The Germany national team look set for a EURO 2016 last-16 tie against Slovakia in Lille on Sunday (18:00 CEST). Of the 15 original permutations regarding the four best third-placed teams, only four are now possible due to Slovakia and Northern Ireland already having their place in the knockout stages confirmed. Of those four remaining cases, three of them see Die Mannschaft take on the third-placed side from Group B, namely Slovakia.
However, there is a scenario where Germany play the third-placed team from Group A, Albania. For that to happen though, both the third-placed sides from Groups E and F need to end with a worse record than Albania, who have three points and a -2 goal difference. That can only happen if Ireland and Sweden both fail to win their Group E games against Italy and Belgium respectively, and both Portugal and Austria are beaten in Group F this evening by Hungary and Iceland respectively.
One thing is for certain, should the World Champions progress, there would be a quarterfinal against either Italy or Spain, after Croatia beat the title holders 2-1 to pip them to top spot in Group D. A possible semi-final could then be against France or England, should the two favourites progress from their respective last-16 ties. The team themselves can’t begin to think that far ahead though; their focus remains securing progression to the quarterfinals on Sunday, regardless of the opponents.
The Germany national team look set for a EURO 2016 last-16 tie against Slovakia in Lille on Sunday (18:00 CEST). Of the 15 original permutations regarding the four best third-placed teams, only four are now possible due to Slovakia and Northern Ireland already having their place in the knockout stages confirmed. Of those four remaining cases, three of them see Die Mannschaft take on the third-placed side from Group B, namely Slovakia.
However, there is a scenario where Germany play the third-placed team from Group A, Albania. For that to happen though, both the third-placed sides from Groups E and F need to end with a worse record than Albania, who have three points and a -2 goal difference. That can only happen if Ireland and Sweden both fail to win their Group E games against Italy and Belgium respectively, and both Portugal and Austria are beaten in Group F this evening by Hungary and Iceland respectively.
One thing is for certain, should the World Champions progress, there would be a quarterfinal against either Italy or Spain, after Croatia beat the title holders 2-1 to pip them to top spot in Group D. A possible semi-final could then be against France or England, should the two favourites progress from their respective last-16 ties. The team themselves can’t begin to think that far ahead though; their focus remains securing progression to the quarterfinals on Sunday, regardless of the opponents.
