Euro 2024 daily recap: France can’t score without injured Mbappé, Poland first to be eliminated

Robert Lewandowski and Poland became the first team eliminated from Euro 2024 on Friday following its 3-1 loss to Austria. Its only hope of staying in the tournament was a Netherlands win, but France held them to a scoreless draw.

Here’s a recap of everything that happened on the eighth day of Euro 2024, with stats from FOX Sports Research: 

• Ukraine recorded the fourth comeback win of Euro 2024, which is already as many comeback wins as the group stage of Euro 2016 and Euro 2020.
• Ukraine’s second goal was the 50th goal of Euro 2024.
• Slovakia lost for just the fifth time in 20 matches under head coach Francesco Calzona, now 10-5-5 (W-L-D) under him.
• Ivan Schranz has scored in back-to-back games for Slovakia, giving him five career goals for the national team. Prior to the tournament, he had just three goals in 22 appearances. He and Jamal Musiala are the only players in the tournament with two goals.
• Leo Sauer became the youngest ever Slovakian player with an appearance at the Euros or World Cup at the age of 18 years and 188 days.

• Austria improved to 3-0-0 (W-L-D) all-time at the Euros when scoring first, and 2-3-1 (W-L-D) all-time when tied at half.
• All eight of Austria’s goals at the Euros have been scored by different players, excluding own goals, which is the most scored by a nation at the Euros without a player scoring more than once.
• Gernot Trauner’s 9th-minute goal was Austria’s fastest-ever scored at the Euros and its fastest at a major tournament since the 1954 World Cup, when it scored twice within the opening four minutes against Czechoslovakia. He is also the third-ever Feyenoord player to find the net at the Euros, and the first to ever do so for a non-Dutch country.
• Marcel Sabitzer made his ninth appearance at the Euros, the most by a player in Austria’s history.
• Marko Arnautovic and Christoph Baumgartner became the first Austrians to score in multiple editions of the Euros. Arnautovic is also the second-oldest goalscorer for Austria at a major tournament at 35 years and 63 days.
• Robert Lewandowski (35 years and 192 days old) became Poland’s oldest ever player at the Euros after coming on as a substitute in the 60th minute.
• Poland was eliminated as a result of France drawing with the Netherlands. Poland has not won a group stage match since the 2016 Euros, going 0-4-1 (W-L-D) in group stage games in the last two Euros tournaments.

• France remains winless without Kylian Mbappé in the starting lineup — 0-2-5 (W-L-D) in seven matches (all competitions).
• This was the first scoreless draw of the tournament, ending a 50-match streak of having a goal scored, the longest streak in Euros history. The Netherlands also recorded its first scoreless draw in the group stage of the Euros since 1996 (vs. Scotland).
• This was the fourth meeting between France and the Netherlands at the Euros, with France now 0-2-2 (W-L-D).
• Antoine Griezmann has now started each of France’s last 11 Euros games — only Ronaldo (18) and Kroos (13) are on a longer active run of starts.
• This was the first group stage start at a major tournament in which Cody Gakpo has not scored.

Best of the Day

Save of the Day: Mike Maignan, France

The Netherlands took 15 shots against France, including three on goal — nothing got past Mike Maignan, saving Les Bleus from dropping valuable points in the group stage.

Assist of the Day: Alexander Prass, Austria

Alexendra Prass completed all seven of his passes in Friday’s match, including this laser to Christoph Baumgartner, which allowed Baumgartner to split Poland’s back line for a clear shot on goal.

Goal of the Day: Roman Yaremchuk, Ukraine

Though not one of the jaw-dropping long-range attempts we’ve grown accustomed to at this year’s tournament, Roman Yaremchuk’s goal from point-blank range took just as much skill, if not more.

More Euro 2024 on FOX Sports:

---

---