The quarter-finals of the European Championship are about to begin. Although the 24 matches in the group stage were generally lackluster, and many teams did not play at the level they expected, the knockout stage is not the same as the group stage, and it is unlikely that any team will still slack off at this stage. What is the reputation of this European Cup, from now on, it will be reshuffled.
Since the third place in the group also has a chance to advance, it also leads to the stage of the quarterfinals, which is not easy to have the kind of peak matchup, that is, both sides are top teams. At this stage of the last European Cup, there was a big battle between Britain and Germany, but that was because the group Germany was in was too terrifying, belonging to a rare group of death in history, and the teams that broke through from this group were basically top teams. And in this European Cup, to be honest, there is no real group of death, even Group B, which has become unworthy of the name due to the serious decline in Croatia's strength. Therefore, once there is a duel between the first group of one group and the third group of another group, there is basically a difference in strength between the two sides.
However, the matchup between Romania and the Netherlands is interesting. At first glance, it was thought that the Netherlands had won the group against Romania, who had barely qualified. But in fact, it is the opposite, Romania is the top team in the group, and the Netherlands are the team that barely qualified on the passing line. It's also to blame Belgium for not winning the group, while Romania picked up a top spot in a boring and chaotic group, but they faced the Netherlands. I don't know if Belgium is more mathematically capable than playing.
However, this did not affect the overall pattern of the strength and weakness of the quarterfinals. Of course, the strength and weakness mentioned here are clear, and it does not entirely refer to strength, after all, today's Netherlands is actually not much stronger than Romania; Strength and weakness are also reflected in the historical status, such as Spain vs. Georgia, the two sides not only have a big gap in strength, but also a huge disparity in status, Spain is a three-time European Cup winner, and Georgia is just a traditional fish belly in European football, this time only by virtue of the new format of the European preliminaries to enter the main tournament for the first time, the two sides are simply the gap between royalty and civilians in status.
Now that we are talking about the European Cup champions, we might as well take a look at what the content of the European Cup champions is in the 8 round of 16 games. Matches like Spain vs. Georgia, Netherlands vs. Romania, and France vs. Belgium are former European Cup winners vs. teams that have not won a European Cup. For example, England vs. Slovakia and Austria vs. Turkey have neither side won the European Championship. From this point of view, the 8 quarterfinals, the most aristocratic matchup, should be Germany vs. Denmark.
Because, both teams are former European Cup champions. It was also the only one of the eight matches that was played by two champion teams.
Needless to say, Germany, like Spain, won the title three times. Denmark, on the other hand, is not a top team, but it also staged a fairy tale of winning the 1992 European Championship. Although both teams are not in their prime, this game is the only championship-level contest in this stage.
This is the second time in a row that Denmark has met the host in the European Championship, although there was no host in the substantive sense of the last European Cup, but the match between Denmark and England was played at Wembley Stadium, so Denmark is definitely playing away. And this time, again, against the hosts, but the stage was brought forward. I don't know what the luck of Denmark was this time.
Hopefully this game will be exciting, after all, both sides are the nobles of the European Championship.