Generally, own goals are a stroke of misfortune rather than an individual error, but it doesn’t make it less unpleasant for those who do actually have placed the ball inside their team’s net. The ongoing Euro 2020 has seen several players scoring their own goals, with Pedri and Unai Simon risking it all for Spain as the most recent example.
In the eight-goal Spain vs Croatiablockbuster, Barcelona midfielderPedri placed the ball in his net, markingthe ninth own goal of the championship, which is equal to all other editions. This was the farthest goal in the European Championships and the first one to happen outside the box.
The first exchange was predominating with La Furia Roja as Pedri was playing an apparently harmless pass back to his goalie, under the pressure of the Croatian players. The goalkeeperUnai Simon, though, barely touched the ball and saw it dribble into his own net hopelessly. That was Simon’s slip-up since, by all means, the goalie should have comfortably sent the pass up front.
Euro 2020: List by year of past UEFA European Championship own goals
So far, after the end of the Euro 2020 Round of 16,there have been as many own goals as in all the previous UEFA Euro tournaments (9).The very first player to get this unpleasant “award” wasMerih Demiral who netted his own net against Italy, only for Portugal to reach the list with two players in a single game. Both Ruben Dias and Raphael Guerreiro scored own goals in the 4-2 defeat to Germany.
Next was Mats Hummels, whoseown goal was the difference in his side’s1-0 loss to current World Cup championsFrance, while both Poland’s Wojciech Szczesny and Finland’s LukaHradecky were incredibly lucklessas the ball hit them prior to finding its way into the goal.
Slovakia then made sure to get the number up to eight own goalsat Euro 2020, with goalkeeper Martin Dubravka, who produced an utter gaffe,and midfielder Juraj Kucka both assisting Spain in their 5-0 hammering by La Roja. The ninth and most recent faux pas is the work of the Spanish duo Pedri and Unai Simon.Let’s take a look at the previous UEFA European Championship’s own goals by year.
| Year | Player and Team | Total own goals |
| 2016 | Ciaran Clark (Republic of Ireland),Birkir Mar Saevarsson (Iceland),Gareth McAuley (Northern Ireland) | 3 |
| 2012 | Glen Johnson (England) | 1 |
| 2008 | / | 0 |
| 2004 | Igor Tudor (Croatia),Jorge Andrade (Portugal) | 2 |
| 2000 | Dejan Govedarica (FR Yugoslavia) | 1 |
| 1996 | Lyuboslav Penev (Bulgaria) | 1 |
| 1992 | / | 0 |
| 1988 | / | 0 |
| 1984 | / | 0 |
| 1980 | / | 0 |
| 1976 | Anton Ondrus (Czechoslovakia) | 1 |