We’ve officially entered the belly of the beast and are now just days away from the Euro 2024 Round of 16. This edition of the European Championship has boasted some of the most memorable moments in the football world this year. Fortunately, we’re spoiled with plenty more football until a nation is crowned the kings of Europe.
On the other hand, the tournament has also robbed us of Euro 2024 highlights caused by disallowed goals and even blessed us with a blooper reel of own goals. At the time of writing, there are already nine disallowed goals and seven own goals in the ongoing tournament.
In this SBOTOP feature, we’ll take a look back at the lowlights of the 2024 European Championship, focusing on the disallowed goals and the own goals thus far.
Finding the back of the wrong net
A whopping 63 percent of the own goals in the European Championship’s history were scored during the 2020 edition of the tournament and the ongoing competition in 2024. A total of just 20 own goals had been scored since the tournament began in 1960, and 11 of them came in the last edition in 2021. However, that record might be under threat, as the 2024 edition already has seven recorded own goals, and we’re still in the group stages!
Matchday 1 saw three own goals, courtesy of Germany’s Antonio Rudiger during their 5-1 thrashing of Scotland, Austria’s Maximilian Wöber, who scored the only goal during their opening match, bailing out France with a 0-1 scoreline, and Czechia’s Robin Hranac, who was instrumental to Portugal’s 2-1 win.
It was more of the same in the next round, where Matchday 2 also saw three own goals. This time, it was Albania’s Klaus Gjasula during their 2-2 draw against the already-eliminated Croatia, Italy’s Riccardo Calafiori, who bailed out a tepid Spain squad with a 1-0 win, and Turkish centre-back Samet Akayudin, who thought scoring an own goal while down 0-2 to Portugal was a good idea.
There’s still a couple of matches left to be played on Matchday 3. Still, it has already collected an OG from Dutch forward Donyell Malen, who virtually gave Austria a 2-3 win despite being the Euro 2024 odds underdogs.
VAR: The final boss
Aside from own goals, another scourge of the current European Championships, or football entirely, for that matter, is disallowed goals. Disallowed goals might not be as blatant as own goals, but they still tremendously affect the match’s outcome in terms of morale and team spirit.
No other player has been a victim of disallowed goals in this tournament than Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku. Belgium are currently in a group-wide tie with three points, but they’re sitting in the second spot due to goal difference.
However, the Belgians could have already secured their spot in the knockouts if only Romelu Lukaku’s goals hadn’t been disallowed. During their opening 0-1 loss to Slovakia, Lukaku found the back of the net not once but twice, which was more than enough to secure the victory and the much-needed three points. But to the dismay of Belgian fans, both Lukaku’s goals were disallowed after VAR checks.
Out for vengeance, the Roma forward continued his relentless attack during their clash against Romania. Once again, he found the back of the net, and once again, it was disallowed after a VAR spotted him offside.
The emotional rollercoaster that the Belgium striker perpetually experiences in the 2024 Euro has crept up to him and has messed with his psyche. “He would have liked to have the goals because, now when he scores, I think he’s scared to celebrate,” Belgian teammate Jérémy Doku said.
“He didn’t have a lot of luck, but he’s happy. He’s happy because we won our last game. Of course, as a striker, he always wants to score, and of course, when you think of your individual stats, it’s normal. But he’s happy with the impact that he’s having on our team and the chances he’s creating.”
Other notable disallowed goals in the tournament thus far are Xavi Simons’ goal against France, Robert Andrich’s sweeper against Switzerland, and Adam Hlozek’s stunner against Georgia.
I’ve already discussed the technological advancements of VAR earlier this year, but it seems that UEFA still has a lot of things to figure out, given the amount of backlash these disallowed goals are getting.
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