Euro 2024 will feature no fewer than nine tiebreakers for its group stage, including the possibility of penalty kicks in certain situations.
All six of Euro 2024’s groups will be sorted in traditional round-robin fashion: each team will play the other three sides in its group once, and the top two sides will advance to the round of 16. The final four places in the knockout round will go to the four best third-place teams.
However, with each team only getting three games to differentiate themselves from their competition, points in the table likely won’t settle every single group.
UEFA has allowed for the prospect of a group-stage penalty kick shootout in a very specific set of circumstances: if the two teams in question finish their final group-stage match tied, and have matching goal difference, goals scored, they will proceed to spot kicks to determine who gets the higher spot in the standings.
Here are UEFA’s official tiebreakers for the group stage at Euro 2024:
Euro 2024 group-stage tiebreakers
- Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question.
- Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question.
- Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question.
- If, after having applied criteria one to three, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria one to three are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams who are still level to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria five to nine will apply.
- Superior goal difference in all group matches.
- Higher number of goals scored in all group matches.
- If on the last round of the group stage, two teams who are facing each other are tied in points, goal difference, and goals scored then drew their match, their ranking is determined by a penalty shoot-out. (note: This criterion is not used if more than two teams had the same number of points.)
- Lower disciplinary points total in all group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card).
- Higher position in the European Qualifiers overall ranking, unless the comparison involves hosts Germany, in which case a drawing of lots will take place.
[lawrence-related id=74672,74322,66172]