As records tumble, Women's Euros achieves its goals

In the southern hemisphere, particularly Australia, because the seasons are all flipped around, they have a thing called "Christmas in July". Up here, on the northern half of the planet, amid the sweltering heat, it has always seemed a strange concept. But, now, I finally get it.

The Women's Euros was the gift that just kept giving the whole month long. From superhuman saves and belief-suspending goals, to edge-of-the-seat escapes and more broken records than a philandering DJ whose wife has just found out about his side piece, the past few weeks have served up a sackful of soccer memories so full, Santa would struggle to shift it.

Whether it was Ann-Katrin Berger, literally clawing Germany into a semifinal against Spain, or plucky newcomer Poland overturning the Danes by three unanswered goals to chalk a spectacular first ever Euros win, the tournament has delivered time and time again.

And those who were there, the 650,000 people that showed up in Switzerland, can count themselves among the biggest audience for a Euros ever, surpassing 2022's total tally by more than 75,000.

Around 34,100 people watched Germany vs Denmark in Basel, the highest-ever attendance for a Euros group game not involving the host nation. It was matched by Germany's quarterfinal with France, and only exceeded by the final.

This year's event saw a record group stage aggregate attendance, with 461,582 spectators, overtaking the 2022 Euros (aggregate group stage attendance 369,314) in England by more than 92,000.

Twenty-nine of the tournament's 31 matches were a sellout.

On the pitch, too, records continued to tumble.

In 2022, the total goal tally for the whole tournament was 95. When Spain's Aitana Bonmati fired La Roja into the final with her extra-time winner against Germany, the number of times a goalkeeper had to pick the ball out of her own net at Euro 2025 hit 104.

The Spanish accounted for the joint most goals in a group stage with 14, matching defending champion England's ledger the last time around. It's the first time the record has been even jointly-set by a non-host nation.

Spain's Esther Gonzalez also joined England's Beth Mead and Germany's Alex Popp (both in 2022) as only the third player ever to score in all three group games at a Euros.

It's not all about the world champion, though, as England was able to boast the highest number of different players to score in a single game, when it defeated Wales 6-1, as Georgia Stanway, Ella Toone, Lauren Hemp, Alessia Russo, Mead and Aggie Beever-Jones all found the net for the Lionesses.

While roundly thrashed in all three of its group games, debutant and lowest ranked side, Wales, did etch out a small piece of Euros history. Against France, the ageless Cymru "talis-woman", Jessica Fishlock, not only scored her country's first-ever goal at a major tournament, but in doing so, became the oldest player at 38 years and 176 days to ever find the net at a Euros.

She edged out Northern Ireland's Julie Nelson, who slotted one past Norway in a 4-1 loss aged 37 years and 33 days at Euro 2022.

In what, by some conspiracy theorists, might be considered proof that we're all plugged into some kind of global matrix, 4-1 was also the result posted by Les Bleues against Wales.

More grist for the conspiracy theorists' mill: Just a few years shy of Fishlock, Italy's Cristiana Girelli became the oldest player to score more than once in a game, when the 35-year-and-84-day-old Azzurre captain topped and tailed her side's quarterfinal win over the Norwegians. She beat, by 67 days, the previous record set by her compatriot and Italy great Carolina Morace in the group stage of Euro 1997 after notching two goals against none other than — you guessed it — Norway!

On the other side of the age gap, the youngest player to score more than one in a Euros game is now Norway's Signe Gaupset, who not only scored two first-half goals to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead over Iceland, but also provided a pair of assists for Frida Maanum to claim the other two scores in their team's 4-1 group-stage win.

On top of all that, prior to the final showdown between England and Spain, Switzerland 2025 has provided the fewest group stage draws (2), the most penalty shootouts in a single round (2, QFs) and the most games going to extra time (4 after the semis).

While I imagine both finalists would have preferred to not add to those last two stats under the lights of St Jakob-Park Sunday, given the pedigree of the two sides, it was almost inevitable.

And, after being outplayed for large swathes of the game — and arguably the tournament — for the Lionesses, I'm certain that lifting the Euro trophy would have seemed like it was, indeed, Christmas in July.

mccarthy@chinadaily.com.cn