Far from being dull, the expanded Euro 2016 has actually been one of the most open tournaments

The European Championship of 1996 featured a revamped tournament: it was expanded to 16 teams from eight, the winners of a match were awarded three points instead of two and the back-pass rule was introduced, which prohibited the goalkeeper from catching an intentional pass by a teammate.

This was intended at making the teams play more attractive football and go for the win. Hence, it came as no shock when the new-look format produced some exciting football. The final, an exciting affair in itself, saw Germany beat the Czech Republic 2-1 with a golden goal in extra-time.

The ongoing 2016 European Championship in France saw a change in format after two decades. Increasing the number of finalists to 24 opened up the field to five countries that had never qualified for the tournament before. Albania, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Wales all got their first shot at the big prize 56 years after the tournament first was held.

Going for the jugular

One could have been forgiven for cringing at Uefa’s announcement that Euro 2016 was going to feature an additional eight teams. The mind would have immediately jumped to the traditional whipping boys, those forlorn figures at major international tournaments, teams which inevitably end up making up the numbers and are a heavyweight’s delight to face as well as a neutral’s disappointment to watch.

Fortunately, this tournament seems to be short on such squads – Ukraine being the only team to not pick up a single point in the group stages. The minnows have not sold themselves short and the possibility of further progress through a third-place finish has seen teams, small and big, go for the jugular early on in the tournament. Barring Albania, who missed out by a whisker, the other debutants promptly grabbed their chance and went through to the knockout stages of the tournament.

The increase in competition also meant the big boys could not afford to qualify through the group stages in cruise mode. No team in particular has earned the part of outright favourites for the title, with even hosts France and world champions Germany not looking particularly convincing at times.

A closer look at the composition of the teams heading into the tournament reveals two very interesting facts:

Albania were the lowest-ranked team (42nd) in the latest Fifa rankings heading into this tournament. With 24 of the world’s top 42 teams playing, the tournament has seen an extremely strong field duke it out among themselves. These 24 teams are also among the strongest in the region, with Netherlands (14), Bosnia and Herzegovina (20), Denmark (38) and Greece (40) being the only teams ranked higher than Albania to miss out on finals qualification.

While Fifa’s ranking system has come in for scrutiny at times, it remains the most credible parameter used by the larger section of the footballing audience to gauge a national team’s standing at a singular point in time.

Topsy turvy

It is interesting to note that of the five highest-ranked teams in the competition – Belgium (2), Germany (4), Spain (6), Portugal (8) and Austria (10) – only Die nationalmannshaft topped their group, albeit scoring a paltry three goals in the process.

While Belgium were beaten 2-0 by Italy in their opening game, Ivan Perisic’s late winner against the Spanish ensured that Croatia topped their group ahead of the defending European champions. Croatia themselves were cruising 2-0 in their second game before the Czech Republic hit back in rapid fashion to earn a 2-2 draw.

That match gave the viewer a glimpse of how unpredictable the tournament is when even David De Gea, a giant of a keeper, had a horrible game and was majorly culpable for the second goal Spain conceded.

Portugal just managed to qualify after captain Cristiano Ronaldo finally burst into life in the final group stage match, bagging himself a brace in an all-action 3-3 draw with a gung-ho Hungarian outfit, who shocked everyone by topping Group F. Hungary qualified ahead of Iceland, Portugal and fancied dark horses Austria, who were knocked out.

Italy, vanquishers of Belgium, got pipped 1-0 by the Republic of Ireland in their final group stage match, which sent them through to the knockout stages where they face the hosts at the Stade-de Gerland in Lyon on June 26.

No dead rubbers

The opportunity for the four best third-placed teams to qualify for the latter stages of the tournament has solved a very important problem: that of dead rubbers. The possibility that a team could lose two matches and still progress by winning just one of its three group games, while maintaining a goal difference of -1 or higher, has incentivised sides to go for the outright win, rather than settling for dour stalemates.

Thus, teams went into the final match-day in the group stage still hoping for qualification and played all-out in the process. Only France and Spain won their opening two matches, meaning that the fights for 14 of 16 knockout spots were settled on the last match-day.

The games have, for the major part, been tight and keenly contested, with the highest margin of victory, 3-0, occurring only twice in the space of 36 group stage matches. It is interesting to note that no team has conceded more than three goals in a single match, nor has any team won all their three group stage matches.

Spain’s defeat also meant that they, along with Germany, Italy, England and France, ended up in the same half of the draw, with a mouth-watering pre-quarterfinal match between La Roja and Gli Azzurri in Saint-Denis being the standout fixture.

Croatia vs Portugal, Hungary vs Belgium and Iceland vs England each pit upstarts against traditional powerhouses and should make for interesting viewing. If the group stages are anything to go by, the knockout stages promise more eye-catching football and shock results in what is the one of the most open championships ever.