Spain and Germany, the great leaders of the Eurocup

Spain and Germany face off this Friday at the MHP Arena in Stuttgart for a place in the semi-finals of Euro 2024, a match that will pit the two teams that are playing the best football in the tournament and that dominate the main statistical sections of the tournament, both offensive and defensive.

Since the tournament kicked off on June 15 with a 5-1 win by the hosts over Scotland, two teams have stood out above the rest at Euro 2024: Germany and Spain. The ‘Mannschaft’ and ‘La Roja’ have been the main protagonists of a competition that is characterized by a stingy and unoffensive game by the ‘big favorites’.

With four matches played by all the teams that have reached the quarter-finals of the competition, Spain is the only team that has managed to win all its matches, while the German team is the second with the most victories (3), having only drawn one in the last day of the group stage against Switzerland (1-1). Results that have helped both teams to reach the penultimate round of the tournament with high morale.

In terms of attack, Spain and Germany are standing out far above the rest of their rivals. The host country reaches the quarter-finals as the team that has scored the most goals in the tournament with 10 goals, just one more than Spain, which is second in this particular statistical section with 9 goals. In addition, Germany and La Roja are, along with Switzerland, the only three teams still in the tournament that have managed to score in all the games they have played.

Two teams that have found the goal on their own merits. The quarter-final match will also see the two teams that attack and finish the most in the tournament face off. The Spanish team leads the list of teams that have attempted the most shots so far with 84, 13 more than the German team, which is third in this ranking. They are first and second respectively in the case of shots on target, with 29 for Spain and 28 for Germany.

These figures mean that Spain and Germany also lead the tournament table in terms of expected goals. In this section, ‘La Roja’ is the best in the competition with 8.9, followed by the four-time world champions with 7.8. These figures demonstrate the offensive capacity of both teams, as well as the commitment of Luis de la Fuente and Julian Nagelsmann to attacking football.

But Spain and Germany are not just dealing with attack at Euro 2024. Both are also the two best teams in the statistical sections relating to distribution. In the specific case of passing accuracy, the Germans are at the top of the table with 91.6% efficiency, while the Spanish are second with 90.5%. In addition, they are second and third, respectively, in percentage of ball possession with 65% and 59%.

Finally, despite being very offensive teams and protagonists with the ball, the defensive performance of Spain and Germany in the EURO has been outstanding. In the case of Spain, Luis de la Fuente’s team is the team that has conceded the fewest goals, only one goal, compared to the two conceded by Nagelsmann’s team. In addition, Spain is also the team with the most clean sheets (3), the same as France and one more than Germany (2).