Griezmann joins elite club to save France's blushes vs Hungary

[ad_1]

By Conor Laird

Published: June 19, 2021 4:05 pm

Last Updated: June 19, 2021 4:08 pm

A head-turning statistic surrounding Antoine Griezmann’s production at the European Championships has come to the fore online on Saturday.

Table of Contents

Spoils shared

Griezmann was of course back in action a short time ago.

The hitman was handed his 2nd successive start, as France made the trip to the Ferenc Puskas Stadium, for a Euro 2020 meeting with Hungary.

Les Bleus, for obvious reasons, were viewed as overwhelming favourites to bag all three points ahead of kick-off, with Didier Deschamps’ men the front-runners to clinch eventual glory this summer, and Hungary having shipped three goals at home to Portugal on opening day.

This afternoon, though, the underdogs stood tall, to hold their heavyweight opponents at bay.

In turn, despite inevitably dominating both possession and territory, France were forced to make do with a share of the spoils.

It was Hungary who took the lead in the clash, when Attila Fiola slotted home at Hugo Lloris’ near post on the stroke of the interval, sparking manic celebrations amongst the capacity crowd in Budapest:

WHAT A MOMENT!

HUNGARY TAKE THE LEAD AGAINST FRANCE! ?

Who saw that coming? Listen to the moment Attila Fiola gave Hungary the lead against the world champions ⤵️#bbceuro2020 #HUNFRA pic.twitter.com/Xb8IafErjN

— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) June 19, 2021

Order was restored 25 minutes from time, though, when some fine work down the right on the part of Kylian Mbappe eventually culminated in Antoine Griezmann levelling things up, securing a point for France in the process:

France are back in the game thanks to Antoine Griezmann!

They’re on level terms after going route 1⃣.#HUN 1-1 #FRA

??? Watch: https://t.co/TrUauNiyxt #bbceuro2020 #euro2020 pic.twitter.com/10WYROTYKV

— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) June 19, 2021

Griezmann’s Euro exploits

With two Group F games played out, France now, somewhat disappointingly, sit on four points, meaning Les Bleus will be leapfrogged by Portugal if Fernando Santos’ men can get the better of Germany later this evening.

As outlined above, though, on an otherwise underwhelming day for the world champions, an altogether superb statistic has surfaced surrounding one of the nation’s star men.

The player in question? Antoine Griezmann.

In finding the net versus Hungary, Barcelona hitman Griezmann took his European Championships tally to an impressive seven goals. This is good enough for joint-3rd on the all-time list, behind only Michel Platini (9) and Cristiano Ronaldo (11).

Most goals in European Championship history:

?? Cristiano Ronaldo – 11
?? Michel Platini – 9
?? Antoine Griezmann – 7#EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/mIdwKYstNE

— RouteOneFootball (@Route1futbol) June 19, 2021

What makes the Frenchman’s tally such a standout one, though, is the fact that his 7 goals have come across just 9 Euros appearances, in two tournaments.

All-time leader Ronaldo, on the other hand, took 22 outings to reach 11, spanning five European Championship finals.

Only four players have scored 7+ goals at the men’s European Championships:

?? Cristiano Ronaldo (11)
?? Michel Platini (9)
??????? Alan Shearer (7)
?? Antoine Griezmann (7) ?

Griezy-peasy. ? pic.twitter.com/8EpCQtU1BU

— William Hill (@WilliamHill) June 19, 2021