5 Things We Learned From Euro 2016

The New Format Was a Game-Changer

The change in the format had a massive impact.

Not only did it help Portugal lift the trophy, but it played a part in making the tourney less aesthetically pleasing. Expanding the field led to some vast discrepancies in talent, giving severely undermanned squads no choice but to play conservatively, which led to some square-peg, round-hole matches.

Steffen Freund, a former German star (the guy who speaks first), summed it up pretty well.

In past tournaments, 16 teams were split up into four groups, and the top two teams from each group -- after each squad played three round-robin group games -- moved on to the knockout rounds. There, the remaining eight teams played a single-elimination tourney, starting at the quarterfinals.

This year, the field expanded to 24 teams, and instead of just two teams from each group qualifying for the knockout round, three teams made it.

As a result, several of the group-stage matches were fairly meaningless -- when almost all of them used to matter greatly -- because both teams already knew they were advancing.

It aided Portugal in their run to the title. The Portuguese finished third in their group and wouldn't have reached knockout play in previous editions of the Euros, but the new format gave them a bid into the Round of 16. They capitalized, ripping off four straight wins to claim the crown.

So when you see people saying Portugal wasn't a deserving champion, this is where some of that belief comes from, with the rest stemming from Portugal's passive approach.