With the end of the final round of the group stage of the European Championship, all the top 16 teams were born, and when the upper and lower halves came out, I believe that the audience around the world who followed the European Cup was in an uproar.

Heaven is above, hell is below, and it is accurate to describe the upper and lower halves of the top 16.

Let's take a look at the top half of the matchup.

Switzerland and Poland, both second in their respective groups, have interestingly seen two goals scored in all three games, and both teams have defended well.

Switzerland conceded one goal against Romania and were able to keep the goal against a strong French team.

Poland conceded 0 goals in the group stage, and the mighty German team could not break through their door.

Given the brutality of the knockout round, these two defensively strong teams are not destined to play with passion, and the Swiss Army Knife and the Eastern European Army Legion are very likely to be the final penalty shootout. Unless, Bundesliga golden boot Robert Lewandowski can get his shooting boot back.

Spain, who were strong in the first place in the group, entered the top half of the group, and the Plaid Army is no longer a dark horse, but a strong team. They face Portugal, who have drawn three in a row in the group stage, and if they can keep their eyes on Portugal's ace Cristiano Ronaldo, the returning midfield core Luka Modric will have a good chance of avenging the heavy defeat to Portugal at Euro 1996 and advancing to the quarter-finals.

For Portugal, there are only three games against Croatia in history, although they maintain a winning record, only one is an international match, and it is a distant 1996, judging from the performance of the group stage, even Hungary played so hard, and all of them conceded goals first, and then worked hard to equalize, such a performance to win the strong Croatian team, is tantamount to the sun coming out of the west.

The only hope is still in Ronaldo, who finally broke the goal in the game with Hungary.

In the final goal shootout with Hungary 3-3 in the group stage, the Portuguese superstar with two shots and one pass was voted the best of the match by UEFA.

Throughout the game, Portugal fell behind three times, and it was all thanks to Ronaldo who helped the team tie the score three times. He set up Nani to open the scoring in the first half, and then scored twice in a second-half scoring spree to make the game the most goals ever scored in the tournament.

Cristiano Ronaldo, who continues to break records with Leo Messi, has set several new personal records after this game.

The two goals in the game put him past England legend Alan Shearer to become the second-highest scorer in European Championship history with eight goals, behind French superstar Michel Platini with nine.

If he can score against Croatia in the knockout rounds, he will most likely equal, or even surpass, the French legend.

Of those eight goals, four were scored by headers, making Ronaldo the most headers at the Euros.

With the goal of this game, Ronaldo became the first player in the history of the European Championship to score in all four tournaments, and at the same time, this is also his goal in the seventh major tournament (World Cup + European Cup), which is another unprecedented record.

Originally, Zlatan Ibrahimovic also hoped to set a record of scoring in four consecutive European Championships like Ronaldo, but unfortunately, the limited Swedish team lost to the strong Belgian team, and "Yi Bongxian", who announced his retirement from the national team after the game, can only leave a deep regret for everyone.

And that's not all, Ronaldo has scored 59 goals for his country, more than his predecessors Luis Figo (32) and Rui Costa (26) combined.

It was also Cristiano Ronaldo's 17th game at the European Championships, becoming the player with the most appearances in the history of the tournament, and he will continue to break that record in the next game.

Portugal failed to secure a single victory, but narrowly drew with Hungary to finish third in the best group, and Portuguese President Marcelo Ribeiro de Sousa, who watched the game, praised his team.

Speaking after the game, the 67-year-old said: "We were under a lot of pressure, but in the end it was good because we got the right to qualify from a team that wanted to win. It was the most scored game since the tournament and the most exciting one. ”

'When it was 0-1, 1-2, 2-3, our players showed a lot of instinct and 20 to 25 minutes was remarkable, and our players were three times behind and three times equal.

'I hugged Fernando after the game and I told him we did it.

England and Northern Ireland, following the "English Civil War" in the group stage and Wales, British fans will see another "English Civil War" with a relatively large disparity in strength.

After the third round of the group stage of the European Championships, England, Wales and Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom all qualified, while England's neighbours Ireland also qualified.

England and Northern Ireland are in the top half of the table and are exactly the quarter-finals. Ireland face a strong France in the bottom half, while Wales face Iceland, who also reached the round of 16 in their first European Championship appearance.

From the perspective of matchups, at least one English team must advance to the quarter-finals, and the prospects of these four teams are the most optimistic for England, because only England is the only team in the top half of the world cup to have won the World Cup, and among the seven teams in the top half, only Croatia, Portugal and Belgium are threatening to England.

Fortunately, Croatia and Portugal can only have one in the semi-finals, as for Belgium, Hungary almost can't get out of the line with Hungary to Portugal with Ronaldo, and the European Red Devils gnaw on this unpredictable tactics and a declining giants who are good at fighting tough battles.

As long as Qiansheng is here, no English fan will think that the Belgian door can stop Qiansheng's sharp shooting footwork.

But you have to have a healthy Qiansheng, who is still being tested in the hospital.

This is also the biggest problem in England now, England with dry life, is the brave and invincible Three Lions, without dry England, just a bullied three meows, if you want to defeat Belgium to enter the semi-finals, defeat the powerful checkered army to enter the final, we must ensure the health of Qiansheng.

That's why former England international Jamie Carragher believes the current Three Lions lack a real game finisher without a dry player, and if he doesn't play, England may not be able to go far.

'If England squander chances like they did in the group stage, it's going to be hard for them to keep going. It is clear that if it were not dry, England would be short of the kind of player who could dominate the game on their own, a player like Spain's Andres and Belgium's Kevin. You can see that France has Dimitri and also has Antony, and Wales has Gareth. ”

"If you look back at England's experience at the 1966 World Cup and Euro 1996, we have Bobby and Paul respectively, and they are the kind of players that all other opponents are afraid of. Wayne maybe, but he's not as sharp as he used to be. I really hope it's all right, he's so important to England right now. ”

England legend Emil Husky said: "You can't be too optimistic because they haven't achieved much. ”

England coach Roy Hodgson said that there is no weak team in the European Championship, and no matter who the opponent is, they need to be up to 12 points and take it seriously.

"Northern Ireland is weak? Oh my God, can the teams that can make it out of the group of Germany, Poland and Ukraine be weak? ”

"Dry's injury? The result will be tomorrow, so it's important, but every one of our players is also important. ”

Some readers will ask, what about Northern Ireland, which is also from the British Isles? Ignored by the author?

Ahem, let's take a look, the author said that he can't see any reason for Northern Ireland to beat Big Brother England, so even if Michael O'Neill, the home team of Northern Ireland, advocates not being afraid of England, the author has nothing to introduce to this small team.

You see, Manchester United legend and England centre-back Rio Ferdinand was delighted to see Northern Ireland against them: "It's a much more favourable opponent for England to meet them. This England team will perform better when the opposition is pressing, and when the opponent backs away and swings the bus, we have to break down the opposition's dense defence. ”

'But, listen, if I'm in the team right now, I'll be happy to play Northern Ireland in the knockout rounds.'

The European Red Devils Belgium, who sent Sweden out of the tournament 1-0 and prompted Ibrahimovic to retire from the national team, were happy in the top half of the zone, and coach Mark Wilmots felt that this half was a paradise compared to the bottom half.

"Look at the bottom half, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, they've all won the World Cup and the European Championship. Wales, Slovakia, Ireland, Iceland, all of them are not to be underestimated. The bottom half is horrible, it's hell. Thankfully, we beat Sweden and finished second in the group to reach this paradisiacal semi-zone. ”

"I'm not underestimating the opponents in the top half, Croatia, Portugal and our opponents Hungary, they are not easy to play, and by the way, England is also a terrible opponent and if their number nine is back to health, I don't know how to get my players to defend him."

'But now we're playing against Hungary, a team that doesn't have big names but has a very good overall tactic, and if we underestimate them, we'll be punished severely.'

Compared to the strong teams in the lower half, the first half is simply heaven. Whichever team makes it to the final, it will make their team's history at the European Championship.

Oh, except for Portugal, which reached the final in 2004. (To be continued.) )