Deciding which third-placed teams go through to Euro 2016’s last 16 could be fun

Now we know what some of you clever clogs out there are thinking…

How, given that Euro 2016 is already a few days old,  are some people *still* not aware of this rule?

Which rule? Well, if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re one of the ones that isn’t aware of it. Don’t worry, you’re not alone…

I’ve not checked the rules, if you finish 3rd in a #euro16 group do you enter the Europa League? 😉

— Robert Macmillan (@robfmac) June 12, 2016

Thanks to the not-so-long-ago suspended Michel Platini, this summer’s European Championships will be the first ever to contain 24 teams, instead of the usual 16. As a result, there have been a been a few changes to the tournament.

For starters, the qualifiers from the group stages don’t go directly into a quarter-final, and have to negotiate their way through a last 16 stage instead. As some of you will have twigged, this means that not every team that makes it into the last 16 will have finished as one of the top two sides in their group.

Now hold your horses, this *doesn’t* mean that *all* third-placed finishers are safe from an early flight home. Instead, four of the best third-place finishers will qualify for the last 16.

Still following? Good. We’re not quite done yet. Not by a long way.

Inevitably, a couple of third-placed teams are bound to finish with identical points and goal difference tallies. You just know it will happen. Thankfully, UEFA have a plan in place. In actual fact, they have a few plans in place.

If points and goal difference fail to establish the best third-place finishers, other criteria will be used. The highest number of goals scored will then be looked at and then it will come down to ‘fair play conduct in the final tournament’.

But we’re not done yet. If there’s *still* no splitting the teams, it will then rest on their coefficient ranking and then an arm wrestling competition between the managers of the teams concerned.

Okay, we made the arm-wrestling bit up but the rest is completely true.

To save yourself a load of confusion, let’s just hope your team finishes in the top two.