The Expansion to 24 teams, what are people's opinions now?

[toffeejack]

So with the groups out way and the line-up for the knockouts complete, what are people's views on this new structure now? Granted it has been hellishly confusing and has probably been the cause of some very low scoring and uneventful games. The best 3rd place teams has caused mayhem, but i've kind of enjoyed the uncertainty of it all, i love all different dilemmas and outcomes.

I think a bit more of a break between groups and knockouts would have been much more beneficial for fans ... especially from countries like wales who never thought they'd get through and have thousands of fans returning home, with the plan of now returning to france.

Of course people had their views before the tournament that we would have mismatches and teams who "don't deserve to be there" would be out of their depth, and that qualification would become less exciting. But let's look at the extraordinary stats from the groups which go totally against this theory:

• Not one team has finished with a 100% record from their 3 games
• Not one team failed to win a point (well done england for that russia goal)
• Top seeds Belgium, England, Spain and Portugal all failed to top their groups (66%)
• Not one player has scored a hat-trick despite the extra load of "minnow" nations
• Albania, Wales, N.Ireland, Iceland, Slovakia and Hungary all managed wins despite being teams making their debut or very irregular visitors to international tournaments.

I think the expansion has created a lot of positives for the euro competition, following on from a fantastic world cup. I've seen posters say what's the point of the last 16, we'll get games where the quarter final line-up will be a bunch of mismatches ... but surely the above disproves this. After all, the draw up for the world cup last 16 didn't look too dissimilar. You never know what can happen. I think having a game like wales v northern ireland in a knockout phase of a major tournament is great for the sport and all it's fans. It offers great hope.

Thoughts?

 

[dublinbluenose]

More footy to watch, never a bad thing. I think it's been a very level playing field and has worked well.

 

[Neiler]

Boss.

 

[davmaher]

I think it's been a success overall. It certainly kept groups more open than usual and the less fancied nations have well exceeded expectation. Ukraine didn't get a point, by the way.

 

[summerisle]

More footy to watch, never a bad thing. I think it's been a very level playing field and has worked well.

Couldn't agree more, football, football, football all the way. Nicely filling the time before we storm the league.

 

[Ashtonian]

Been successful but demeans the competition a little bit.

Ireland celebrating for getting 3rd. They have not been good enough to qualify. Yet in this instance they suddenly are.

Good for the countries who have benefitted though so silver linings and all that

 

[bflefc]

I've loved every moment of the past 12 days. It's been a proper football lover's paradise out here.

Long may it continue. Oh wait, UEFA went a decided to screw things up royally by having the next one spread all over Europe, ruining the festival feeling when you're in the host nation.

The bad tits.

 

[dublinbluenose]

It's actually the same format as the world cup used to be with 3rd placed teams qualifying.

 

[Allezfan]

It's awful and you're all awful for liking it.

 

[Wat Tyler]

Hate it, absolutely hate it, the amount of horrible matches there has been because a point is treated like a win has been off the scale.

There was nothing wrong with it at 16 teams.

 

[Neiler]

Been successful but demeans the competition a little bit.

Ireland celebrating for getting 3rd. They have not been good enough to qualify. Yet in this instance they suddenly are.

Good for the countries who have benefitted though so silver linings and all that

This is why I like it. To be fair I'd be the first to say Ireland are lacking in quality throughout the team.

That said International football is leveraged toward big markets, England havnt beaten a top tier international team in a competive game in 10 years, Ireland have beaten Germany and Italy. England will get further without a doubt, but they will be knocked out without playing a decent side or getting destroyed by one.

Ireland come out of a group of death, beat Italy, beat Germany on the way, reach the knock out stage. Surely that's more successful, then qualifying from a leaverged qualifying group, labouring through a weak group and eventually beating Iceland before getting beaten.

I'm not knocking here, but to say the likes of Ireland etc demen the compitition is ridiculous they are relatively more successful given the context then England. England I think should welcome this change, they need competitve games not leveraged seeding to assist them get through to the latter stages, more compitition for England in competitive compitition is the only thig that will see them develop, they havnt played a decent top tier team since the last Euros when it's mattered.

That's why English football is dieing on its feet.

 

[summerisle]

It's awful and you're all awful for liking it.

 

[The Cowboy]

Been successful but demeans the competition a little bit.

Ireland celebrating for getting 3rd. They have not been good enough to qualify. Yet in this instance they suddenly are.

Good for the countries who have benefitted though so silver linings and all that

Spot on. Some quite unexpected results have made it quite an action-packed final round, but I still don't agree with the format.

The qualifiers cream off the best for the finals. The knockout stage should cream off the best of the group stage. As it is, only eliminating 6 of the 24 is just silly.

 

[blue76]

Utter jarg games most of them.

 

[The Cowboy]

Let's not forget that Hungary, Iceland and Wales would've qualified under the old format as well.