Group stage of Euro 2021 done - so who will become the top scorer?
As the group stage of the European Championship 2021 (2020) is completed, we go through the current standing and the conditions for who will become the top scorer here.The leader of the top scorer list in the Euro 2021
Two new penalty goals from Cristiano Ronaldo in Portugal's 2-2 match against France means that Ronaldo is now up to 5 goals scored and has a two goal lead to a handful of players with 3 goals scored. With the result in the final round, Portugal also advanced to the round of 16 where they now are facing Belgium.It is notable, of course, that Ronaldo has now scored staggering 109 goals in the national team, which means that he has scored the most national team goals of all time, together with the Iranian Ali Daei. However, Ali Daei scored 109 goals in 149 matches and Ronaldo needed 178 matches, so technically it can be said that Ronaldo is still second in the list, which will be an extra carrot for him to score at least one more goal.
Now a very tough opposition awaits in the round of 16 against Belgium and it is not certain that Portugal will pull through. That Ronaldo scores in the match is hardly unlikely though, and even if he does not, it is still quite possible that he will win top scoerer title with his 5 goals anyway, possibly shared with someone else. So our original prediction beofre the tournament started have a very good chances of winning, and we still believe that he does.
Contenders with three goals scored
We have five players who have scored three goals and are chasing Ronaldo. Robert Lewandowski is one of them but his Poland are knocked out so he is out of the race.The big challenger is of course Belgium's Romelu Lukaku who scored a goal against Finland in the final round. The fact that Belgium will face Portugal in the quarterfinals makes the situation interesting. If Belgium beat Portugal, Lukaku has great chances of catching up with Ronaldo and maybe even passing him, but if Portugal wins, the battle for the top scorer title might very well be over. Belgium has at times played brilliant and is one of the favorites to win the European Championships, but keep in mind that when Portugal won the European Championships 5 years ago they didn't played well in the group stage but then got better and better the longer the tournament lasted. Something they of course hope to repeat.
Other candidates then? Holland's Georginio Wijnaldum is one of the players who has scored three goals and they have "easy" opposition in the form of the Czech Republic in the round of 16, and then (probably) meet the winner between Wales and Denmark. This relatively simple game schedule means that Wijnaldum should not be excluded as a candidate.
The other serious candidate is Sweden's Emil Forsberg. He has shown great form and Sweden has Ukraine in the round of 16 which Sweden should be able to beat. Ukraine have also not been too brilliant defensivly in this tournament. But since Forsberg is an offensive midfielder and not a natural forward, we do not see him as a really dangerous candidate to threaten Ronaldo in the end.
The last three-goal scorer is Czech Patrik Schick. Our prediction is that they will knocked out by Holland, and do not think he is seriously involved in the battle of becoming the best goal scorer in Euro 2021.
Can anyone else challenge for the title?
There are some two-goal scorers we think seriously have a chance to catch up with Ronaldo and these are Italy's Ciro Immobile, Holland's Memphis Depay and France's Karim Benzema. All of these play in teams that our facing relatively weak opposition in the round of 16 and thus should have at least two games left to play and good chances to score a couple or few more goals.And then there is of course the possibility that anyone else really "explodes" and scores a hat trick, and thus takes a big jump closer to Ronaldo in the top. Possible but less likely...
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