International knockout football, there’s nothing like it. Stature holds no weight here, it disintegrates and fades away into oblivion. Tactics take the backseat.
Pulverising passion, oceans of emotion, gut-wrenching nerves, the hopes of an entire nation — these are the driving forces in the playoff rounds. David, Goliath, Butch, Sundance, it doesn’t matter. It is all about these 90 minutes — a one-off tie with the highest of stakes and you have to leave it all on the pitch.
It is not the team that is most structurally sound nor the side with the highest possession that progresses. But it is the outfit that is the hungriest for the win, which will go to the ends of the Earth to give to its country the intoxicating ecstasy of progression that will prosper. The best teams win leagues; not so much the case in Cup football.
Knockout football, however, is decided by moments of magic, by players who embrace the pressure and step up, the biggest of names on the grandest of stages. Stoppage-time bicycle kick, shock headers in the game’s opening moments, fingertip stops to win the game, controversial VAR calls to alter the course of the match, and an unprecedented hat-trick of penalty saves. A post shared by UEFA EURO 2024 (@euro2024) This is what elimination football promises, and it is exactly what an exhilarating round-of-16 delivered at the Euro 2024.
The prelude There was drama in Deutschland well before the first elimination game even kicked off. There was an imbalance .
