In a pulsating match between “Les Bleus” of France and “La Roja” of Spain spectators witnessed Spain book their spot in the final of the Euro 2024 continental showpiece.

France took an early lead through Randal Kolo Muani in the 9^th minute. Spain then struck twice in 5 minutes, first in the 21^st through the sensational 16-year-old Lamine Yamal and the second from the ever-industrious Dani Olmo in the 25^th. Spain turned the game on its head and held out through the nail-biting spectacle regardless of the late charge from the French to try to regain parity.

The Spaniards will now face England in the final, in a repeat of the 2018 UEFA Nations League Group A spectacle that England won 3-2.

Using event data from SICS from this game, we have chosen specific KPIs for each position – which we then weighted according to each metric’s importance. Here it is important to note that the metrics were chosen using subjective views.

This then created a unique score for each player in the following categories:

Goalkeeping Score
Defender Score
Full Back Score
Defensive Midfielder Score
Playmaker Score
Winger Score
Striker Score

The following players emerged as the best-scoring players for each position.

This accurately reflects the outcome of the game, with the majority of players coming from Spain, but still includes France’s best performers in what was arguably their best performances in this competition. Goal scorers Muani, Yamal, Olmo are all included – as well as Spain’s defenders and GK which helped their team seal the win and go through to the next round.

In addition, we also created the shot map below. This shows the position and outcome of each shot for both teams.

The insight that comes from this map is Spain’s clinical nature in front of goal, as their only shots that went on target ended up in the back of the net. It is also clear that all threats for Spain came through the middle to right hand side where Yamal was playing.

On that note, whilst France had almost double the chances that Spain had – their only goal came from their first shot, within the six-yard box. This highlights the lack of composure and poor finishing by the French players in front of goal – which was evident throughout the whole tournament.