Group E of UEFA Euro 2024 took place from 17 to 26 June 2024.[1] The group contained Belgium, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine. All four teams finished with four points, making it the first European Championship, and the first major tournament since Group E of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, where all teams in a group had the same amount of points. Ukraine became the first team to finish bottom of a European Championship group while earning as many as four points.[2][3]
Based on the FIFA Men's World Ranking, Slovakia's win was the biggest upset in UEFA European Championship history, with 45 places separating Belgium (3rd) and Slovakia (48th).[9] This was short lived, however, since Georgia (74th) beat Portugal (6th) 2-0 on June 26 in Group F. 68 places separated Georgia and Portugal, beating the Belgium-Slovakia record by 23 places. [10]
Fair play points would have been used as a tiebreaker if the head-to-head and overall records of teams had been tied (and if a penalty shoot-out was not applicable as a tiebreaker). These were calculated based on yellow and red cards received by players and team officials in all group matches as follows:[5]
yellow card = 1 point
red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points
direct red card = 3 points
yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points
Only one of the above deductions was applied to a player or team official in a single match.
