Slovenia's Petar Stojanovic. PA Images/Alamy Images

How a technicality impacted final Euro 2024 group standings

By Sai Mohan | Last updated Jun 26, 2024 8:25 AM ET

In a stunning turn of events, a technicality decided the final standings in Group C of Euro 2024.

England topped the group while Denmark and Slovenia finished second and third, respectively, with three points each. The latter two countries were level on points, head-to-head, goal difference and goals scored, with even the final tiebreaker — disciplinary points — unable to separate them. Both Denmark and Slovenia finished with six yellow cards apiece.

How Group C finished... #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/nFaZaG9PDm
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) June 25, 2024

To further complicate matters, Denmark and Slovenia were in the same qualifying group and finished with the exact points (22 apiece) en route to Euro 2024. Even more amazingly, their goal records were strikingly similar, with Denmark netting 19 goals and conceding 10 to Slovenia's 20 and nine.

So, why exactly did Denmark finish second over Slovenia?

Brace yourself for this.

According to UEFA, Slovenia's technical director Milivoje Novakovic was reprimanded for unsportsmanlike behavior in the 70th minute of their Group C opener against Denmark on June 16. As a result, Slovenia finished below Denmark in disciplinary points.

Essentially, a non-player's actions tipped the scales in Denmark's favor.

UEFA have officially confirmed that Denmark finished ahead of Slovenia in Group C because of a yellow card shown to Slovenia assistant coach Milivoje Novaković.

Denmark and Slovenia finished level on points, goal difference, goals scored and yellow cards shown to players.
— Sam Dean (@SamJDean) June 26, 2024

It was earlier speculated that Denmark got the second seed because of their 2-1 victory over Slovenia in a Euro qualifying game in November 2023.

Some believe the outcome could be a blessing in disguise for Slovenia, who qualified for the knockout stages of a major tournament for the first time in their history. Why? Because Denmark will face the red-hot Germany in the Round of 16. Slovenia may have dodged a huge bullet.

Sai Mohan

A veteran sportswriter based in Portugal, Sai covers the NBA for Yardbarker and a few local news outlets. He had the honor of covering sporting events across four different continents as a newspaper reporter. Some of his all-time favorite athletes include Mike Tyson, Larry Bird, Luís Figo, Ayrton Senna and Steffi Graf.

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