Euro 2024 state of play: Tables, schedule and what you may have missed

Euro 2024 is in full swing and already it has delivered drama, stunning goals and hard-fought matches.

The group stage will run until June 26, when eight of the 24 competing national teams will be eliminated.

The top two sides in each of the six groups will advance to the knockout stage, where they will be joined by the four highest-ranked third-placed teams.

If teams are level on points, the tiebreaker to decide who finishes where will be points obtained in matches between the sides in question, not overall goal difference, like it is at the World Cup. If teams still cannot be split, it will go to goal difference in all group matches.

The round-of-16 games take place from Saturday, June 29 to Tuesday, July 2; the quarter-finals are on Friday, July 5 and Saturday, July 6; the semi-finals on Tuesday, July 9 and Wednesday, July 10; and the final in Berlin is on Sunday, July 14.

Here, The Athletic analyses the state of play in each group, and who may face who in the knockout stage. We will update this piece as the tournament progresses.

Group A

Hosts Germany are through to the knockout stage after thrashing Scotland 5-1 in the opening game in Munich and then beating Hungary 2-0 in Stuttgart.

Switzerland are in second following their 3-1 win over Hungary on June 15 and their 1-1 draw with Scotland on June 19.

The winners of this group will play the runners-up in Group C in Dortmund on June 29, with the second-placed side facing the runners-up from Group B in Berlin earlier that same day.

Group B

In the headline match-up in the ‘group of death’, Spain secured top spot and qualification for the knockouts with a 1-0 win over Italy.

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The result leaves the Italians needing a draw against Croatia in their final game to be sure of advancing. A defeat would move Croatia above Italy on four points.

Albania would also move on to four points if they beat Spain. If Albania and Croatia both finish on four points — as well as eliminating Italy — they would have to be separated by overall goal difference in the group, having drawn 2-2 in their match against each other. The other side may qualify as a best-placed third-place team.

The group saw the fastest goal in the history of the European Championship when Albania’s Nedim Bajrami scored after 23 seconds against Italy on June 15. Luciano Spalletti’s team fought back, however, winning 2-1 via first-half goals from Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella.

Earlier that day, Spain beat 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Croatia 3-0, thanks to goals from Alvaro Morata, Fabian Ruiz and Dani Carvajal. Morata, who opened the scoring, has now found the net seven times at the European Championship — leaving just Cristiano Ronaldo and Michel Platini ahead of him on the all-time list.

Croatia nearly beat Albania 2-1 in their second group game on June 19, thanks to an Andrej Kramaric strike and an own goal by Klaus Gjasula, but Gjasula scored at the other end in the fifth minute of added time to snatch a 2-2 draw.

Spain will play a third-placed team on June 30 in Cologne, with the Group B runners-up in Berlin for the very first game of the knockout stage on June 29, against the second-place side in Group A.

Group C

England’s 1-1 draw with Denmark secured at least a third-spot finish with four points from two games. Denmark and Slovenia are level in second with identical records, having drawn when they played each other.

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Serbia scored a late equaliser against Slovenia in June 20’s earlier kick-off to secure their first point.

England went top of the group after their 1-0 win against Serbia on June 16. Gareth Southgate’s side know a draw against Slovenia in their final match on June 25 would guarantee a spot in the last 16. Denmark will face Serbia at the same time.

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The group winners here will play a third-placed team in Gelsenkirchen on June 30, with the runners-up in Dortmund the day before against the winners of Group A, which as things stand will be Germany.

Group D

The big story from the first round of fixtures was Kylian Mbappe’s broken nose. France’s captain and talismanic forward was taken off covered in blood following a collision with Austria’s Kevin Danso late in the second half of their 1-0 win on June 18. The 25-year-old, who won the Golden Boot at the 2022 World Cup, was on the bench for his country’s game against Netherlands.

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He did play a key part in that win over Austria, however — with his dangerous run resulting in Maximilian Wober scoring the own goal that gave France all three points.

The day before this, on June 16, the Netherlands beat Poland 2-1 in Hamburg thanks to substitute Wout Weghorst’s late strike. The 31-year-old former Manchester United forward swept the ball home just two minutes after coming on as a substitute.

Poland then lost 3-1 to Austria on Friday (June 21) before Netherlands and France drew 0-0 in Leipzig. As a result, Poland have been eliminated.

The winners of this group will play in the last round-of-16 match on July 2 in Leipzig, against the team who finish second in Group F. The runners-up will take on the second-placed team from Group E the day before in Dusseldorf.

Group E

The biggest shock from the first round of fixtures came when Slovakia battled to a 1-0 win over Belgium in Frankfurt on Monday (June 17). It was — in FIFA rankings terms — the greatest upset in European Championship history. Earlier that day, Romania beat Ukraine 3-0, with Nicolae Stanciu scoring a fantastic strike from outside the box that found the top corner.

Ukraine then beat Slovakia today (June 21) to pick up a vital three points that lifted them off the bottom of the table and up to second place.

Belgium, who will be hoping Romelu Lukaku finds his feet in front of goal at this tournament sooner rather than later, take on Romania on June 22.

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The winners of this group will take on a third-placed side in Munich on July 2; the runners-up will face the team who come second in Group D the day before in Dusseldorf.

Group F

The game of the Euros (so far) was the Group F meeting between Turkey and Georgia on June 18, which finished 3-1 to the former. Mert Muldur and Arda Guler scored stunning long-range strikes for Turkey, with a goal by Georgia’s Georges Mikautadze sandwiched between them.

Then, in added time, with Georgia pushing for an equaliser and goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili up in the opposition penalty box, Turkey broke clear and Kerem Akturkoglu put the ball in an empty net to make it a 3-1 win.

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That night, Portugal snatched a last-gasp winner against the Czech Republic in a game that saw 41-year-old Pepe become the oldest player in the history of the European Championship and his team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo become the first player to appear in six editions of the competition.

Roberto Martinez’s side play Turkey next on June 22 and Ronaldo will be desperate to score in a record-extending sixth European Championship after failing to find the net against the Czechs. Earlier that day, Georgia and the Czech Republic will face off in Hamburg with both teams knowing defeat would leave them on the brink of elimination.

The winners of this group will play a third-placed team in Frankfurt on July 1 and whoever comes second will take on Group D’s winners the next day in Leipzig.

Here is the bracket for the knockout stage. The Athletic will update this as the tournament progresses.

(Top photo: Denmark score against England; Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)