Euro 2024 tiebreakers explained: The wild ruling that saw Denmark finish above Slovenia despite identical records

If you had been watching the live group table during the final round of group games of Group C at Euro 2024, you might have watched a curious situation unfold.

Both teams scored twice and conceded twice in their three games, ending up on three points. On top of that, the result in the game between them was 1-1 so they couldn’t be separated there.

That led to them being entirely tied on all of the tiebreakers that UEFA use to separate teams.

The next step was disciplinary record and this is where things got interesting.

Both teams came into the final round with four yellows and no reds, putting them both level on four disciplinary points.

However in the 22nd minute Erik Janza was booked for Slovenia, not only ruling him out of the last 16 but also putting his team behind Denmark.

Then in the space of three minutes they were ahead again as first Jonas Wind and then Morten Hjulmand were booked for Denmark.

But there was another twist as in the 72nd minute Jaka Bijol was booked for Slovenia, meaning that both sides were tied at six.

However, UEFA later confirmed that although both teams were tied on bookings regarding the players, Slovenia coach Novakovic Milivoje’s yellow card in their first match against Denmark was the deciding factor.

You must be wondering what would’ve happened to both nations if Milivoje’s booking wasn’t a factor?

Well according to UEFA’s rules, it is their places in the overall ranking during Euro 2024 qualifying; put simply, UEFA takes all the teams out of their group and ranks them based on their points.

But it becomes even more interesting because Denmark and Slovenia were actually in the same group if you can believe it.

Going to Group H of Euro 2024 qualifying we can see that both Denmark and Slovenia FINISHED LEVEL in qualifying as well.

So we go to the games played between the two sides in qualifying. What’s that? The first game between them in Ljubljana in June 2023 finished level?

So what about the second game?

In the penultimate game of qualifying on the 17 November 2023 in Copenhagen, goals from Joakim Maehle and Thomas Delaney overrode a goal from our friend from earlier Janza.

Even if we take the qualifying rounds into account, the results still would’ve seen Denmark finish second and Slovenia end up in third place.

Does that all make sense? Go get a glass of water, you’ve earned it.