Englishman Marc Guêhi had an impressive showing in his first major tournament for his country. Tasked with replacing the injured Harry Maguire, which is no easy feat, the Crystal Palace defender did extremely well alongside John Stones. In the six games he played, England conceded once in three of them thanks to a resolute showing at the back, with their loss against Spain seeing them let in two for the first time.
After a miss-match season with Liverpool, Cody Gakpo came into the Euros as a first-choice forward for the Netherlands and proved exactly why he was called on. Three goals and one assist in six games in response to the faith shown in him helped the Dutch reach the semi-finals, falling at the hands of England.
Plenty of goalkeepers made their mark at Euro 2024, with Diogo Costa’s heroics for Portugal a worthy mention. But Giorgi Mamardashvili had his breakout moment with Georgia, who reached the Round of 16 in their first-ever outing in this competition, losing to eventual champions Spain. While Georgia only kept one clean sheet, it came in the biggest game of all in a must-win against Portugal to progress beyond the group stages, a side stacked with attacking talent. Mamardashvili and his teammates kept them at bay to continue their dream run.
France was arguably one of the more underwhelming sides at the Euros, despite still being able to make it to the semi-finals. The fact they scored four times in six games, and only one of those came from open play (two being own-goals), was indicative of their campaign. But the bright sparks were at the back, in defence and between the sticks. William Saliba was among the defensive unit that kept four clean sheets, the 23-year-old calm and poised on the biggest stage of all to help guide the French to the final four.
