Second round of the European Championship played - top scorers review
After the first round of Euro 2021 we had three two-goal scorers sharing the top scorer lead, here we go through the top scorers after the second round is played.The top scorer leaders after two rounds
That we were gonna have any of our two-goal scorers from the first round in the lead after the second round was kind of expected, and we now have two of them in the top.First out of the two-goal scorers was Belgium's Romelu Lukaku. Belgium played Denmark and Belgium had a tough start and was losing with 1-0 after the first half. But when Kevin De Bruyne entered the field when the second half started the match took a complete turn, and first De Bruyne assisted the 1-1 goal by Thorgan Hazard and then himself scored 2-1. However, our top scorer winner candidate Lukaku left the pitch with no goals scored.
The next day, the Czech Republic played against Croatia and the Czech Republic's two-goal scorer Patrik Schick from the first match fixed a penalty after an elbow in the face. He took the penalty himself (with the blood running from his nose) and scored this third goal in the tournament. The match finally ended 1-1 after Ivan Perisic scored the equalizer in the second half.
And finally Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo went up against Germany yesterday. Ronaldo had never before scored a goal against Germany but he only needed 14 minutes to score 1-0, and thus his third goal in this year's European Championships. However, the goal came as a surprise after Germany dominated the first quarter, and even after the goal Germany continued to dominate the pitch (Portugal had obvious shortcomings in the defense) and the match ended in a 4-2 win for Germany. Portugal managed to score two own goals.
Since we did not see a hat-trick or had any two-goal scorers from the players who scored a goal in the first round, we have two players on three scored goals in the lead in the European Championship 2021, Schick and Ronaldo.
Some of the other goal scorers in the second round
Behind the two leaders, we now also have six two-goal scorers, so five additional players in addition to the already mentioned Lukaku.On Wednesday, a very convincing Italy won 3-0 over Switzerland. In this match, Manuel Locatelli scored two goals and in addition, Ciro Immobile scored the last goal of the match and thus he also goes up to two goals scored in the tournament.
On Thursday, we got three more players who went up to two goals scored. First, Ukraine won 2-1 over Northern Macedonia and Ukraine's goals were scored by Andriy Yarmolenko and Roman Yaremchuk. Both of these players scored a goal in the first round as well and now have two goals scored each. Later in the evening, Holland won over Austria with 2-0 and one of the goal scorers was Denzel Dumfries and this fullback (who has a more offensive role in the national team) has now also scored two goals.
Of course, we also got a number of players who scored their first goal for the tournament in the second round. Some of those that seriously can be seen as challengers to become top scorers of Euro 2021 (2020) were France's Antoine Griezmann and Spain's Álvaro Morata, and we also should mention Germany's Kai Havertz in this list, especially considering how well Germany played and can seriously be seen as a potential finalist again. Even the best goal scorer in the World right now, Poland's Robert Lewandowski, got to score his first goal in the 1-1 match against Spain.
Of course, we must also mention the players who have not scored any goals yet. Here we find, among others, Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane. Kane, who was seen as the favorite for the top scorer title before the start of the tournament, was a pale figure in the match against Scotland and was even substituted with a quarter left. That one of these two players will win top scorer title feels less likely now, but both teams will move on to the next round so the race for them is definitely not over.
So who are the top scorer favorites in the European Championship now?
Considering that Ronaldo is already in the lead with 3 goals scored, he should now be the big favorite. But the problem for him is that Portugal were really lousy defensively against Germany and they now have World Champions France in the final round. Given yesterday's effort, we must alert that Portugal can also be overrun completely by France and then we must ask ourselves if they will qualify for the quarter final. If not, Ronaldo's European Championship is over.So what about Patrik Schick? The Czech Republic have England in the final round and it is always tough to score against England. However, the Czech Republic has played some very nice football and will probably move on to the next round so he is actually a serious candidate to become the top scorer in the end.
Italy is the team that has impressed the most and Immobile is a class striker who, after scoring two games in a row, probably has really good self-confidence and is definitely one of the big contenders for the title now.
However, when Belgium's Kevin De Bruyne entered the field in the second half and later Eden Hazard and Axel Witsel, Belgium suddenly played as well as everyone expect them to play again. Belgium's next game is Finland (who will fight like maniacs though) and they will to win the group and most likely face easy opposition in the round of 16, and therefore Lukaku must be seen as the favorite to win the top scorer title of the European Championship 2021 at this moment.
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