Euro 2024 takeaways: Lamine Yamal shines and fans party but the big names struggle

DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Young stars emerge and big names underperform. Fans party on the streets of Germany and grumble about controversial VAR decisions.

Ahead of Sunday's final between Spain and England, here's a look at what we've learned from Euro 2024 so far:

Young talents

Tournament soccer offers a chance for young players to break through. They're not normally this young.

Lamine Yamal has been the star of Euro 2024, especially after his stunning goal against France in the semifinals, which made him the youngest-ever scorer at a men's European Championship. He turned 17 on Saturday, a day before the final against England in Berlin.

German 21-year-olds Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz lit up the tournament for the host nation, and another 21-year-old, Xavi Simons, scored a spectacular goal as the Netherlands lost to England in the semifinals.

There was disappointment for Spain midfielder Pedri, also 21, whose tournament was ended by a rough challenge from Germany's Toni Kroos in the quarterfinals.

Misfiring superstars

This hasn't been a tournament for Europe's biggest names to shine.

Cristiano Ronaldo could have become the European Championship's oldest ever scorer at 39, but finished without any goals from five games amid enduring questions about whether Portugal would be a better team without him on the field. His biggest impact was arguably on tournament security as a string of selfie-seeking fans tried to reach him on the field.

Kylian Mbappé's tournament started with a broken nose against Austria and ended with France's semifinal loss to Spain. His only goal was a penalty against already-eliminated Poland. Mbappé's interventions in French politics were arguably more significant than his deeds on the field.

Harry Kane is in the final but has often seemed off the pace despite scoring three goals, and Kevin de Bruyne couldn't inspire an often-toothless Belgian team.

Fan buzz

After a European Championship held under pandemic restrictions and a World Cup in Qatar, Euro 2024 was a chance for European fans to mass in numbers not seen for years.

Colorful fan marches to stadiums — the Dutch march to their semifinal with England was 100,000 strong — lit up the host cities.

It was generally good-natured, with only a few minor clashes involving English, Dutch and Serbian fans, not the large-scale violence of Euro 2016 in France.

Fans endured an overloaded German train network to get between games, though. Even the Dutch team hit train trouble that forced it to arrange a last-minute charter flight to its semifinal game.

VAR controversy

It wouldn't be a big soccer event without heated arguments over the video review system.

VAR has strayed far from the original concept unveiled by FIFA in 2016, and a few crucial calls overshadowed key games. Denmark's Joachim Andersen had his goal ruled out for offside by VAR against Germany before VAR helped award a penalty against him shortly after.

Referees and VAR often seemed to take a lenient approach to grappling in the penalty area, but when Dutch defender Denzel Dumfries collided with England's Harry Kane while trying to block a shot, it was a penalty that changed the course of that semifinal game.

"I think that we cannot play properly football and this is due to VAR. It really breaks football,” Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman said.

There was no penalty for Germany in the quarterfinals when the ball struck Spain defender Marc Cucurella's hand. German fans jeered Cucurella in Spain's semifinal game with France as a result.

No small teams

There were no easy opponents at Euro 2024.

Even with several smaller soccer nations playing, no team lost all its games, the first time that happened at a men's European Championship since it was an eight-team event in 1992.

Georgia beat Portugal and briefly led Spain in the round of 16 in a fearless debut campaign. Albania had the lead in two of its three games and scored a quick record-breaking goal. Slovenia didn't lose a game in regular play and was only eliminated by Portugal in a penalty shootout.

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AP Sports Writers Steve Douglas in Berlin and Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed to this report.

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AP Euro 2024: https://apnews.com/hub/euro-2024