A statement victory for the former champions against a team that always punch above their weight headlined the Euro 2024 action on Saturday June 15, as Spain and Switzerland got their campaigns off to a glorious start.
Meanwhile, defending champions Italy survived a scare against Albania to register a narrow 2-1 win.
ESPN's By The Numbers brings you best stats from all the EURO 2024 action on June 15:
Switzerland 3-1 Hungary
1
Michael Aebischer became the first player ever to both score and assist a goal in the same match for Switzerland at the European Championships.
2
Only two Swiss men have scored at multiple European Championships, as Breel Embolo's sealing strike in their game against Hungary helped him match what had only been previously done by Xherdan Shaqiri.
5
Barnabas Varga became the fifth player to score on his European Championship debut for Hungary, as he notched up his seventh goal in just nine starts for Hungary in all competitions.
Spain 3-0 Croatia
16Y, 338D
At 16 years and 338 days old, Lamine Yamal became the youngest player ever at the European Championship. He broke the record set by Poland's Kacper Kozlowski (17 years, 246 days), set at Euro 2020. Yamal also became the youngest man to assist a goal at the European Championship.
16 - At 16 years and 338 days, Spain's Lamine Yamal is the youngest player to ever appear in a game at the UEFA European Championship finals. Sweet. pic.twitter.com/gmhgObMZ0O
- OptaJose (@OptaJose) June 15, 2024
32Y, 156D
Incidentally, the youngest player to assist a goal set the record by assisting the oldest player to score for Spain at the Euros. Dani Carvajal continued a dream June for himself by scoring his first-ever international goal which made him Spain's oldest goal-scorer at the European Championships.
3-0
Croatia's 3-0 loss to Spain was their joint-heaviest defeat at the European Championships, level with a similar loss to Portugal at their first-ever Euros in 1996.
7
Spain's captain Alvaro Morata is now tied for third place in the all-time European Championships scorers chart, with only Cristiano Ronaldo (14) and Michel Platini (9) having scored more than him.
36
Morata's goal was his 36th for the Spanish national team, putting him fourth in the all-time goal-scorers list behind David Villa, Raul Gonzazlez and Fernando Torres. Not a shabby list to be a part of, is it?
46.3%, 136
For the first time since the final of Euro 2008 against Germany, Spain finished a European Championship or World Cup match with lesser possession than their opponent, snapping a streak of 136 competitive matches out-possessing their opponents.
Italy 2-1 Albania
23
Albania's opening goal against Italy came within 23 seconds of the start as Nedim Bajrami found the net. It was the first goal scored inside the first minute of the game in European Championship history, and only the second time Italy have conceded a first-minute goal in major tournaments.
1
Italy won their debut match in 4 consecutive editions of European Championship and World Cup for the first time in their history.
10
Among the current Italian national players, Nicolo Barella has scored the most goals for the Azzurri.