EURO stars, comebacks and a circus trick - THE WEEK IN NUMBERS
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- An elephant saving his endangered herd
- Scored free-kicks and spurned spot-kicks
- Danes trumping queens
72 seconds is all that remained when 18-year-old Jordan Lotomba – four minutes after coming on – headed home the goal which snatched Young Boys a place in the UEFA Champions League playoff round and eliminated Dynamo Kiev via away goals.
43 years had passed since the English Lionesses had beaten France until a Jodie Taylor goal – her fifth in three appearances at the UEFA Women’s EURO – settled their quarter-final. England won the teams’ first two tussles, in 1973 and ’74, but France were unbeaten in 19 thereafter. England then lost their seven-game winning run in a 3-0 defeat by the Netherlands in the last four.
22 years is the supernatural sequence Germany had reigned as Women’s EURO champions until a familiar nemesis ended their chances of a seventh straight crown. Since Steffi Jones, Silvia Neid, Heidi Mohr and Co lost 3-1 to Denmark in the third-place playoff in 1993 – less than 12 months after the FIFA World Cup™ holders had been stunned by Danish Dynamite in the EURO 1992 final – Germany had not lost a knockout-stage game at the Women’s EURO in 8,793 days until the same opponents beat them 2-1 in the Netherlands 2017 quarter-finals.
18 seconds of action: that is all that unfolded between Sportivo Estudiantes taking a late lead and Los Andes equalising on the final day of the Argentina Primera B. Estudiantes, not to be confused with their illustrious, Juan Sebastian Veron-chairmaned namesakes from La Plata, held on to draw 1-1 and survive relegation by a whisker.
10 direct free-kicks in the MLS is what Toronto FC’s Sebastian Giovinco has now scored, enabling him to break the all-time league record he had shared with Jeff Larentowicz and Javier Morales.
9 Ajax players were congesting their box when Jean Seri’s outrageous, pinpoint back-heel somehow gave Vincent Marcel the space to snatch Nice a 2-2 draw. It sent the French side into the Champions League playoff round on away goals and ended their hosts’ 12-match winning run at the Amsterdam ArenA.
8 goals without reply is what Sydney FC put past Darwin Rovers to record the biggest victory in FFA Cup history. Bobo tied Matt Sims’ record for most goals in a game in the competition, and became just the third Sydney player to bag four in a match after David Zdrilic in 2005 and Alessandro Del Piero in 2013.
6 goals in three games is what Igor Angulo has scored on Gornik Zabrze’s return to the Polish top tier – all in a 27-minute span between minutes 38 and 65. The 33-year-old Basque has now netted 14 goals in his last nine appearances for the joint-record 14-time Ekstraklasa champions.
4 successive penalties is what Austria missed to crash out of the Women’s EURO semi-finals – all courtesy of players who had helped them convert five consecutive spot-kicks in their quarter. Sarah Puntigam failed to score from 12 yards in normal time, while Laura Feiersinger, Viktoria Pinther and Verena Aschauer followed suit in the shootout as Denmark finally won their first Women’s EURO semi at the sixth time of asking.
4 of Bayern Munich’s last five appearances resulted in defeats in which they failed to score and conceded more than one. AC Milan thumped them 4-0 in China PR and Inter Milan overcame them 2-0 in Singapore, before Carlo Ancelotti’s charges lost at home to Liverpool and Napoli – 3-0 and 2-0 respectively – to finish bottom of the Audi Cup.