It was yet another dramatic evening in the Euro 2024 on Monday (June 24) as defending champions Italy scored a last-gasp equaliser which officially earned them a place in the Round of 16. The result also sees Croatia on the brink of exit as they rely on other results to clinch a place in the knockout stage. However, the result between Italy and Croatia also had England fans smiling as they officially clinched their place in the R16 before even taking the field on matchday 3 against Slovenia.

Why England are in R16?

After yesterday’s results, the picture for the R16 became clear as Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Portugal had their names in the hat. As things stand in Group C, England are currently on four points from two matches with a 1-0 win against Serbia and a 1-1 draw against Denmark. Both Slovenia and Denmark are on two points each while Serbia sit bottom of Group C with one point. Even a defeat for England against Slovenia on matchday 3 won’t have too many bearings as Gareth Southgate’s men cannot finish bottom of the group.

Assuming a defeat for England against Slovenia and a win for Serbia against Denmark will see the former finish in third position due to the superior head-to-head record. In this case, England can still qualify for the R16 as one of the four best-finishing third-positioned sides.

How does the format work?

According to the Euro 2024 format, all six group winners and all six group runners-up get a direct entry into the R16 as they comprise 12 teams. Four teams that have finished third in their groups will also join these 12 sides depending on who collected more points and have a better goal difference. Assuming England’s worst possible scenario, they cannot finish below the third spot in Group C and will qualify for R16 as one of the four best performing third-positioned sides.

After Monday evening’s result, Hungary (three points from Group A) and Croatia (two points from Group B) are the two third-positioned sides at Euro 2024. With England’s current tally of four points already better than Croatia and Hungary, even if they finish third in Group C they will end up as one of the four best performing third-positioned sides which will see them qualify for R16.

In similar circumstances, both the Netherlands and France are also in the R16 as they too cannot finish bottom of the respective groups and will end up in top four of the third-positioned sides’ tally in a worse case scenario.

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