Top 5 discoveries of the European Championshipsto

Every major football tournament is full of bright discoveries and big disappointments. The current European Football Championship, which is currently taking place in Germany, is no exception. We tell you about the teams that surprised fans: both in a positive way and in a less positive way.

Georgia's best start

Euro 2024 is the first championship in the history of the Georgian national team. The team made it to the championship through the playoffs of the League of Nations, practically jumping on the last train: in the playoff final, the Georgians beat the Greek national team in a penalty shootout. Not much was expected from the team, considering that they had already jumped above their heads. The Georgians lost their first match at the Euro, and tied the second. In the third round, they needed to beat the favorite of the group, Portugal. The scenario that few believed in turned out to be reality - the Transcaucasian team made it to the 1/8 finals. The most worthy result for a debut.

The Austrian team won Group D

There was a sensation in Group D: Austria turned out to be the best team in the quartet. In the first match, the Austrians lost to the French with a minimal score – 0:1, and then won twice: first Poland (3:1), and then sensationally the Netherlands (3:2), almost leaving the “orange” outside the tournament. The red-whites scored six points, right behind them are the French with five, the Netherlands left the group in third place, they have four points. In the 1/8 finals, Austria will play Turkey.

Denmark is the only Scandinavian

It so happened that Denmark was the only Scandinavian country at this Euro. Close attention is focused on it. More precisely, on one of the national team players. In 2021, Christian Eriksen suffered cardiac arrest during a European Championship match. The footballer was saved, and since then he has been playing with a pacemaker. 1,100 days after that day, Eriksen scored at Euro 2024: in a match against the Slovenian national team. This goal partly helped the Danes advance from the group in second place: the Scandinavians ended all three games in a draw and, with equal points, were higher than the Slovenians on additional indicators. In the 1/8 finals, the Danish national team will play the hosts of the tournament, the German national team.

The Portuguese national team stumbled

Before the ill-fated match with Georgia, the Portuguese national team had not lost in official matches for almost two years. The last defeat – and a very painful one – suffered by the 2016 European champions at the World Cup in Qatar was against Morocco in the quarterfinals. The Portuguese qualified for the current Euro without any hitches and won the first two matches in the group. It is worth noting that the main legend of the national team, Cristiano Ronaldo, has not scored a goal yet. It is possible that the current Euro will be the last in the career of the 39-year-old striker. In the 1/8 finals, the Portuguese will play Slovenia.

The Croatian national team beat itself

98th minute of the Italy – Croatia match. The Balkan team needed only a win to get into the playoffs – and they almost got it. Luka Modric sends the ball behind Gianluigi Donnarumma in the 55th minute and almost hands the Croatians, who have not seen anything good at major tournaments since the World Cup in Russia, a place in the 1/8 finals on a silver platter. But oh, this “almost”… At the end of the last minute of added time, Mattia Zaccagni scores and deprives Croatia of advancing from the group even in third place. The Balkan team did not even make it into the top six third-placed teams. The Croatians have only two points and a poor goal difference. In the first match, they lost heavily to Spain (0:3) and were unable to bring the match against Albania to victory, conceding in the 95th minute (2:2). The "Checkers" became an excellent illustration of the fact that you shouldn't stop until the final whistle.