It has to be said that the new European Championships format favors the teams that play later in the group stages. With 24 teams now playing instead of 16, there are 4 knockout round spots open for the best 3 rd place finishers in the group stages. With a number of groups now already done, the teams that play later know exactly what they have to aim for in order to stay in the tournament and move on. Group F is totally wide open at the moment, and any of the 4 teams in there could still conceivably move on. Surprisingly enough, it is Hungary who look the most likely to enter the round of 16 at this point, but they have difficult final group game against Portugal to look forward to before they find out if their advancement is assured. Portugal need a win in this one, as a loss would almost certainly see them eliminated from the tournament. It’s all to play for in this one, and I imagine the live odds will show Portugal as a very slight favorite here.
