Analysis

When you look at the Chile national team, one player might appear out of place. Ben Brereton is not your usual Chilean; he doesn’t even speak Spanish, the primary language spoken by the rest of the team. The English-Chilean forward had played with England's U19 and U20 national teams for almost five years before switching to Chile's squad this year for the Copa América.

When I first heard UEFA's plans to not have just one host city for Euro 2020, I was intrigued and pleasantly surprised.

The idea makes sense. Spread fans out across eleven host cities, which prevents hundreds of thousands of supporters descending on one particular country or city. It mitigates the COVID-19 risks (not something that was on the minds of organizers in 2020, but is beneficial in 2021) and helps the many host countries and cities financially without giving too much home field advantage to one country — at least in theory.

If it seems like there have been a lot of own goals during Euro 2020, it's because they have been occurring at a rate unlike anything seen at an international tournament before.

The first European Championship was contested in 1960, and in the 15 tournaments up to now, there have been nine own goals. Through the first 41 matches at this summer's European Championship there have been nine own goals. 

Euro 1960-2016: 9 own goals
Euro 2020: 9 own goals

Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne go together in Belgium's attack like peanut butter and jelly coming together to make the most timeless of sandwiches. They've built their impressive careers at separate clubs, but when they come together with Belgium there's little opponents can do to stop them. Having so much success between them, the two obviously had to create a celebratory handshake to go with it.