Reign for England? What Statistics Tell Us about Euro 2020’s Semifinalist?

Arguably England joined the Euro 2020 as one of the favorites, along with Spain, Germany, Portugal, and Italy. While most of the top contenders could not survive, the English team is still holding it tightly. Finally, they are in the semi-final after 25 years.

England will host Denmark at Wembley today. The last match between England and Denmark was also played at this ground in which Christian Eriksen led the team to win the match on penalties on October 14 last year. But, Eriksen will miss the Euro semi-final today. The team should have the inspiration from him to achieve another victory and lead Denmark to the Euro finals again after 29 years. There is a lot of speculation going on about today’s game and circulating only one question that matters: who is likely to win after ending all the spec? To guess the best chance possible, go to this website for the job with live game analysis and future prognosis. You can also pick your own team of the tournament by using this interactive Euro 2020 squad builder.

Coach Gareth Southgate still feels the aches of a semi-final defeat to Germany at the 1998 Euros at Wembley. Hence, it is obvious that this time they do not want another semi-final defeat. England, who have been playing power football since the knockout stage, became the top contender for Euro 2020. Will they be able to bring it to HOME?

England at Euro 2020

Let’s start off with a brief overview of England at Euro 2020. The team kept three clean sheets out of their three games, in the group stage. Alternatively, they only netted two games that marked them as the low-scoring group winner in the Euro 2020, even in the history. Considering their performance in group D, it is evident that England showed a poor performance.

This year it appears that England has a faultless defense, which they had last time in Euro 1966. On the other hand, the team is not very powerful in attacks. A major part Englishmen face a problem in the attacks which is to progress the ball up the pitch. But they managed to get over the initial round.

Nevertheless, England got power when they advanced to the round of 16. Neither team scored in the first half of the match between England and Germany. However, England changed the momentum in the last quarter of the second half. The most important thing was that Englishmen were able to put a lot of pressure on Germans. Hence, the soccer world has seen a new England.

Now, let’s see the quarterfinal performance. England finally gave the performance that the whole soccer world was waiting for years. The team became even more destructive when they met Ukraine in Rome. A 4-0 victory ultimately proved them emerging as a giant. The quarterfinal win confirmed England’s fifth consecutive clean sheet performance.

Now they are at the semi-final.

What is England’s Strength Against Denmark?

From the beginning of the tournament, the team has shown their defensive style of playing that ensured that they came to the Euro with a heavy defensive lineup. As we have mentioned earlier, they emerged big in the round of 16 and quarterfinal. The inclusion of Jadon Sancho in their attacking midfield added a new dimension, and we have already seen the outcome.

Furthermore, Raheem Sterling’s last performance will add a huge strength to the team. Then, they have Harry Kane, who is having the greatest form of his football career. Aside from these players, England has started the Euro with the youths. Therefore, the energetic young players are the prime source of England’s energy. 

Weakness, Southgate might be Thinking

Gareth Southgate had a horrible experience at the Euros. He will never forget the dark memory of the Euro 96 semi-final where he missed the penalty against Germany in the semi-final. Southgate is again in the Euro semi-final, but this time as a coach. Apparently, he feels the pressure more than ever.

We bring out Southgate, because, the performance will depend on his team selection against Denmark. With all the availability of the firepower, the coach opts for a pragmatic approach in the last matches. However, it worked out well by the book, but strategically it might go wrong. The team faced major criticism when they failed to win the 2018 World Cup semi-final due to proper team management. Therefore, the proper game plan is what we think England might lack of.

Furthermore, England was unable to control the ball in the last matches. Among the four semifinalists, they had the least possession by 53% while the opponent Denmark has had 54%. Although, this is a close number, but England might lose the momentum if they cannot possess the ball most of the time in 90 minutes.

They have had only 37 goal attempts up to the quarterfinal, which is the lowest compared to the other four teams. On the bright side, this is good that England can make winning shots. But defensive playing may backfire them, if they concede any goals.

History of England at Euro

Now that England made it to the semi-final let’s see what the statistics say.

England appeared in the Euro 10 times, but the best result came in 1968 and 1996 when they reached the semi-final. Perhaps you can also add Euro 2020 to their best outcome list. In their 10 appearances, they played 36 games, won 14 of them, lost 10, and drew 12 games. In the last 60+ years, Englishmen passed the Knockout stage three times in total out of 9 knockout plays.

The team achieved their biggest Euro win against Ukraine in the 2021 quarterfinal. They scored four goals one more time in 1996 against the Netherlands. Another biggest victory was a 3-0 win against Switzerland in the 2004 Euro.

Nevertheless, the fans had seen two of the worst performances in the 1988 Euro when the team lost against the Netherlands and the Soviet Union. They lost by 1-3 goals in both games.

England vs Denmark: What the Stats Say?

They met 21 times previously, in which England won 12 matches, and Denmark won only 4 while 5 games were a draw. Among those appearances, England scored 25 goals against Denmark’s 13 goals. When it comes to the FIFA ranking, England is at the 4th; on the other hand, Denmark is at the 10th.

However, most recently, Denmark won a Nations League game against England and Drew the other one. So, the statistics give us a mixed result. As per overall England vs Denmark head-to-head history England are ahead of the opponent. If we consider last year’s performance, Denmark has a good possibility. But, the game is now at the big competition. Hence stats might go wrong as well.

Is it Coming Home?

After the 1986 World Cup, England will have another chance to play in the final at Wembley. They reached the semi-final final by beating Croatia in the group stage, Germany in the last 16, and Ukraine in the quarterfinals. Thus, it can be said that Englishmen are more confident than ever. Further, they found inspiration from 2018’s World Cup semi-final loss and the team is in good condition than the last World Cup.

So, we couldn’t have wished for better, “Football’s coming home again.”