Hard sums

From the Beeb:

Group D explained

  • The Czechs have won Group D.
  • Germany are guaranteed to progress if they win against the Czechs.
  • The Dutch will go through with victory against Latvia only if the Germans do not beat the Czechs.
  • Latvia will only go through with a victory and a Czech win or draw.
  • If the Czechs win and the Latvia – Netherlands match is a draw, the Netherlands will reach the quarter-finals with two points as long as the match against Latvia is a score draw. If it is goalless, the Netherlands will go through unless Germany lose by the odd goal in a match with at least five goals. Then the Germans qualify on UEFA’s coefficient.

In the event of a tie, Uefa criteria will be used to separate the teams.

Tiebreakers explained

If two or more teams finish level on points at the end of the group phase, these are the criteria which will be used to determine the final group placings:
1 Greater number of points in the matches between the teams in question
2 Goal difference from matches between the teams in question
3 Greater number of goals scored in matches between the teams in question
4 Goal difference resulting from all three group games
5 Greater number of goals scored in all group games
6 Coefficient derived from UEFA EURO 2004 and FIFA 2002 World Cup qualifiers (points obtained divided by number of matches played)
7 Fair Play ranking
8 Drawing of lots by the Committee for the European Championship only applicable if more than two teams are level

If two teams meeting in one of the last group matches have the same number of points, the same goal difference and the same number of goals, and if this match stands at a draw at the end of normal time, the ranking of these two teams will be determined by kicks from the penalty mark rather than the above-mentioned criteria.

As an aside, have you ever looked at the awful code used on one of these BBC pages. Standards? Hello?