American sports fans tuning into ESPN are about to see a lot of soccer on their television over the next month. Euro 2016 can be thought of as the World Cup with only European teams playing.
Like the World Cup, it happens every four years. The Euro tournament takes place two years prior to the upcoming World Cup. This year’s tournament takes place in France ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
The format has undergone some tweaking. The field has expanded from 16 to 24 teams. There are six groups of four teams.
Like normal, the top two teams in each group advance to the round of 16. Additionally, the top four third place teams advance. Essentially the group stage serves as a way to eliminate the last place teams in each group as well as the two lowest third place teams.
Who is expected to do well? The usual suspects like France, Germany and Spain. England has been tearing it up in qualifying and has its best Euro squad in quite some time. France enters Euro 2016 as the favorite to win it all on their home turf.
Group A is made up of France, Romania, Albania and Switzerland. Group B features England, Russia, Wales, Slovakia. Group C has Germany, Ukraine, Poland and Northern Ireland. Group D features Spain, Czech Republic, Turkey and Croatia.
Group E is made up of Belgium, Italy, Republic of Ireland and Sweden. Group F features Portugal, Iceland, Austria and Hungary.
The tournament takes place from June 10 to July 10. Both the opening match and final take place at Stade de France in Saint Denis, France.