What’s with all the long-range screamers at this year’s Euros?
‘The Turkish Messi’ Arda Guler’s wonder goal against Georgia and Czech Republic’s Lukas Provod’s strike lit up Tuesday’s action – and there have been a whopping 11 goals from outside of the penalty area in the opening round of 12 group games.
For context, there wasn’t a single goal from outside of the box at the 2022 Qatar World Cup until the 17th game – Iran’s 2-0 win v Wales.
We haven’t landed on an explanation yet – is it just a freak trend, goalkeeping errors, the ball? So here are the stats, enjoy the strikes, and decide on your own analysis…
With 11 out of the 34 goals before Wednesday’s fixtures being scored from long range, that ratio of 32.4% is way above the norm for any previous Euros – but let’s see if that levels out after the group stage and the full tournament.
The shots from outside the box ratio from the opening round of group games (39.2%) is actually pretty ordinary and is below the overall figure of every other previous Euros except Euro 2020.
And looking at the most recent men’s major tournament, the World Cup 2022, only 12 of the 172 goals scored in Qatar were from outside the penalty area – that’s 7%.
There were none in the opening round of 16 group games, despite a similar level of long-range shots.
Brentford boss Thomas Frank, working as a pundit for BBC Sport, spoke about long-range goals after Romania scored two against Ukraine, albeit both aided by goalkeeping errors.
“In general 80-85% of goals are scored inside the box…I think (shots from outside the box) it is definitely reducing but if you have a good opportunity, balance and have the technique then you have to finish.”
BBC pundit Danny Murphy added: “I think certain players are very good at it and have wonderful technique so you would encourage them to be free and play what they see.
“In the Premier League the gap between the top teams and lower teams is bigger than it has ever been, so you get more teams sitting off and condensing the space so there is no room to shoot from long distance.”
