Portugal Win the European Championship

What's this? A prediction? Well, no, not really. Tomorrow I will produce a similar headline with a different team based on different statistics, but today's stats are all about past performance in the Euros.

Here is a table showing all the historical results since Euro '96:

The teams coloured in pink(ish) are those teams who will be participating in this year's European Championships. Obviously due to things like qualification for past competitions and progression within those competitions, the teams have played a variable number of matches within the Euros. The standard three points for a win, one point for a draw is given in my table - not only for the group stages but for all matches played, right up to the final. Do please shout if you strongly disagree with that method.

So, let's look who performs well in the Euros. We have the obvious candidates such as Spain (33 pts), Holland (32 pts) and Germany (31 pts), but out in front is Portugal with a surprising 37 pts, which is made up of 12 wins and one draw. England have only managed 19 pts, but of course we don't always qualify for the tournament.

Removing all the teams who are not in this year's competition, the table below translates their wins, draws and losses into percentages:

This shows that Portugal have won 63.16% of all their matches, which is an excellent win rate considering that early rounds tend to be played less aggressively than later rounds. France and Holland also perform well (55.56%) in the Euros - which doesn't bode too well for England come Monday.

The hosts, Poland, have never won a match in the Euros, but have only qualified once. Ukraine have never qualified (since '96 that is).

So, place every penny you have in your bank account on Portugal, because the statistics speak for themselves...

Unless you wait for tomorrow.