European Football Championships | HS’s visualization gives a unique view of Helmarie’s EC opening – only three players are involved in the longest passing chain leading to a shot

Sport|European football championships

Finland The women’s national football team, or Helmarit, lost 1-4 to Spain, one of the pre-favorites of the European Championships, in their opening match on Friday.

Helmarien scored the only goal in the first minute Linda Sällströmwho scored the 51st international goal of his career through the left post.

Spain goalkeeper Sandra Panos threw himself in front of Sällström’s shot and got his right hand in the way of the ball, but still couldn’t prevent the goal from happening.

HS’s match visualization shows that the ball traveled a distance of 64 meters before being hit. Helmarit scored his only goal with a straightforward right wing attack: Anna Westerlund delivered the ball from his own half to Sällström, who left the Spanish captain by Irene Paredes behind and ran away to score.

According to the data analysis, Helmarie’s longest pass chain that led to a shot was only 80.1 meters long. The ball was moving San Francisco and Eveliina Summanen through To Adelina Engman, whose shot from the right wing flew past the back post in the 12th minute of the match. So only three players were building the situation.

For Helmari, the ball control percentages of HS’s match visualization are even sadder than the European Football Association’s (Uefa) readings, i.e. 28–72. In Uefa statistics, Helmari’s ball control percentage is 32 and Spain’s is 68.

Finland, which was under pressure in its EC opener, was able to shoot only four times in the entire match. Two of the shots went towards the goal and two missed the goal.