With Euro 2024 finishing this past week, we decided to conduct an in-depth analysis of corner kicks throughout the tournament.
Â
In this article we will cover:
·     Who the most effective teams were from corners.
·     How goals were scored from corners.
·     Who the most effective corner kick takers were.
·     Does the delivery type effect the outcome of the corner.
Â
Throughout the 51 games, 117 goals were scored, with 13 of them being scored from corners, covering 11.1 % of total goals.
Â
Looking at the overall number of corners throughout Euro 2024, there were a total of 510, with Portugal being responsible for the most corners with 47 (9.2%), averaging 9.4 corners per game (cpg), followed by Germany (7.2 cpg), Denmark (6.75 cpg), Turkey (6.4 cpg) and Spain (6.29 cpg) all with more than 6 corners per game. On the other end of the spectrum Croatia, Albania and Scotland stood out, creating less than 3 corners per game. Interestingly out of the bottom 10 national teams for corners taken, only England made it past the Round of 16 and eventually went on to reach the final.
On the other hand, when analysing the amount of corners conceded, De la Fuente’s side excelled by conceding the least amount of corners per game in the tournament (2.86 per game), closely followed by Germany, England and Italy; who all conceded no more than 3.5 corners per game. Perhaps unsurprisingly following the previous paragraph, the bottom 3 teams for corners conceded all faced Portugal at one point in the competition; Czechia, Slovenia, and Georgia (with Georgia conceding the most corners in the tournament at an average of 10 per game).
But having corners doesn’t always translate into scoring opportunities, as shown in the next graph, which represents the percentage of corners that led to a shot. In this graph Poland clearly stand out as the team that made the most from their corners, taking 10 corners, with 7 leading to a shot and scoring twice. In contrast, Georgia only managed to create a single shot from all their 14 corners (7%). Besides Georgia, some big teams also struggled to create shots from this type of set piece with Portugal (21.3%) and Spain (20.5%) only averaging a shot every 5 corners, approximately. Furthermore, it is worth pointing out that in this tournament, on average, there was a shot from a corner every 3 corners (30.8%).
One of the reasons Poland had success in generating shots from a high proportion of their corners was as a result of their structure. They positioned 3 attackers on the edge of the box, who picked up second balls and took early shots at goal, as opposed to recycling possession. This tactic aligned with their open play style of adopting a direct approach (they had less possession in all of their games than their opponent).
Delivery
Â
Overall, out of the 510 total corners, 233 (45.7%) had inswing deliveries, 168 (32.9%) outswing and 109 (21.4%) were taken short, and all but 5 teams alternated between all 3 options throughout the tournament, Albania were the only team to have one consistent type of delivery from corners, always delivering an inswinging delivery.
Â
Other Nations that had interesting approaches to their type of delivery were Spain and Switzerland, who always looked for either an inswing or short delivery, very rarely opting for an outswing delivery (56.8% Inswing, 34.1% Short and 9.1% Outswing) and (69.6% Inswing, 21.7% Short and 8.7% Outswing) respectively. Only Romania had short corners as their primary delivery type, taking 10 corners short out of 16. Finally, 8 nations took the majority of their corners with an outswing delivery, with the exception of Spain, all nations that reached the semi-finals were part of this group.
While most teams had multiple players responsible for taking corners, depending on the side, context and time of the game, other teams handed this task to a singular player, as was the case with Hungary and Szoboszlai taking 100% of his team’s corners, Denmark with Eriksen (96.3%), Belgium with De Bruyne (95.2%) and Germany with Kroos (91.7%) all taking over 90% of their team’s total corners.
Goals
Â
As mentioned previously, in the whole tournament 13 goals were scored from corners, of which 10 were during the first phase of the set piece and 3 during the second phase. Out of the goals scored in the first phase, 4 were taken short, 4 had an inswing delivery and only 2 had an outswing delivery. Turkey were the team that scored the most goals from this type of set piece, scoring 3 goals, closely followed by Poland with 2 and then 8 other countries scored a singular goal from corner.
Â
From the defensive point of view, Austria (3), Turkey and the Netherlands (both 2) stand out as the teams that conceded the most goals from corners, with Austria conceding a goal every 5 corners faced.
Out of all the goals scored in the first phase of a corner, only 1 goal wasn’t scored in the 6-yard box (De Vrij vs Turkey), which was scored in zone F3. Besides this, 5 goals were scored in zone F1 and 4 goals in zone B1.
Furthermore, 4 Goals were scored with 5 attacking players positioned in the box at the moment the corner was taken. 5 goals scored with 6 attackers in the box and 1 goal with 9 attackers in the box. Unsurprisingly, the latter was scored in the closing minutes of Slovenia vs Serbia, when the Serbian goalkeeper even moved into the opposition box.
Â
Finally, 6 goals were scored against a predominantly zonal marking system and 4 were scored against a man-marking system.
Conclusion
All things considered, set plays clearly remain crucial part of the game, even at international tournaments. In Euro 2024, corner kicks alone accounted for more than 11% of all goals, not to mention the impact of free kicks, penalties, and throw-ins.
To download the spreadsheet of data, please use the button below.
Rodrigo is currently completing his masters in Performance Analysis at Loughborough uni with experience in the Scottish Championship as a first team performance analyst.
Comments