Spinazzola and Sterling among standout players in Euro 2020 team of the tournament

UEFA named their team of the tournament following the conclusion of Euro 2020 on Sunday and Italy’s penalty shoot-out win over England at Wembley.

The UEFA team of technical observers (which included Robbie Keane and Packie Bonner) picked five Italy players, three English and one player each from Belgium, Denmark and Spain in the team. Named in a 4-3-3 formation the team in full is:

Gianluigi Donnarumma (Italy); Kyle Walker (England), Leonardo Bonucci (Italy), Harry Maguire (England), Leonardo Spinazzola (Italy); Jorginho (Italy), Pierre-Emile Højbjerg (Denmark), Pedri (Spain); Federico Chiesa (Italy), Romelu Lukaku (Belgium), Raheem Sterling (England).

UEFA had previously announced Gianluigi Donnarumma (see below) and Pedri as player and young player of the tournament respectively. 

Having a look through some of the statistics from the tournament (courtesy of Instat), we picked out a few key stats for some of the players in the team.

Although his tournament ended at the quarter-final stage due to a nasty Achilles injury, Leonardo Spinazzola made the team. The Italian stood out as a left-footed player deployed on the right – his stats show five dribbling attempts per game.

Raheem Sterling had the most dribbles in the tournament (with an average of seven per 90 minutes) and with 13 had the most chances of any English player. Jorginho made most tackles, earned the second most interceptions in the opposition half and was the most fouled player.

Holding in the team of the year is Denmark’s Pierre-Emile Hojberg. He also showed versality with his forward runs during the tournament. He racked up 14 shots during the tournament.

Gianluigi Donnarumma named EURO 2020 Player of the Tournament https://t.co/nMdJIWE9rIpic.twitter.com/5V4NQmvpLJ

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) July 12, 2021