According to CCTV5, the European Cup has entered the knockout phase, and all teams are fighting for the championship. What are the characteristics of this European Cup ranking? Which teams have the hardest way to win? Which teams performed best? Let's explore together. First, we
According to CCTV5, the European Cup has entered the knockout phase, and all teams are fighting for the championship. What are the characteristics of this European Cup ranking? Which teams have the hardest way to win? Which teams performed best? Let's explore together.
First, let's take a look at the ranking rules of the European Cup. According to the regulations of UEFA, in the group stage, the first two of each group will be directly promoted to the knockout stage. In addition, the third place of the four best groups can also be promoted. In the knockout phase, if the game is leveled within 90 minutes, a 30 minute overtime game will be played. If the overtime game is still leveled, a penalty shoot out will be played until the outcome is decided.
So, which teams have the hardest way to win? We can analyze it from the following aspects: the strength of opponents in the group match, the points and goal difference in the group match, the strength of opponents in the knockout match, the score and the number of goals in the knockout match. The following is a simple table showing the relevant data of the teams that have reached the top eight:
team |
Group opponents |
Group game points |
Group game goal difference |
Knockout opponent |
Score of knockout |
Number of goals in knockout games |
Italy |
Turkey, Switzerland, Wales |
nine |
seven |
Austria |
2-1 (overtime) |
two |
Belgium |
Russia, Denmark, Finland |
nine |
six |
Portugal |
1-0 |
one |
France |
Germany, Hungary, Portugal |
five |
one |
Switzerland |
3-3 (penalty 4-5) |
three |
Spain |
Sweden, Poland, Slovakia |
five |
five |
Croatia |
5-3 (overtime) |
five |
England |
Croatia, Scotland, Czech Republic |
seven |
two |
Germany |
2-0 |
two |
Sweden |
Spain, Slovakia, Poland |
seven |
two |
Ukraine |
1-2 (overtime) |
one |
Denmark |
Finland, Belgium, Russia |
three |
one |
Welsh |
4-0 |
four |
Switzerland |
Wales, Italy, Turkey |
four |
one |
France |
3-3 (penalty 5-4) |
three |
From the table, we can see that the road to victory for France and Switzerland is the hardest. France's Group F is called the "Group of Death". Their opponents are regular visitors to the European Cup, and all of them have excellent strength. Although France came out as the first in the group, it only got five points and only one goal difference. In the knockout phase, they met Switzerland, which is an opponent that cannot be underestimated. With 4 points in the group match and the advantage of goal difference, Switzerland became the third place in the final group. They showed tenacious fighting spirit in the knockout match, played with France for 120 minutes, and finally made history through penalty shoot out, reaching the last eight of the European Cup for the first time.
On the other hand, the road to victory for Italy and Belgium is the most smooth. In the group match, Italy won completely, scored 7 goals, and did not concede, showing a strong offensive and defensive ability.