The five best players of EURO 2016’s group stage – agree?

However, they came out with a gameplay to contain their opponents and it worked perfectly, allowing first Szalai and then Stieber to put the game beyond Austria and provide us with our first big shock result.

A fascinating tie this. Northern Ireland have provided one of the feel-good stories of the tournament.

While thrills and spills could have been more numerous, Euro 2016’s minnows have brilliantly justified the tournament’s expansion.

England brought an enviable roster of forwards yet three finishes from 64 efforts makes them significant contributors to the most notable trend, of so few goals.

Incidentally, taking in a pitiless battery of games strewn around inhospitable reaches of the night – and being pelted non-stop with the same snippet of the Euro 2016 theme song until one’s brain takes on the consistency of thin vanilla custard – inevitably takes a toll on the human mind. He mentioned that his goal from the beginning was to make it to major tournaments and challenge himself to be a better player. Punished a poor Russian side 3-nil to advance as Group B winners ahead of England, the Welsh Dragons might see Will Grigg on fire, and torch his teammates aswell. Six groups of four, six games per group, 36 games in the round-robin stage in total.

Hungary 3 Portugal 3. Suspect the only mirror he’ll be staring into after this one, is the rearview. Belgium, on the other hand, were considered dark horses given their incredible star quality and the experience they picked up in the Brazil World Cup. Well revenge is a dish best served cold, and one I’m sure Roy Keane and Martin O’Neill prefer to local delicacies like snails and frogs legs.

In their final group match against Ireland, there was nothing Italy could do to alter that fate. The attacking midfielder clinched wins against Romania and Albania, unburdened by the pressure of performing for the hosts. Nothing has been easy.

Meet the Republic of Ireland’s hardy bunch who have been singing and dancing their way across the country since the start of the tournament.

The world champions haven’t hit their stride at Euro. UEFA’s general secretary Gianni Infantino previously described the format as “not ideal” due to the need for third-ranked teams in the group stage advancing, leading to a difficulty in preventing situations where teams might be able to know in advance what results they need to progress out of the group, leading to a lack of suspense for fans, or even the prospect of mutually beneficial collusion between teams. Belgium was one of the favorites in the tournament and is looking to have a breakthrough in a major tournament. Slovakia were at full-strength that day, while Germany were without several starting players like Mats Hummels, Toni Kroos and Mesut Ozil. Hopefully this will be better dealt with by the French police and the knock out stages will not be blighted by such issues. An opening win over Austria set the tone, before draws with Iceland and Portugal earned them a berth in the knockout stages. The so-called smaller teams like Iceland are very compact in defence and they’ve done it well. Ireland’s win over Italy reminded fans of their upset win over the Azzurri in the 1994 World Cup.

If it can get talisman Robert Lewandowski up and firing then it could go deep into this tournament.

The mouthwatering clash of the Round of 16 was made possible by Spain’s surprise stumble against Croatia.

Their individual failures are to the credit of players who were deemed unfit to share top billing with them in the eyes of some. It proved anything but, and the nature of Croatia’s victor – a blistering counterattack – has provided the blueprint for others to copy. Meaning: To change from 16 to 24 teams was the right decision.

David Moyes, the former Everton, Manchester United and Real Sociedad manager, sits down with Thomas Schaaf, ex-coach of Werder Bremen, Eintracht Frankfurt and Hannover, to discuss the trends and tactics in the group stage of UEFA EURO 2016. England however, are a step up in quality from anything they’ve faced so far.

It took until the final round of matches and game 34 for the most chaotically entertaining fixture: a six-goal thriller between Portugal and Hungary.

Iceland’s success to date has been built on their strong defence, but England’s array of attacking options should be enough to see them into the quarter finals.