The fastest goals in Euro history

The quest to find out

's rank amongst the quickest goals ever scored at the European Championship brings back the memory of

the fastest goals in Euro history.

Undoubtedly an early goal would play a major role in determining the tone of the game more than anything else. It would pave the way for a competitive match and might smash the spirit of the rival terrifically right from the beginning.

It would be possible to distinguish the differences between the sides with such quick startings while Euro 2020 has not fallen short of such quick-fire fashions.

Just, for instance, consider

and Sweden who opened the scoring just within the very first minutes of battles at this summer’s finals.

The fastest goals in Euro history

Emil Forsberg's goal against

at Euro 2020 came after only a minute and 22 seconds as just Russia's Dmitri Kirichenko has put away one quicker in a EURO finals game.

If you are curious to know the others who scored the fastest goals in Euro history, make sure to stick around until the end. But before dealing with each scorers' goal in due regard, let's take a brief glimpse at all the fastest goals in Euro history.

• 1:07 – Dmitri Kirichenko (Russia 2-1 Greece, 20/06/2004)

• 1:22 – Emil Forsberg (Sweden vs Poland, 23/06/21)

• 1:39 – Yussuf Poulsen (Denmark 1-2 Belgium, 17/06/2021)

• 1:40 – Robert Lewandowski (Poland 1-1 Portugal (3-5 pens), 30/06/2016)

• 2:00 – Robbie Brady (France 2-1 Republic of Ireland, 26/06/2016)

• 2:07 – Sergei Aleinikov (England 1-3 Soviet Union, 18/06/1988)

• 2:14 – Petr Jiráček (Greece 1-2 Czech Republic, 12/06/2012)

• 2:14 – Alan Shearer (Germany 1-1 England (6-5 pens), 26/06/1996)

• 2:25 – Michael Owen (Portugal 2-2 England (6-5 pens), 24/06/2004)

• 2:27– Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria 1-0 Romania, 13/06/1996)

2:27– Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria 1-0 Romania, 13/06/1996)

The spectators at St James' Park were not even settled into their seats for this group game as Hristo Stoichkov picked up a pass and took benefit from a slip by Miodrag Belodedici so as to dart through a gap in the defence.

He managed to make an extra metre of space with a cute dummy and put away a goal past Romania’s goalkeeper Bogdan Stelea with his left foot after just the passage of 147 seconds of the match, therefore many audiences missed one of the fastest goals in Euro history as they were not already settled.

This move had its origin from Miodrag Belodedici's mistake, as he gave Stoichkov the opportunity of making a run in the centre of the Romanian defence prior to making space for himself and stabbing the net following a quick dummy.

2:25 – Michael Owen (Portugal 2-2 England (6-5 pens), 24/06/2004)

England took benefit from an auspicious start when Jorge Andrade could not cut out Costinha's misjudged back header, therefore Owen pounced on the loose ball, pivoted and put away England’s first goal after just 145 seconds of the match.

Yet, although with scoring one of the fastest goals in Euro history, he had English hearts fluttering, with the result of the two sides ending up to 2-2 during 120 minutes of the hard-fought battle, the game went to penalties after the extra time.

But

was beaten by Portugal in penalities (5-6) in as much as Portugal’s goalkeeper Ricardo, who had let in one of the FASTEST EURO GOALS, then buried the decisive spot kick and thus recovered them from failing to reach the last four.

2:14 – Alan Shearer (Germany 1-1 England (6-5 pens), 26/06/1996)

In the semi-final of Euro 1996 in the encounter between England and Germany, when Paul Ince had already had a rasping volley that made German 'keeper Andreas Kopke fumbled, being in the right place and at the right time Shearer showed his striking instincts and swooped to put away his fifth goal of the tournament following that Tony Adams had flicked on Paul Gascoigne's corner. 

Thus, with sharing the same amount of time with Petr Jiracek, Shearer scored one of

the fastest goals in Euro history 

in the blockbuster semifinal with Germany as he found the back of the net just within the first 134th seconds of the game.

Yet, the goal did not end up leading them to victory, since England was smashed 5-6 by

on penalties after the sides had drawn 1-1 at the end of extra time.

2:14 – Petr Jiráček (Greece 1-2 Czech Republic, 12/06/2012)

In the encounter between 

and the Czech Republic in Euro 2012, among Kyriakos Papadopoulos and Kostas Katsouranis who were then Greece substitute centre-backs, Tomas Hubschman performed ecstatically as he passed the ball to Petr Jiracek, and swiftly he stabbed beyond Greece goalkeeper Kostas Chalkias.

Therefore with scoring one of

the fastest goals in Euro history

by Petr Jiracek as well as the Czech Republic's second scoring by the man of the match, Václav Pilař, they succeeded to grab a 2-1 victory over Greece and win their first points in the group stage.

2:07 – Sergei Aleinikov (England 1-3 Soviet Union, 18/06/1988)

when Glenn Hoddle slipped up very early in the encounter between England and the Soviet Union, within the first two minutes, Sergei Aleinikov found the opportunity to burst into a surging run through the middle and very sharply stabbed beyond England's goalkeeper Chris Woods.

Therefore with boasting one of the fastest goals in European Championship, the Soviet Union gathered their momentum to grab a 3-1 triumph over their opponents and reach the semi-finals as well.

2:00 – Robbie Brady (France 2-1 Republic of Ireland, 26/06/2016)

As the Republic of Ireland faced the host nation

in a daunting last-16 clash of Euro 2016, nobody expected them to score, let alone a goal in the second minute.

Robbie Brady gave Ireland an auspicious start by successfully converting a penalty and scoring the opener in the second minute which is assumed to be one of

the

fastest goals in European Championship

.

That is to say, when

fouled Shane Long inside the box in the second minute, France conceded a penalty within the first minutes.

Then Brady scored off the bar from the spot and spatted beyond England goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. But it seems that the Irish were unable to gather that much momentum so as to cause an upset till the end of the game.

Because Antoine Griezmann’s double in the minutes of 57 and 61 staged the French come back and let them claw back into the match to grab a 2-1 triumph and send the eventual runners-up through to the quarter-finals.

1:40 – Robert Lewandowski (Poland 1-1 Portugal (3-5 pens), 30/06/2016)

Undoubtedly, Poland’s talisman Robert Lewandowski would not be excluded from the list of the top ten fastest goals scored in the history of UEFA Euro, in as much as he has expertise in breaking the records.

Following that he did not score a single goal on Poland’s first four games of Euro 2020, he couldn’t have asked for a more auspicious start against

in the quarter-final as after just one minute and forty seconds he converted Kamil Grosicki’s delivery from the left and stabbed beyond Portugal goalkeeper, Rui Patricio.

Yet, this lead did not last for a long time as the youngster Renato Sanches drew them level into halftime. Eventually, Lewandowski's goal did not come in a victory as Poland was beaten 5-3 by Portugal on penalties.

1:39 – Yussuf Poulsen (Denmark 1-2 Belgium, 17/06/2021)

Five days after that Denmark suffered an emotionally severe 1-0 loss against

in their Group B opener in Copenhagen due to its intentional postponement for Christian Eriksen emergency medical condition, they coped with Belgium in their second game of UEFA EURO 2020 at Parken Stadium.

In this match, Yussuf Poulsen set the record of scoring the second of the FASTEST EURO GOALS following a mistake by

centre-back Jason Denayer.

Therefore just within the 99 seconds, he stabbed beyond the Belgium goalkeeper so as to give Denmark the lead and become the scorer of one of the top ten fastest goals scored in the history of UEFA Euro.

Although this goal let them to have dominance in the the first half of the game, it did not last until the end of the game as the Belgium substitute Kevin De Bruyne pierced through Denmark's defence and inspired the turnaround by providing a goal and an assist to the end of beating Denmark 1-2.

1:22 – Emil Forsberg (Sweden 3-2 Poland, 23/06/2021)

In Sweden's third UEFA Euro 2020 group stage game against Poland, just within the first 84 seconds of the game, Emil Forsberg found the back of Poland's net as he hit on a ricochet to drill his finish across Poland's goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny.

Having scored three goals in his previous four matches of Sweden in all competitions, his early goal in this match is assumed to be the second in the list of the

top ten fastest goals scored in the history of UEFA Euro.

But this was not his only goal of this match, as he scored twice so as to give

a two-goal lead until the time that Robert Lewandowski scored a brace and drew them level.

But at the end of the day, Viktor Claesson fluttered Swedish fan's hearts as he scored on the counter to grab a spectacular 3-2 triumph and stabilise Sweden's spot in the top of the group.

1:07 – Dmitri Kirichenko (Russia 2-1 Greece, 20/06/2004)

Notwithstanding being the surprise favourites in Euro 2004, Greece fell behind 

after the passage of just 67 seconds in their third group fixture of the tournament.

After that Dmitry Kirichenko had observed Russia's defeats in back to back matches from the bench, when he was deployed as a starter in the final Group A match, he made history as he galloped through after just 67 seconds to stab beyond Greece goalkeeper, Antonios Nikopolidis with his right foot.

This scoring is not only one of the

FASTEST EURO GOALS

, but also it still remains the first one in the list of the fastest goals in European Championship finals as nobody has broken his record in any edition of the Euro tournaments.

But this was not Russia's only goal of the match as Dmitri Bulykin put away a second and secured a 2-1 victory over Greece. Yet they ended up crashing out of the group stage for their back-to-back defeats in the tournament.

While Greece who had never previously won a fixture at a major tournament, progressed all the way to the final, as they even smashed host nation Portugal and eventually became the shock champions of Euro 2004. At the same time, Russia honoured to have been the only team who defeated Euro 2004 champions, Greece.

Read More:

Follow

for the