This 6 group format needs to go

[KeanoMagicHat]

Agree with the point that 16 teams is better... but there is no format which prevents Southgate and Deschamps from boring the shite out of everyone and progressing.

If only 8 teams qualified, France and England would have due to their good qualifiying records and still played like they did in the past few games. If 16 teams qualified, they'd win one and draw 2 and probably top the group anyway.

If it was straight knockout, they'd just draw all their games and win on penalties. They haven't lost a game yet, so it would be hard to get rid of them.

 

[NYAS]

World Cup is going to be even worse. 32 out of 48 teams making it out of groups that will likely include illustrious footballing nations like Guatemala, Sudan, and Iraq.

Yeah because we were incredibly entertained by the actual football powerhouses this summer, such as Brasil, England, France and Portugal.

Wild that you can watch the group stages, then the knock-outs, and then come to the conclusion that it’s the “shit” teams that are the problem.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

Yeah because we were incredibly entertained by the actual football powerhouses this summer, such as Brasil, England, France and Portugal.

Wild that you can watch the group stages, then the knock-outs, and then come to the conclusion that it’s the “shit” teams that are the problem.

My point was that there's going to be very little suspense in the group stage because all it'll take to for most teams to make it through is a victory over a minnow.

 

[crossy1686]

The group phase has definitely contributed towards a poor 2nd and 3rd group game but you can’t blame it on the knockout rounds. The fact of the matter is, the euros is harder than the World Cup. Most of the teams have players that play in competitive leagues and know how to organise themselves. Then you’re asking 11 relative strangers to play like they’ve been playing together all season and look good. It’s a high quality competition and what you ultimately get with that is caginess.