano Ronaldo had opened the scoring for Portugal in the 15th minute only for first Ruben Dias then Raphael Guerreiro to give Germany the lead with a quickfire double in the space of a few minutes. Not to be outdone, and only four days later, Slovakia scored a pair of own goals in a 5-0 thrashing by Spain, with the first a particularly tragic-comic effort. Newcastle keeper Martin Dubravka, who was attempting to push the ball over the crossbar after Pablo Sarabia’s shot had cannoned off it, only managed to palm the ball over his own goal-line. Teammate Juraj Kucka joined in the fun by finishing off the scoring in the 71st minute when he allowed a Dubravka save to rebound off his knee from a yard, prompting Ally McCoist, with no sense of exaggeration, to brand the Slovakians as “appalling”. Unsurprisingly after these double disasters, Portugal and Slovakia hold the joint record for most own goals at the Euros, with three each.
Spain themselves were not averse to their own calamity at this Euros when in their next match against Croatia in the Last 16, the supremely gifted Pedri opened the scoring with a well struck back pass from just inside his own half that Unai Simon somehow missed completely as it passed him by on the way into the net. Simon’s culpability did not remove Pedri’s name from the scoresheet but at least the Spaniards did win what was one of the best matches of the tournament 5-3.
In a similar vein to Pedri’s the most spectacular own goal of Euros 2024 so far came with an almighty mix-up over a back pass. Turkish defender Semet Akaydin was not on the same wavelength as his keeper Ugurcan Cakir, stroking the ball firmly without checking Cakir’s positioning and the ball rolled over the line despite desperate attempts to haul it back. “There was a misunderstanding,” Turkish manager Vincenzo Montella said. “Sometimes it happens, and unfortunately today it happened to us. Next time it may be our opponents.” Bearing in mind the sheer volume of own goals that next misunderstanding may not be too far away.
IT STARTED WITH A KICK – David Squires
This week’s episode features the one and only David Squires who went to Swindon Town’s County Ground for the first time in 1984. Key memories include being ejected from the VIP seats, a man pissing in a sink, some graffiti, a massive Rolex clock.
Part 1 – https://bit.ly/3XMM4hn
Part 2 – https://bit.ly/3RV0KaF
The Football Mine 