England's draw with Scotland showed just how confusing the European Championship format can be for the teams and even the organizers.
UEFA's official website stated ahead of Friday's game that a draw would secure England a spot in the round of 16 with a game to spare.
Once England had underwhelmingly clinched that point after being held to a 0-0 draw by Scotland, qualification seemed likely but not guaranteed.
England coach Gareth Southgate certainly wasn't celebrating advancing, and his team analysts were left crunching the data.
By Saturday morning, UEFA had determined that England had yet to be sure of at least going through among the four best third-place teams from the six groups.
As it stands, England is in second place in Group D behind the Czech Republic on goal difference. The two teams will play each other on Tuesday at Wembley Stadium. Scotland and Croatia have one point each and will meet in Glasgow at the same time.
Four points was enough for third-place teams to advance at Euro 2016 when the tournament first expanded from 16 to 24 teams. Even three points was enough for Northern Ireland and eventual champion Portugal to move into the knockout phase, but not enough for Albania and Turkey.
Teams level on points are separated first by their head-to-head record and then by goal difference, followed by goals scored.
Teams can end up hanging around waiting to discover if they make it. Albania had to wait three days in 2016 before finally being eliminated.
The English are less likely to experience that fate and a victory over the Czech Republic will ensure first place in the group, with no calculations or tiebreakers needed. Then the last-16 match at Wembley would be against the second-place team in Group F, which could be France, Germany or Portugal.
So finishing second could be more appealing for England, since the opponent would be the Group E runner-up, which is currently Slovakia. But the game would be in Copenhagen rather than on home soil in England.
If the third-place team in Group D advances, the opposition would be a group winner.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor