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Portugal v Germany: What the stats say ahead Euro 2020 showdown

Portugal’s last victory against Germany was in the group stages of Euro 2000 – a 3-0 win, courtesy of a Sergio Conceição hat-trick, the last time Germany have conceded 3+ goals by the same player in a major tournament game. Since then, Germany have won their four meetings with Portugal, all at major tournaments (WC ‘06, Euro ‘08, Euro ‘12, WC ‘14).

This will be the fifth meeting between Portugal and Germany at the UEFA European Championship; only Italy and Spain have faced each other on more occasions in the tournament (6). It will also be the sixth encounter between the two teams at major tournaments since Euro 2000 (4 at Euro, 2 at World Cup), the most between two European nations over that period.

The last five matches between Portugal and Germany have produced 17 goals, an average of 3.4 per match. Four of those five games have witnessed 3+ goals.

Cristiano Ronaldo has never scored against Germany (4 games), despite attempting 23 shots in 360 minutes of action. Only against France has the Portuguese forward played more times (6 games) for the national team without finding the back of the net.

Thomas Müller’s only hat-trick with the German national team was against Portugal, in the group stages of the 2014 World Cup. However, Müller has never scored in 12 matches at the European Championship, attempting 27 shots without success.

Portugal have lost just two of their last 30 matches in all competitions (W19 D9), scoring 67 goals and conceding just 19 times across these matches. Having won 4-0 against Israel and 3-0 against Hungary in their last two matches, they are looking to win three games in a row without conceding for the first time since November 2017 (four in a row).

Germany have suffered three defeats in their last four group stage matches at major tournaments (EUROs + World Cup), as many as in their previous 24 group stage games (W16 D5). They haven’t suffered consecutive defeats in the group stage at a major tournament since losing to England and Portugal at EURO 2000.

Portugal are looking to become only the second reigning champions of the European Championships to win their first two matches of the tournament, after Spain at EURO 2016.

Read Also: Euro 2020: Southgate frustrated by shot-shy England

On MD1 of EURO 2020, German midfielder Toni Kroos was the only non-Spanish player to complete more than 100 passes (101). In the last three tournaments (EURO 2016, World Cup 2018, EURO 2020), there have been six instances of a Germany player completing 100+ passes in a game and all six have been Kroos.

In their 3-0 win over Hungary, Portugal’s record scorer Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player to appear at five different European Championships (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020), the outright top scorer in EUROs history (11 goals), the player with the most appearances at the EUROs and World Cup combined (39) and the oldest player to score 2+ goals in a EUROs game (36y 130d). He is now looking to equal Miroslav Klose as the record European scorer at the EUROs/World Cup combined: Klose scored 19 for Germany, while Ronaldo has 18 currently (level with Gerd Müller).

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