The European Championship has always been more competitive than the World Cup. In the early European Championship, the scale was very small, with only 4 teams, and they played the semi-finals as soon as they came up, which was very cruel. It wasn't until 1980, when the squad was expanded to eight teams, that the concept of the group stage was born. However, during this period, except for 1984, when France won three consecutive victories in the group stage, until 1996, the European Cup did not appear in the group stage for more than ten years. It can be seen how fierce the competition is in the European Cup.
However, since the turn of the millennium, this situation has changed, and in almost every European Cup, one or two teams have won three of three games in their group and picked up nine points. On the one hand, after the expansion of the army again in 96, the strength of the teams in the European Cup was stretched. On the other hand, there were indeed many super strong teams during this period.
Let's take a look at the period from 2000 to 2012. In Euro 2000, only Spain played a close game, and Spain, who won the group, only scored 6 points. In the other three groups, the group winners all got 9 points, they are Italy, the Netherlands, and Portugal.
Euro 2004 is a Greek myth, but the Czech Republic were the strongest team in the group stage, beating Latvia, the Netherlands and Germany in quick succession to take nine points, despite being in the Group of Death. None of the other teams did that.
At Euro 2008, Spain began to rise, winning three consecutive group stage games. In addition, Croatia also ushered in a small peak, also picking up nine points in the group stage. And then there is the Netherlands, in the face of the siege of France, Italy, and Romania, it is really shocking that they all took it.
At Euro 2012, only one team won all of its group games, Germany.
Since then, the European Championship has continued to expand to 24 teams. Obviously, more of the weaker teams are in the Euros, making the contrast between the strengths and weaknesses of each group more stark, so it seems easier for those strong teams to win three in a row in the group stage. Take Euro 2021 as an example, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands have all done it.
唯独2016年，是个例外。
In 2016, the tournament was expanded from 16 to 24 teams for the first time, but it did not happen as we mentioned earlier. In 6 groups, there is no team with 9 points. Even the hosts, France, were drawn by Switzerland in the group stage. In addition, Wales finished top of the group, but they still lost against England's big brother. Germany was held to a draw by Poland and Croatia and the Czech Republic. Belgium was defeated by nemesis Italy.
The most interesting, of course, is the eventual champions Portugal. They didn't win three straight games in the group stage, but they drew three in a row. They have to thank this expansion, otherwise, the third place in the group would have been eliminated long ago.
In that European Cup, there were indeed many dark horses, such as Wales, Iceland, and so on. Perhaps the first expansion of the army has made many strong teams a little uncomfortable in the face of the impact of second-rate teams. In fact, Portugal, as the team with the most shallow background among the strong teams, can win the championship, which is quite surprising.
In the next Euro 2024, will any team be able to score all nine points in the group stage?