[footballcrazee]

Does anyone know why UEFA has bracketed the knockout stage so that the teams in group A and B are on one side and the teams in groups C and D are on the other? I have been trying to figure this out for a while, to no avail. It doesn't seem to make any sense, why set up rematches in the semifinals rather than the final and why keep the host teams on the same side of the draw? It actually prevents the Austrians from having a chance to play their semifinal in Vienna. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the semifinal matchups as A1/B2 vs. C1/D2 in Basel and B1/A2 vs D1/C2 in Vienna? To me, it makes more sense to do it that way to avoid rematches whenever possible and provide more balance to the knockout bracket, it'd also give the Austrians a shot to play the semis at home as an added benefit.

I remember there was a similar setup for the 2002 World Cup knockout stage, but there were travel concerns between Japan and South Korea at play so the bracketing made more sense for that tournament. I've been searching online but I can't seem to find any explanation for why UEFA set the Euro brackets up this way and I was wondering if anyone here could shed some light on this.

[Lahmfan]

Does anyone know why UEFA has bracketed the knockout stage so that the teams in group A and B are on one side and the teams in groups C and D are on the other? I have been trying to figure this out for a while, to no avail.

I think that was a draw..

[Lahmfan]

watch this..
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWNd7FsDheI
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWtIL...eature=related

[Phase4Nightmare]

Actually, the way the schedule has been put together Austria an Switzerland ARE guaranteed of a semi fnal in their own country (if they make it that far).

[Lusankya]

If both teams advance to the semis they would play each other so how can both have a game in their home stadium?

Semis are:

SF1: Winner QF1 - Winner QF2
SF2: Winner QF3 - Winner QF4

but it should be

SF1: Winner QF1 - Winner QF3
SF2: Winner QF2 - Winner QF4

[footballcrazee]

I saw the draw, but that was just to set up the particular groups. I'm talking about the format of the knockout stage:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_2008#Knockout_stage


Phase4Nightmare, look at the brackets. Austria has no chance of playing at home in the semifinal even if they win the first round grouping. The way the bracket is set up means that they would have to play in Switzerland. The bracket format confines the teams from Group A and B that advance to one side of the bracket and the teams that advance from C and D to the other. This is what I don't understand and what I think does not make any sense.

[Lusankya]

I think it's the regeneration time. 2004 in the SFs one team had 3 days and the other team 5 days for regeneration. Now it will be 4 and 5 days for SF1 and 3 and 4 days for SF2.
It's still a very stupid schedule.

Btw: Maybe neither Austria nor Switzerland can play at home in the QF, that's another silly mistake. They should have put Austria into group C or D. Then they should held QF1/QF2 in Switzerland and QF3/QF4 in Austria.

[MNAFETSC]

Originally Posted by Phase4Nightmare

Actually, the way the schedule has been put together Austria an Switzerland ARE guaranteed of a semi fnal in their own country (if they make it that far).

I believe thats how FIFA did it in 2002 so SKorea would play in SKorea and Japan in Japan.

[Oscar]

I hate this set up as well.

[BocaFan]

So nobody has an answer? It does seem dumb! The only reason I can think of for UEFA to do this is that it increases the likelihood of Austria reaching the semifinal and for Switzerland to reach the final (since we knew Groups A and B would probably be the weakest and, hence, that half of the brackets will be "easier" to get through should either or both hosts make it out of the group-stage).