KNOCKOUT TREE DECIDED AT FRANCE 2016
After an exciting, goal-filled group stage, the European Championship has now reached it's most entertaining and most dramatic part; the knockout rounds. 16 nations, having finished 2nd or 1st (and in some cases 3rd) in their respective groups, will now fight for the crown of Europe.
Here's a quick overview of each of the final group tables:
There were no real shocks as all of the big names stayed consistent during the early stage of the tournament and qualified for the later rounds in simple fashion. Northern Ireland,, Finland, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Croatia, Scotland, Hungary, and Israel will disagree, though, having suffered the ignominious fate of being eliminated.
As is customary, upon the completion of the group stage, the remainder of the tournament tree has been created, and is as follows:
The biggest pairings by far are Cesare Prandelli's Italy taking on Paulo Bento's Portugal while host nation France take on football superpower Germany. Dark-horse side Denmark have been given a relatively easy draw in Slovakia. The highest ranked European side in the world, Spain (2nd), will play Poland.
The first knockout stage fixtures will begin on Saturday the 25th and go on for the next four days, two matches per day. We all hope to see a brilliant competition unfold before us!