At the 2024 European Championship, teams that “only” finished third in their group can also advance to the round of 16. The system for this is complicated. For many teams, the first thing to do is wait and hope.
At the end of the preliminary round, the European Football Championship will again have 24 teams. Not only the best two teams from each of the six groups will make it to the round of 16, but also the four best third-placed teams. This means that teams do not know immediately after their last game whether they have progressed or not.
This is the case for Hungary, for example, who are third in Group A after a late 1-0 winning goal against Scotland – and do not know what that will be enough for.
EM 2024: Uninvolved players can advance on Monday
In the event that both Croatia (against Italy) and Albania (against Spain) fail to win on Monday evening, three nations not involved that evening would qualify for the round of 16 before their third appearance.
Because: France, the Netherlands and England each have four points and can no longer be pushed out of one of the top three places in their groups. If they finish third, they would definitely be among the four best third-placed teams in their groups with four points, because Hungary (three points) and the third-placed team in Group B remained behind them.
For Hungary, the wait to see whether they will advance to the round of 16 or not could even drag on until Wednesday. The teams from Groups B and F, in which the third-placed teams each have one point after two matchdays, could each end up behind their German opponents in the group stage.
Criteria for the best third-placed teams
- larger number of points
- better goal difference
- more goals scored
- higher number of wins
- lower number of points in fair play evaluation (red and yellow-red card = 3 points, single yellow card without yellow-red = 1 point)
- Position in UEFA qualifying rankings
This mode has been used since the 2016 European Championship. Since then, three points and a goal difference of at least -1 have always been enough to advance.
Source: Stern
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