Spain are the unicorn team as goal bonanza of a tournament reaches its crescendo

Sharp increase in attacking quality has taken Euros to new heights but world champions still stand apart

- Jonathan Liew

And frankly, have you not been entertained? If, of course, we are willing to stretch our definition of "entertainment" to include some of the other popular sensations. Suspense. Terror. Existential despair. Cold sweating. Loud screaming at inanimate items of electrical equipment.

But as we approach the final week of this Women's European Championship, this tournament has a fair claim to be one of the most thrilling in recent memory. And not just on the more intangible metrics: noise, penalty drama, side-eye, flying saves, players singing unprompted into pitch-side microphones, quality of fan walks.

With three matches remaining, Euro 2025 has surpassed Euro 2022 in terms of goals, averaging half a goal more (3.57 against 3.06).

This is on course to be the highest-scoring European Championship in history, excluding the limited four-team mini-competitions that were held before 1997. Only two tournaments ago, Euro 2017 averaged just 2.19 goals per game. A 63% rise in goals constitutes a seismic and really quite sudden development in the sport, one that raises a few supplementary questions. Have attacks got better? Have defences got worse? And, you know, what if some of these players actually learned to take a penalty?