With defending champions Italy eliminated, the question for fans and bettors alike is which other strong team will be knocked out of the tournament?
In fact, this question is also a very difficult choice for UEFA, and the elimination of too many strong teams will not only affect the ratings, but also make the game less interesting.
I want the dark horse to appear to make the fans' eyes shine, and I am reluctant to let the giants have a semen-absorbing aura. How to solve the problem of the coexistence of the two, an interesting four-six division has emerged.
Let's take a look at the list of the top eight of recent European Championships
Euro 2008: Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands are 5 strong teams
Turkey, Russia, Croatia 3 ordinary teams
Euro 2012: Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, England 6 strong teams
Greece and the Czech Republic 2 ordinary teams
Euro 2016: Portugal, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium 5 strong teams
Poland, Wales, Iceland 3 ordinary teams
In 2020 (co-hosted by 10 European countries), the European Championship is a 4-strong team in Italy, Spain, England and Belgium
4 ordinary teams from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ukraine, and Switzerland
Aside from the special Euro 2020 tournament, UEFA's protection of strong teams is actually quite okay. The top 8 teams in each knockout round are generally about 5.
The same applies to any cup competition (World Cup, Champions League, Asian Cup, Copa America), and I call this interesting phenomenon the rule of four or six in the knockout rounds of the cup.
As a fan, it's very simple to divide or measure the teams that advance in terms of 40% and 60%.
The specific gameplay is: if the strong team is promoted more in the early stage, you must pay attention to the upset of the strong team later, and vice versa.
If you look at the regional quota of this European Cup, Italy, a strong team in southern Europe, has been eliminated, and it is more reasonable that Portugal, which is also from southern Europe, should not be out.
Coupled with Austria vs Turkey, a non-giant spot has been booked in advance, and Portugal has no more reason to be out of the competition.
So will Portugal play extra time? I think there was a big upset in the last group stage 0-2, and this game is out of the pit again, Ronaldo's last European Cup, where is the face?
It is optimistic that this game will be a game for Ronaldo to save face, and the big goal will win 3-0. At the same time, it is expected that Cristiano Ronaldo will break the Slovenian goal, and he will become the first player in history to score in 11 consecutive international tournaments, which will be his own record again.