Plus: has anyone previously won a group with negative goal difference; the largest attendance at a European Championship game; and are three keepers worthwhile? Send your questions and answers to knowledge@guardian.co.uk and follow us on Twitter
"By my reckoning the Republic of Ireland were behind for 174 of their 270 minutes at the tournament," writes Stefan Frain. "Has any team at the European Championships been behind for longer than Ireland's 64% of minutes spent on the pitch?"
At last, good news for Giovanni Trapattoni and his squad – Ireland have not set a record for the longest amount of time spent in a losing position at the European Championships. By our reckoning three teams have trailed for longer.
First, it's the Romania squad of 1996. They lost 1-0 to France in their opening group game, falling behind to a Christophe Dugarry goal after 25 minutes. Against Bulgaria Hristo Stoichkov's third-minute strike was enough to inflict a second 1-0 defeat and despite holding Spain at 1-1 for much of their final group game, Guillermo Amor's late goal meant three defeats and a grand total of 176 minutes lagging behind the opposition.
Two teams can better that, both of whom trailed for 187 minutes out of their 270 at the tournament. In 2008 the co-hosts Austria kicked off their tournament in fine style by going 1-0 down to Croatia after four minutes thanks to a Luka Modric penalty. In their second game they trailed Poland for an hour before Ivica Vastic's injury-time equaliser, and in the final group game Michael Ballack's 49th-minute goal was enough to secure victory for Germany
And the only side to equal Austria for haplessness is … Bobby Robson's England in 1988. Six minutes into their opening game against the Republic of Ireland they fell behind to the Ray Houghton goal that would secure a 1-0 win for Jack Charlton's side. Against Holland they were behind after 44 minutes, back on level terms thanks to Bryan Robson early in the second half but behind again, this time for good, with 19 minutes to go. Against the USSR it was a similar story – behind to Sergei Alenikov's goal after three minutes, level thanks to Tony Adams after 16, then behind again to Alexei Mikhailichenko's goal 12 minutes later.
So, on the bright side for Trap and co, history suggests they can expect glorious failure in the World Cup semi-finals in Brazil in 2014. Or, like Austria, a failure to qualify after scraping a draw against the Faroe Islands.
CZECH REPUBLIC 2012 = CAMEROON 1990
"After the Czech Republic topped Group A with -1 goal difference, I wonder if there's any other instance of a team topping a group at a major tournament with negative goal difference?" writes George Turner.
Turn your minds back to Group B at the 1990 World Cup. Cameroon opened the tournament with that never-to-be-forgotten 1-0 win over Argentina, then followed it up with a Roger Milla-inspired 2-1 win over Gheorghe Hagi's Romania.
That left them top with the final group games to come and they were still top of the pile at the end of it all after a 1-1 draw between the South Americans and Romania. The Indomitable Lions' 4-0 hammering at the hands of the Soviet Union gave them a table topping goal difference of -2.
THE IN CROWD
"What is the largest attendance ever recorded for a European Championship game?" muses Katie Bell.
A Hampden Park qualifier between Scotland and England in 1968 has held on to the title for the last 44 years, Katie. The 130,711 packed in on 24 February that day witnessed Martin Peters' 20th-minute goal cancelled out by a John Hughes equaliser. Writing in the next day's Observer, Hugh McIlvanney explained (reporting an even greater gate):
England are through to the quarter-finals of the European Nations Cup by virtue of a result that may give sober satisfaction, but is hardly an excuse for a celebration. The 134,000 who crowded Hampden with their noise and commitment had come to see a showdown, the decider between Sir Alf Ramsey's world champions and the team that have slapped them in the face embarrassingly often over the past few seasons.
They wanted the finality of a gun-fight. Instead, they were given a settlement by mathematics as Scotland, despite taking three points out of the four at stake in their meetings with England, paid for their miserable failures against humbler opposition in the two-year qualifying series.
KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE
"I was wondering whether having three goalies for competition squads is ever worthwhile," wrote Rupert Ward back in 2008. "How often has the third-choice goalie in a European championship actually appeared in a game?"
Once is the short answer to this one. But here's the long answer: in 2004 only two teams used more than one goalkeeper. Russia's second choice Vyacheslav Malafeev played a game and a half in the group stages after Sergei Ovchinnikov was sent off against Portugal in the Russians' second match. And Jaromir Blazek took over between the sticks for the Czech Republic in their final group game, with Petr Cech rested as the Czechs had already qualified.
In 2000 Portugal played all three of their goalkeepers. Pedro Espinha took the gloves from Vitor Baia for the final group game against Germany, as, again, the Portuguese were already certain to progress to the quarter-finals. And in the final minute, with Portugal 3-0 up, Quim trotted on to replace him. The Dutch were the only other side to use more than one keeper, with Sander Westerveld replacing the injured Edwin van der Sar in the final group game.
In 1996, Romania (Bogdan Stelea and Florian Prunea), Russia (Stanislav Cherchessov and Dmitri Kharin) and Croatia (Drazen Ladic and Marijan Mrmic) used two goalkeepers, but the other 13 teams used just the one.
In 1992 no team used more than one keeper, and in 1988 Denmark and the USSR both used two. Peter Schmeichel displaced Troels Rasmussen as No1 after the Danes' opening group game and Victor Tchanov became the first, and as far as we can work out only, goalkeeping substitute due to injury, replacing Rinat Dasaev in the Soviets' group match against the Republic of Ireland.
In 1984 Yugoslavia (Zoran Simovic and Tomislav Ivkovic) and Romania (Dumitru Moraru and Silviu Lung) were the only teams to use more than one keeper. And in 1980, the first year in which the tournament involved a full finals stage held in one country, Greece (Eleftherios Pupakis and Vasilios Konstandinou), Czechoslovakia (Stanislav Seman and Jaroslav Netolicka) and England (Ray Clemence and Peter Shilton) used a pair of stoppers.
All of that serves to illustrate that of the 80 teams to have qualified for European Championship finals, only 12 have used two keepers in a tournament and only one has used all three. So, Rupert, as it stands it has never been worthwhile to take three goalkeepers to a European Championship.
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CAN YOU HELP?
"When was the last major tournament without a single penalty scored?" tweets James Tong.
"It seems like a 'tradition' for teams to parade with their silverware on an open-top bus these days," writes Vu Doan. "When did that start, and who started it?"
"While watching the opening game of Euro 2012, Poland v Greece, it struck me that both nations are endowed with epic surnames in terms of the number of letters they contain," begins Matthew Hayward. "By my count there were 193 characters between the 22 starting players, an average of 8.77 letters per surname. Has this ever been topped?"
"The deadliest group of death at Euro 2012 had something else interesting about it: the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark share at least one border," notes Jamie Thompson. "Obviously Portugal is miles away from them all but has there ever been a group of neighbours? If not, you can include small seas between them, eg England to Ireland, England to France, Denmark to Sweden."
"Who was the first goalkeeper penalised for picking up a backpass after the rule changed in 1992?" poses Jonathan Hodgins.
"Has anyone ever been sent off for two yellow cards, which have been awarded while celebrating two separate goals?" asks Kieran Chester.
Send your questions and answers to knowledge@guardian.co.uk
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