Wing-back shines, Striker search for goals at Euro 2020

Kylian Mbappé scored the most goals in France last season, and Harry Kane did likewise in the Premier League.

It’s not just the fact that neither Paris Saint-Germain nor Tottenham won their leagues that links them. Nor the fact that both strikers are being talked about for transfers to new clubs after the European Championship.

Although prolific for their clubs — Mbappé with 27 league goals and Kane with 23 — neither has managed to replicate their domestic scoring output at the European Championship.

Kane managed only one shot on target in the three games for England. Mbappé had three for France. But neither striker found the back of the net.

“I think it’s the world of a big player,” England coach Gareth Southgate said, discussing Kane. “Inevitably he’s come through those periods and scored important goals for us and played exceptionally well. So it’s a bit of a repetitive cycle.”

France is at least reaping the benefit of recalling Karim Benzema after six years in international exile. It was the Real Madrid forward scoring for France for the first time in 2,085 days — twice in fact — that secured a 2-2 draw against Portugal on Wednesday and passage into the round of 16.

Euro 2020, however, will be missing Europe’s leading striker in the knockout phase. Three goals from Robert Lewandowski weren’t enough to carry Poland through to the next round.

The top individual scorer is, unsurprisingly, Cristiano Ronaldo, with five for Portugal.

But it’s own-goals that made a big splash. After only nine own-goals from 1960 to 2016 at European Championships, there have been eight in less than two weeks this year.

WING BACKS

Denzel Dumfries has been the unexpected star for the Netherlands, capitalizing on a 3-5-2 formation that gives him space to surge down the right when in attacking mode. Goals against the Ukraine and Austria — the PSV Eindhoven’s player first for the national team — helped them into the last 16.

While Dumfries was familiar to the Dutch, playing for the second-place team in the domestic league, Robin Gosens has never played in the Bundesliga nor Germany’s youth teams.

But after flourishing in Italy with Atalanta — which has become a regular in the Champions League — Gosens has more than justified Joachim Löw’s decision to call him up for international duty. His signature performance in the group stage came when he forced an own-goal, set up a goal and then scored himself in a 4-2 win over Portugal.