As the 24 Euro 2024 teams have dwindled to 16, here’s a look at the best (and worst) of this year’s tournament
There are 67 hours between the conclusion of the Euro 2024 group stage on Wednesday and the start of the knockout stage on Saturday. After the near-constant soccer action for the first 12 days of the Euros—which brought breathtaking goals from outside the box, late drama, and history for multiple nations—it’s time for the business end of the tournament.
The tournament began with 24 teams and is now down to 16. We bid adieu to Scotland, Hungary, Croatia, Albania, Serbia, Poland, Ukraine, and Czechia and are left with all of the top eight pretournament favorites in the round of 16. Switzerland and Italy will begin the knockout stage at 12 p.m. ET on Saturday, the first of eight matches in four days.
While staring at the clock and waiting for the knockout stage to begin—and the stakes to rise even higher—relive the drama of the Euro 2024 group stage with my 10 biggest winners and losers
Winners: Ralf Rangnick and Austria’s Intense Pressing System
Austria was one of a handful of popular dark horses identified by pundits before the start of the tournament. While Serbia, Ukraine, and Hungary underachieved, the Austrians were the true shock group winners of this tournament after they won Group D over the Netherlands, France, and Poland.
Manager Rangnick left Manchester United in 2022 after a failed stint as the interim manager and took the Austria manager position ahead of the 2022 Nations League. Rangnick is known as the father of the gegenpress system, later popularized by Jurgen Klopp. Rangnick successfully implemented his energetic pressing system on an Austrian team that massively outperformed the underlying quality of the names on the team sheet. Austria lost its opening group match 1-0 to France on an own goal but showed its ability to disrupt France’s possession structures by forcing five high turnovers.
Facing a must-win against Poland, the Austrians played a stellar second half to pull away and win 3-1 against their border rival. While the final round of matches saw plenty of low-scoring battles, Austria’s 3-2 win against the Netherlands helped it win a Euro group for the first time in Austrian history. Its pressure was so effective in rattling the Dutch midfield that the Netherlands took off midfielder Joey Veerman 35 minutes into the match. Veerman lost the ball 16 times, proving that high-quality managers can move the needle in international tournaments.
Austria is favored against Turkey to make the quarterfinal, and its cohesion and press have shown it can frustrate some of the better possession teams.
Losers: England and Gareth Southgate’s Attacking Tactics
England won Group C without losing a match, conceded just one goal in the group stage, and is the betting favorite to win Euro 2024. But if you watched any of the 270 minutes of play from England, you likely either dozed off in the middle of its matches or were left puzzled as to how a team with so many talented players could look so inept at creating quality scoring chances. It’s worth a reminder that England has the players of the year in La Liga (Jude Bellingham) and the Premier League (Phil Foden) and the Bundesliga’s top scorer (Harry Kane) in the starting lineup. Yet Foden has completed more passes (three) to goalkeeper Jordan Pickford than he has to Kane (one).
Only Serbia and Scotland have created fewer expected goals than England (2.1) in the tournament. You can credit England for its elite defense—best in the tournament, with 1.1 xG allowed thus far—but England is massively underperforming its talent, and it’s unclear what will solve its tactical dilemmas. The Trent Alexander-Arnold midfield experiment appears to be over after Conor Gallagher started against Slovenia in the final match. Gallagher wasn’t much better in the role, and the lack of width and forward passing range has left England disconnected all tournament. England has played natural right back Kieran Trippier at left back, and Southgate has not used his only true left winger, Anthony Gordon, in the tournament. He tried Kobbie Mainoo at midfield in the second half against Slovenia, and Cole Palmer showed brief flashes off the bench. England still has a high floor because of its defense, and it is on the much easier half of the draw, but Southgate is running out of time to solve this if soccer has any chance of coming home.
Winner: Spain’s Mix of Depth and New Star Talent
The tournament had five favorites entering the group stage, and none of them played better than Spain across the entire three matches. Spain was the only team to take all nine points and not concede a goal. Spain’s demolition wins against Croatia and Italy in its first two matches showed glimpses of what this new version of Spain could be. The midfield looks as balanced and technical as ever, but the real change from Spain teams of yesteryear is the dynamism of the two young wingers. Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal—21 and 16, respectively—give Spain a direct and transitional quality it has generally lacked.
Even when Spain rotated its entire squad for the final group stage match against Albania, it held Albania to very few chances and won 1-0 on an excellent finish from Ferran Torres. Spain is likely facing a gauntlet from the quarterfinal on—including against Germany in a probable quarterfinal—and it has gone out on penalties in the last three major tournaments. There are plenty of knockout tournament ghosts in Spain’s past, but no one has played better, and it made a group of death look relatively easy.
Loser: France’s Finishing in Front of Goal
England and France were the two favorites entering the tournament, and neither has lived up to expectations. Unlike England, France’s stuttering through the group stage has cost the team mightily in its knockout path. Because France finished second in the group, it has a much more difficult path to the final. It’ll face Belgium in the round of 16 on Monday, then likely Portugal and one of Germany or Spain in the semifinal.
It’s not all bad for France, though. Didier Deschamps brought N’Golo Kanté back into the side, and he looked incredible in his central midfield role in the first two matches. Aurélien Tchouaméni is a good fit as the deep-lying defensive midfielder, William Saliba had an excellent group stage as a center back, and France conceded just one total goal on a penalty in the final match.
Kylian Mbappé broke his nose in the first match and missed the second but returned for the third, and it looked like the injury didn’t impact him in the slightest. France had no trouble creating chances when Mbappé was in the lineup, and while the attack was a bit clunky without a reliable and traditional striker like Olivier Giroud, the French had a very high floor thanks to the defense. France also created 4.9 non-penalty expected goals, the fifth most in the group stage. Unlike England, whose problem was creating chances, France’s problem was finishing them. France is the better bet to move forward, but the path will make it quite difficult to pull off now. The elite defense and newly masked Mbappé still might have the highest ceilings of the favorites.
Winner: Bologna Football Club
Not only did Bologna qualify for the Champions League with a fifth-place finish in Serie A this year, but it also has a handful of players who have impressed at Euro 2024. Bologna center back Riccardo Calafiori was a key cog in the tournament’s most dramatic goal, when his run through the center of the pitch deep in stoppage time set up Mattia Zaccagni’s curling goal into the top corner for Italy to eliminate Croatia and clinch a spot in the knockouts. Calafiori is suspended for Italy’s round of 16 match, but he’s already drawing comparisons to legendary Italian center back Paolo Maldini, and it’s not just because of his long hair. His ball-carrying ability and defensive instincts could earn him a move to one of Europe’s top clubs.
Bologna midfielder Michel Aebischer scored and assisted goals in Switzerland’s opening win against Hungary, and winger Dan Ndoye scored in Switzerland’s eventual 1-1 draw with Germany. Lukasz Skorupski had one of the best goalkeeper performances in the entire tournament in Poland’s group finale against France. He allowed just one goal on the penalty, when France created 3.4 post-shot expected goals for the match.
It’s been one of the best years in Bologna history, and the Euros have only amplified the success of the Rossoblù.
Loser: Anyone Who Watched Group C Play
There were six matches played in Group C and seven total goals. Only one match had a winner—England’s opening 1-0 triumph over Serbia. There was some drama in this group when Serbia scored a header with the last kick of the game to tie Slovenia in the second match and when Denmark scored a 30-yard shot off the post to draw level with England in the second round of matches. But in a tournament that has largely featured the best soccer has to offer the world, there were zero goals in the final 236 minutes of group play, spanning nearly three full matches.
The lack of entertainment in Group C, lowlighted by two goalless draws to ensure three teams advanced on the final day, hurts the sport’s chances of appealing to the casual fan. Every other group scored at least 11 goals. Serbia entered the final day knowing it needed to win to advance, yet it totaled 0.28 xG on five shots.
Winner: Christian Eriksen’s Return to Help Denmark Advance
Euro 2020 began in shock when Danish captain and hero Christian Eriksen had a cardiac event on the pitch against Finland in Copenhagen. He had to be revived on the field; it was one of the most harrowing sports moments I’ve ever watched. The Danes are back in the Euro knockout stage three years after a run to the semifinal. Eriksen is still the captain, and he’s playing with a pacemaker now. He scored Denmark’s first goal in this tournament and has made 13 key passes, which is more than anyone else in the tournament.
Eriksen is no longer a regular starter at the club level for Manchester United, but when he puts on the Denmark shirt, his creativity on the ball and movement off it are critical for an attack that otherwise lacks firepower.
Loser: Fox’s Failure to Air All of the Group Stage Matches on TV
Our national weeklong nightmare of having to stream Euro 2024 games thankfully ended after five matches, but it’s a shame that Fox is the home of international soccer in the United States and didn’t bother to air all of the games on Fox, Fox Sports 1, and Fox Sports 2. Turkey vs. Georgia was one of the most exciting matches of the entire group stage; it was also one of the matches relegated to FuboTV and Vix. Ukraine’s comeback victory against Slovakia to keep its Euro dreams alive was also available only to streamers.
I’m thankful for the seven-day free trial to FuboTV to help watch the tournament, but even that didn’t mean a full viewing experience. The first game—Hungary vs. Switzerland on the first full day of the tournament—didn’t have a score or time listed on the screen during the match. Euro 2028 will also be under the Fox umbrella, which means more FuboTV games are likely in the tournament’s future. (Fox also has the rights to the Women’s Euros in 2025.) Hopefully, I can find another free trial.
Winner: Georgia’s Qualification for the Knockout Stage in Its First Major International Tournament
Only one nation entered Euro 2024 playing its first major international tournament. Georgia was the 24th team out of 24 to qualify for the tournament, beating Greece in a penalty shootout during qualifying. Georgia was seen as the clear fourth-place team in Group F. No defense conceded more expected goals than Georgia in the first two matches, but it rode its hot goalkeeper as Giorgi Mamardashvili’s excellent shot-stopping earned the team a draw against Czechia.
Did Georgia benefit from the fact that Portugal rested most of its starters on the final match day? For sure. But the Georgians partying in the capital city of Tbilisi didn’t care. And maybe the most absurd sentence of the Euro 2024 group stage: Georgia’s Georges Mikautadze is the Golden Boot leader after the group stage, with three goals scored.
Losers: Romelu Lukaku’s Horrendous VAR Luck and Goalless Group Stage
There’s a graphic floating around the internet with the “sort of” Golden Boot leaders at Euro 2024. When the graphic was posted on June 22, “Own Goal” was the leader, with seven, and “Romelu Lukaku without VAR” ranked second, with three. I feel bad for the Belgian striker, who played an excellent first two matches against Slovakia and Romania and has not yet found the back of the net for a legal goal.
Lukaku had a one-on-one chance from the edge of the 6-yard box early in the opening match, but his shot was saved. He then scored a tap-in on an Amadou Onana header across the face of goal, only for the goal to be overturned by the semiautomated offside review. Lukaku had a beautifully curled finish into the top corner in the second half on a cross from Lois Openda, but after a lengthy review, the VAR determined that Openda’s fingers touched the ball in the buildup to aid his eventual cross. The goal was disallowed, and Lukaku finished with three shots, 0.61 xG, two disallowed goals, and no actual goals.
Lukaku had another excellent game against Romania, including an assist to Youri Tielemans for the opening Belgian goal. He thought he’d scored again on a run-in behind the defense but was offside by mere inches. It’s a game of tiny, tiny margins, and Lukaku has been on the wrong end of the variance and finishing.
He was in on goal against Ukraine on Wednesday, only to fluff his lines and barely get a shot off. Lukaku’s all-around forward play has been solid in this tournament, and Belgium is into the round of 16 against France, but his finishing and lack of goals are some of the best ongoing bits of the tournament, especially after Belgium went out of Qatar in 2022 following his poor finishing. He still has the chance to be a hero with a goal against France, but otherwise, at this tournament, he’ll be known only for his almost goals.