IFFHS CONTINENTAL NEWS - EURO QUALIFIERS
Picture : Gylfi Sigurðsson, after his brace vs Liechtenstein (4-0) on 16 October, became the new all-time best goal-scorer of Iceland with 27 goals. He surpassed Eiður Guðjohnsen and Kolbeinn Sigþórsson who jointly topped the national ranking with 26 before.
Statistics on Euro 2024 qualifiers of 12-17 October
*Italy have lost on 17 October an away Euro qualifier (1-3 vs England) for the first time since September 2006 (1-3 vs France).
“Scuadra Azzurra” have broken their series of 22 consecutive positive results as visitors (17 wins 5 draws).
*Harry Kane’s brace in the game made him England’s all-time top scorer at Wembley (24 goals) surpassing Bobby Charlton with 23.
*Baktiyar Zaynutdinov, after his brace vs Finland (2-1) on 17 October, became the new all-time best goal-scorer of Kazakhstan with 14 goals. Ruslan Baltiev (13) was the former record holder.
*Gerson Rodrigues is another player to have established the new goal-scoring record for his country (Luxembourg) during the October session.
The goal vs Iceland (1-1) on 13 October was his 17th.
The former record (16) stood almost 80 years; it’s holder was Léon Mart who played between 1933 and 1945.
*Erling Haaland has not yet reached the national record but is quickly approaching him. No doubts, he beat it already next year, though this record is also very old. Jørgen Juve holds it with 33 goals since 1937 when he finished his career in Norway national team.
Haaland increased his tally to 27 goals after a brace vs Cyprus (4-0) on 12 October. He came in 2nd place in the all-time ranking surpassing Einar Gundersen (26).
*Cristiano Ronaldo made the braces in both Portugal qualifiers at this session, vs Slovakia (3-2) on 13 October and vs Bosnia and Herzegovina (5-0) on 16 October. They were 153th and 154th braces in his career.
He is still behind Lionel Messi who has 156 braces. However, on the number of matches with 2+ goals, CR7 is ahead of Messi (217 against 213).
*With such a prolific October international session, Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player in the world to reach 40 goals in 2023 and surpassed Haaland and Varga (both 39) on top of the world’s goal-scoring ranking.
By the way, last time CR7 won this competition for goal-scorers in 2015.
*Portugal's astonishing 5-0 lead after the first 45 minutes vs Bosnia and Herzegovina is the biggest half-time victory in their 102-year history as a national team.
*Kylian Mbappé kept up with other big scorers and made his brace vs Netherlands (2-1) on 13 October. He surpassed Michel Platini in the historical ranking of France national team (43 against 41) but has yet two players ahead on his spurt to the record (Giroud 54, Henry 51).
Notably, Netherlands became the team most suffering from Mbappé (6 goals). The next are Argentina (5) and Kazakhstan (4).
*Croatia have suffered (0-1 vs Turkey on 12 October) their first ever home defeat in European Championship qualifying matches. Of the previous 37 such games, they won 28 and tied 9.
*Jesús Navas became in the game vs Scotland (2-0) on 12 October the Spain’s oldest ever (37 years 325 days) assistant.
He surpassed Aritz Aduriz who gave an assist at the age of 35 years 111 days in a friendly on 1 June 2016 against South Korea.
*Gavi has scored his 5th goals for Spain (vs Norway 1-0 on 15 October) becoming the youngest player (19 years 71 days) to reach 5 goals.
He surpassed the record of Juan Errazquin who scored his fifth goal for “La Roja” on 19 December 1926 at the age of 20 years 180 days.
Gavi is the first ever player to score 5 goals for Spain before turning 20 years. Juan Errazquin and Julen Guerrero managed to score 4 each before this age mark.
*Bryan Zaragoza who debuted vs Scotland, became Spain’s shortest (164 cm) player since Enrique Lora who featured between 1970 and 1972 being just 162 cm tall.
*Alessandro Golinucci's goal vs Denmark (1-2) on 17 October ended a streak of 16 consecutive non-friendly matches without scoring for San Marino. The drought began after a goal by Nicola Nanni against Poland on 5 September 2021. Between both goals, San Marino's partial score against their rivals was 0-65.
*Simon Kjær has played his 130th match for Denmark, surpassing Peter Schmeichel (129) to become the player with the most games in the history of his national team.