Euro 2020 – trends after the first round
The first round matches ended today early morning with the pulsating France vs Germany match. While some upsets have been created, one thing that we can all agree is that almost all the teams played positive football trying to earn three points, instead of all defense and trying to salvage just one point. Exception to that observation was there, but at least 80% matches had a positive feeling.
Let’s now look at some of the trends after the first round – trends surrounding different parameters apart from actual goals scored and matches won, which no doubt, are the most crucial ones – but that’s already known by everyone.
Team Performances
Today’s football is full of technicalities and hence, it’s very important to evaluate on technical parameters. Based on Opta data feed on various parameters, here are the top 3 – which, though early, can indicate how long the teams can run through the tournament 
Accurate passing often dictates the pace and control of the match, but not necessarily the goals scored. However, the expected goals comes through possession in most of the games 
While possession can sometimes indicate the final outcome of the match, but modern football does not signify the same. 
One more associated parameter is possession won in the final third as that can turn into quick attacks 
One of the modern day football parameter is the Expected Goals (xG). This indicates the probability of the number of goals expected from the team 
While xG indicates the positivity part, the expected goals conceded indicates the opportunity loss, which if converted, could actually work wonders for the teams
Individual ratings
No wonder CR7 is one of the greatest in the game ever 
Though this does not indicate much with just one match data, in future, it can mean whom needs to be marked in a game properly 
Passing accuracy is an indication of the attack probability and retaining the overall control of the game. No surprise that it’s Spain all over 
Kimmich and Georginio are the two key players of their respective teams 
Again it’s CR7 ! 
If some of these could have converted, it would have been a different story for these teams so far
