EURO 2024 technical report

From Spain's use of wingers to teams playing over the press, via the impact of long throws and scoring substitutes, there was no shortage of tactical and technical talking points at UEFA EURO 2024.

These have now been brought together in the official EURO 2024 tournament technical report, which goes live today.

The report is the product of the findings of UEFA's technical observer team for EURO 2024, which was led by Olivier Doglia, head of technical education and development, and comprised Aljoša Asanović, Rafael Benítez, Packie Bonner, Fabio Capello, Frank de Boer, Jean-François Domergue, Avram Grant, Aitor Karanka, Ioan Lupescu, David Moyes, Michael O'Neill and Ole Gunnar Solskjær.

These observers were present at every game, giving their input to help identify and explore the key trends that emerged over the course of the tournament. They worked together with the support of a team of 12 performance analysts, data analysts and data engineers based at UEFA's performance analysis hub in Nyon.

The end product is this report which is now shared with all national associations and clubs within the UEFA territory and is aimed at providing actionable insights for practitioners working across the game – be it in grassroots, youth or elite football.

Spain's wide variations

When Spain last won EURO, in 2012, wide attackers David Silva and Andrés Iniesta were effectively inside-forwards. This time their wingers Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams provided genuine width and impressed the observers from the group stage onwards. "He was a constant threat every time he had the ball and positive in every one-v-one situation," said Fabio Capello of Williams after the Matchday 2 win over Italy, and Spain's left-sided threat had a further dimension through Williams' partnership with full-back Marc Cucurella.

This image from the report shows how the pair attacked in tandem, often with an underlapping run from the left-back. In this particular action, Cucurella drew a defender with him, meaning Williams had only one man to beat when stepping inside to shoot against the crossbar.

As Aitor Karanka explained, this helped Spain vary their approach. "Sometimes Nico, being right-footed, will come inside and leave the wing to Cucurella, and other times it's the opposite as Cucurella will come inside and Nico stays wide," he said. As the report outlines it was not only Spain who profited from winger/full-back link-ups with João Cancelo and Nuno Mendes, for instance, playing key roles in Portugal's wide attacking variations.

Playing over the press

While UEFA's observers saw teams set up to build from the back from goal kicks, this did not necessarily entail an elaborate build-up from deep. Indeed, the average distance of the second pass across all goal kicks, short ones included, was 47.9m.

Technical observer Michael O'Neill gave the example of Slovakia playing over the press to good effect, citing their opening win over Belgium when he said: "The midfield players were very good at getting up on the next ball, while the strikers were key in getting hold of the ball when it came from deeper areas.

"Slovakia were playing a team that was more dominant in possession and they got their opportunities from good quick play, with good decisions from centre-backs not to play that extra pass to a full-back area, for example, where they might get pressed. Instead, they played straighter passes to where the advanced midfielders and centre-forward were ready to receive."

The long throw

At the end of the group stage, David Moyes wondered whether throw-ins were coming back into fashion. He was moved to comment by a group stage which included three goals from throw-ins – the first by Denmark in their opening fixture against Slovenia, and the next two from Slovakia against Ukraine and Czechia against Türkiye. And that was before England and Netherlands both scored following throw-ins in the round of 16. Austria's first goal against Poland also came after a throw-in but it was in the second phase of the attack so was not included.

As Moyes put it, the long throw can be "an easy way to get into the box and put the opposition under pressure" and it can be a significant weapon especially, he noted, for sides less blessed with sources of creativity from open play.

Subs make their mark

With his winning strike in the final, Spain's Mikel Oyarzabal provided a fitting finish to a tournament in which substitutes scored plenty of important goals. Indeed, Oyarzabal was one of eight players overall who stepped off the bench to win a match.

The first was Wout Weghorst, scoring just two minutes and 18 seconds after taking the field for Netherlands against Poland. The Dutch themselves fell victim to a 90th-minute semi-final strike by England's Ollie Watkins – following a pass by fellow replacement Cole Palmer, who himself would hit the target as a substitute in the final.

This was the second EURO with five permitted substitutes in regulation time and to further underline their impact, they provided all but one of the 12 goals scored in added time at the end of matches, the exception being Jude Bellingham's equaliser for England against Slovakia in the last 16.

With more players – notably wingers and strikers with fresh legs, as Rafa Benítez noted – able to come on now and make a difference, it is perhaps no surprise that the number of comeback wins climbed to ten, from the five in both 2016 and 2021.

Read the full technical report here.

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