Euro 2024 Golden Glove: Clean sheet standings and match odds for final
“No doubt offence sells the tickets, but defence wins championships,” as famed basketball coach Dave Thorson once said.
Once Euro 2024 concludes, the winning team will probably have the best defensive record. This will be evident in the number of clean sheets they have kept (matches in which they prevent the opposing team from scoring) and the fewest goals conceded.
Euro 2024 clean sheet prediction: Final – Spain vs England
We’re now at the final, and both teams have found clean sheets hard to come by in the knockout stages. Spain were the last to concede, finally seeing their net breached in the last 16 against Georgia. And even that was an own goal. But now La Roja have conceded in each of their knockout stage matches, also shipping a goal against Germany and France. But that’s all it was, one goal each.
Spain have been giving up some chances too. Across their six games at the tournament so far, Spain have averaged 1.21 Expected Goals Against, around the middle of the 24 teams to have entered Euro 2024. La Roja have also averaged 1.04 Expected Goals on Target Conceded, which places them in the top 10.
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Unai Simon has been the man in goal for Spain in five of their six matches, rested for their final group stage win over Albania. In that time, Simon has kept two clean sheets and made 13 saves.
It’s all the more impressive because he’s currently playing with a wrist injury that he’ll take care of once the championship ends.
“I can confirm I am going to undergo surgery after the Euros,” he said. “The time I’ll be sidelined… we will speak about it later.
“It’s something I haven’t given too much importance to. It does not keep me away from playing, I can train normally, it does not worry me. When we finish the Euros, hopefully on July 15, we’ll talk more about this.”
But he, nor any other goalkeeper, will be able to draw level with Mike Maignan who will finish the competition with the most clean sheets, keeping four in his six matches. England’s Jordan Pickford has also kept two clean sheets with 14 saves, though he has played more minutes than any goalkeeper at Euro 2024 with two of the Three Lions’ knockout stage matches lasting 120 minutes.
Although England have been under pressure at the back at times, they haven’t been conceding too many goalscoring opportunities. The Three Lions have the fifth-best xGA per game at Euro 2024 with 0.88, and it’s very close at the top. England do lead the way for xGOTC, averaging just 0.6, which means they are helped slightly by the finishing of their opponents.
