The statistics count six own goals at this European Championship. Almost every tenth goal goes into your own goal. Lately, this has been happening more and more often on average.
Own goals are scored unusually often at this European Championship, here in Türkiye’s match against Portugal Photo: Michael Probst/AP
The dpa news agency, the Turkish newspaper, writes about a ‘slapstick’ goal Hurry finds the hit “unfortunate”. Turkish defender Samet Akaydin scored a sparkling own goal in the first half in the match against Portugal (0-3), almost unchallenged as he passed the goal past the goalkeeper and into the empty penalty area. Akaydin continued a trend at this European Championship: six own goals were scored in the first 24 games. If this continues, there could be 13 own goals at the end of the tournament, i.e. after all 51 European Championship matches: that would be a new record for major events. Twelve own goals were scored at the World Cup in Russia in 2018, eleven at the last European Championship. Only at the World Cup in Qatar were defenses on edge: only two own goals were scored.
As the game has become faster and more physical and crosses rush into the penalty area with great force, defenders are generally always in danger of botching their defensive moves and maneuvering the ball into their own net. This year we have that Antonio Rudiger finished, the Austrian Maximilian WöberRobin Hranac (Czech Republic), Klaus Gjasula (Albania) and the Italian Riccardo Calafiori.
And then: In the match between Scotland and Switzerland (1:1), Fabian Schär deflected a shot from Scott McTominay into his own goal. The continental association UEFA later attributed the second-half goal to McTominay. In addition to self-harming behavior, another trend is noticeable at this European Championship: long-distance goals. According to UEFA’s official statistics, 14 of the 47 goals in the first 18 games were scored from distance.
A possible explanation: Because merging in the penalty area becomes more and more complicated and time-consuming, you simply shoot from 20 meters. This is a proven method, because nowadays there are so many midfielders with excellent shooting technique the Turkish super talent Arda Güler or Swiss veteran Xherdan Shaqiri. But back to the players who score goals themselves or create their own goals, as they say in Switzerland and Austria.
9.8 percent own goals
Every tenth goal at the European Championship is an own goal: 9.8 percent. This value is also higher than at the 2021 European Championships (7.7 percent); the share of own goals at major football events is three to four percent, although there has been a noticeable increase in values in recent years. At the 1994 World Cup there was only one own goal per 52 goals, but that is now much more often the case, which is certainly due to the attacking attitude of most European Championship participants: there is no mistake, no ‘feeling and banter’, no, that success is sought very directly.
And so the EM stories about the game are often about the tragic hero who makes a mistake in an attempt to prevent the worst. In the Bundesliga, Manfred Kaltz is a minor celebrity with his six own goals in his career, and the match between AS Adema and SOE Antananarivo in Madagascar’s premier league in 2002 was also excellent. The match ended 149-0. All goals were own goals. In protest against a referee’s decision, Antananarivo went into overdrive. The match between Barbados and Granada in the context of the Caribbean Cup in 1994 was also curious: due to a bizarre golden goal rule, it was sometimes in the interest of both teams to score an own goal. Furthermore, in one phase of the match a team had to defend both goals in order to prevent both goals and own goals from the opponent. The Guardian called the game “one of the strangest football matches of all time.”
In the past, goal scorers had to endure a lot of malice and ridicule, but today they have to endure compilations of their mistakes on YouTube. The compilations are clicked en masse, because even today it applies: schadenfreude is the best joy.
Own goal scorers are great entertainers whose faux pas become increasingly valuable over time. Poor Samet Akaydin probably only realizes this dimension later.