Spare a thought for Wales. Robert Page's side looked spent as they were outfought and outthought by a superior Denmark side on Saturday evening with long-serving defender Chris Gunter taking to Instagram yesterday to complain about the injustice of a “joke set-up of a tournament”.

There was certainly a significant advantage working in the Danes' favour. Wales have had to travel more than most at this year's finals and, having played matches in Baku and Rome thus far, their trek to Amsterdam took their total travelled miles to more than 5500. Denmark, in contrast, had to cover only 490 miles to get to the Dutch city.

That said, it needs little reminding that Denmark have had troubles of their own to seek at this year's finals. The way they have recovered from the traumatic circumstances in which they lost Christian Eriksen at the start of the tournament has been something to cheer even the gloomiest of souls.

The against-the-odds narrative has been one of the more compelling aspects of Euro 2020 but it also does Denmark something of an injustice. The Danes came into the tournament as dark horses.

They top Scotland's World Cup qualifying group after three wins against Austria, Israel and Moldova in which they scored 14 goals, having run up their highest international tally against the Moldovans with a reserve team and thrashed the Austrians – who gave Italy a hell of a scare in London on Saturday night – 4-0 in Vienna.

Denmark were already a really good team, their spirit in the face of adversity as a result of what happened to Eriksen, might just have made them an even better one.

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Scotland were the 10th-most creative team during the group stage at Euro 2020, according to a report that measured shot creation and the regularity with which those chances arrived.

Certainly the impression when watching games involving the Scots was that with some more precise finishing – think Lyndon Dykes and Andy Robertson against the Czech Republic – then Scotland might have come away from the tournament with a bit more to show for their efforts. Steve Clarke's side had 24 shots across three games against the Czechs, England and Croatia, with the game at Wembley the one in which they were curtailed most registering just four shots across the 90 minutes. In total they averaged 19.3 shot creating actions per 90 minutes, a record better than world champions France (18.33) and European Championship holders Portugal (16).

Alas, games aren't won on “shot creating actions per 90 minutes” but it's nice to dream. Perhaps it's better used as a measurement of exactly why Scotland didn't qualify: Croatia finished 13th for chance creation, England 14th and the Czechs 20th – but all had much more watertight defences. Indeed, of the teams that finished above the Scots in the table, only Turkey and Poland failed to make it into the last 16 – two other sides that had big issues keeping the ball out of their own net.

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Here's another stats-led snippet from the Euro diary mailbox: the dirtiest team at the finals is, apparently, Italy. Anyone who watched the raw-meat eating, Italian hatchet men of the past might be surprised to learn that Roberto Mancini's free-flowing, attractive squad contains more players who have been sent off during their professional careers than any other at the finals. Even more confounding is the revelation that Domenico Berardi leads the way with eight dismissals. Berardi is hardly Claudio Gentile, the vicious Italian stopper of the 70s and 80s, who was once named in the top 10 hardest men in football and infamously said “football is not for ballerinas” after kicking Diego Maradona 11 times in the group match against Argentina at the 1982 World Cup. Gentile, who was born in Tripoli and was given the nickname Gaddafi by the Italian media in reference to the Libyan tyrant, was sent off once during his entire career. That's one for all the das out there . . .

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The outcry surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo's removal of Coca-Cola bottles during a recent press conference was given a little more context by a report on the Inside World Football website recently which speculated on the value of the tournament to UEFA and the associations represented at the finals.

The increase from 16 to 24 teams for this year's edition has made it much more appealing to broadcasters so much so that revenue generated is expected to break £2.1 billion and around 25% of that money will come from sponsors. For the Scottish Football Association, that already means a windfall to the tune of £7.9m just for qualifying while a further £645,000 was deposited into the coffers following the draw with England at Wembley. In other words, that's around a fifth of the SFA's turnover for 2019 alone.

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It remains a mystery why Roberto Mancini continues to overlook Federico Chiesa in favour of Domenico Berardi for Italy. The Italian wide man, son of former Parma striker Enrico, has demonstrated during his minutes on the pitch that he is a much more dynamic wide forward than the current incumbent on the right-wing. There is a rigidity to the inverted winger system that at times defies that which is staring logic in the face. Yes, you might want your full-backs to bomb on but it can become predictable and Austria found it easy to stop. Upon Chiesa's introduction at Wembley in the sides' round of 16 encounter on Saturday evening, Italy almost scored. He pressed the one-time Kilmarnock loanee, Daniel Bachmann, into an immediate mistake that was not capitalised on, then he scored himself and proceeded to cause the kind of consternation in behind the Austrian backline that the more one-paced Berardi just does not have the minerals for.