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When Robin van persie scored the owngoal against czrch, it signified the end of a cycle for the dutch. From flying to head them to great heights in 2014 to falling to score the owngoal in 2015. It was dissapointing! it looked like the worse thing ever to happen but was it? coincedence or fate We took a trip down memory lane to checj it out but surprisingly, ALL third place teams at the world cup since 1982 have been european and intetrestingly, ALL of them bar current world champions Germany in 2006 and 2010, have failed to qualify for the next euro as shown above . Thanks to soccerblog for the image

Just 6 years ago, Belgium were ranked 66 in the world according to FIFA but at the latest FIFA ranking, they have been rated as the best team in the world. Belgium: a well knitted unit Admitted, people may have issues with the way FIFA conducts its rankings but personally after looking through the algorithms, i do not think there us a better way of ranking teams. The question is, how did they acheive it? Many teams have gotten to the top using different means: Spain, top of the world between 2008 and 2014 bar few months changes built on the superb tiki taka perfected by Barcelona famed academy and carried out perfectly by their coach and players. A system that ocer time ruled from the youth squads to the senior squads. Controlling and dominating games with sleek passing and cool movements until their recent capitulation after the aging of midfield maestro Xavi Hernandez.

Today we present the final list of teams qualified for euro 2016, in no particular order: Austria How they qualified: Group G winners. Having qualified as hosts in 2008, Austria made it through qualifying for the first time with a superb unbeaten run, winning nine games and drawing one. Euro pedigree: Group stages in 2008. Who's the boss? Marcel Koller, 54. Spent his entire playing career as a midfielder with Grasshoppers Zurich and played at Euro 1996 for Switzerland. Top scorer FC Basel's gangly striker Marc Janko scored seven goals