Euro 2012 Tiebreakers:
-Of course Platini couldn’t stick with the traditional goal differential to decide who advances. Instead he made up some bullshit formula that I’ll try to understand and explain.
If two teams are tied, the first tiebreaker is their head-to-head record. For example, if Portugal and Denmark are tied, Portugal advances because they beat Denmark. If two teams drew with one another, the next tiebreaker is goal differential. Easy, right?
Wait, let’s say Portugal loses to Netherlands, Denmark loses to Germany. That will mean the Dutch, Portuguese, and Danish are all tied at 3 points apiece. It creates a mini-league between the three teams. First you look at their head-to-head. Well, each team has beaten one another one time, so toss that out. The next tiebreaker is the goal differential between THE THREE TEAMS TIED IN THEIR MATCHES. That means the Germany fixture means nothing.
Let’s say… Holland beats Portugal 1-0. That means the three teams will all have a GD of 0 in the matches between one another. The next tiebreaker is the amount of goals scored in the matches against one another. Portugal scored 3 goals against Denmark, which gives them a significant advantage. It’s really confusing and more reason why Michel Platini is a dumbass.
