Wondering now if it might be remembered as the worst. I think a rise in nationalism across Europe caused partly by the migration crisis and partly by the countries asserting their identity along with other factors might be fuelling some of this behaviour. Just glad the Serbs aren't there as well!!

16 team finals was perfect, they should have left it at that imo

Agree. Its a Euro champs, why try to turn it into something almost as big as the WC. A bit too early to comment but i am worried the format of four 3rd place teams qualifying for next round has made the group stage less exciting. Its now far more important not to lose than it is to win. Only 2 games have had more than a 1 goal margin difference, and both of those were due to last minute breakaway goals. But as i said early days, im still upbeat and enjoying the tournament so far.

The good thing about the third place qualifiers is that we will not have nothing matches. Even if you lose your first two, you still have a chance of going through.
Having seen all but four teams, there have been no thrashings yet and it would appear there is no great gulf in standards, unlike some World Cup games.

There will still be "nothing" games when both teams are through, or effectively through, and are merely playing for 1st/2nd/3rd. Probably more such games than under a 16- or 32-team format.

"Merely" playing for 1st/2nd/3rd could be the difference between playing Germany or Iceland. By nothing games I meant games where one team (or both) was already out and had nothing to play for.

OK, understood. But given the fact that two-thirds of teams go through rather than just half, it is unavoidable that, on average, there will be less at stake in the final group games. It might not be deciding between Germany and Iceland. It could be more like whether you have to play Portugal or Belgium, which is a bit of a "meh".

I take the point that some teams will be already through but that is balanced out by the fact that no team will be out before the last game.

Today's match would suggest there is no great difference in quality. Austria, with one of the best records in qualifying, lose to a Hungary team who squeezed through in the play-offs.

The more games the better as far as I'm concerned, wasn't a fan when announced, but more than happy now.

Still not sure only the Belgium v Italy game was a very good game so far.

Quite a few sterile games

but not only that there's not that many countries in Europe that would be big enough to host a 24 team tournament

Don't know if everyone caught that discussion at the end of the BBC coverage tonight about how the tournament's been overall, but Shearer did state that he thought an increase in finalists has led to a poorer standard of play.

We do seem to have seen more teams than in previous Euros just sitting back and trying to solely defend against opponents for a whole half and longer to either preserve a point or try and get something on the counter attack.

Fortunately, teams who have taken this approach haven't been that successful because of all the late goals that have been scored, but despite this, the ratio of goals per game is under 2 and only twice in 48 instances has a side scored three times.

Is this a bad omen for the rest of the tournament or will things start to open up and improve as teams go looking for wins and we move into the knockout stage?

The standard at the top is not as high as it once was, but the overall standard is higher. There are few really crap teams these days.
The away followings have been fantastic, creating as good an atmosphere as I can remember for most matches.

I think this is because of the best 3rd place teams getting through. Obviously when it was only the top two in each group getting through, teams who didn't do well in their opening match had to come out in the other games to make up the points. But now it makes more sense to hang in there as long as possible, not take many risks with defeats or even damaging your goal difference and just seeing if you're in with a shout at the end of the three games. After all, more teams go through than go out at this stage.

As has been mentioned, the standard in general has been higher than the World Cup group stage (although the matches not as entertaining as in 2014) overall. So I don't really see much of a problem. There will be very few dead games in the group stage and the knockouts should be very good with some potentially tasty clashes in the last 16. Knockout football is always where the tension is at its highest so more of that should be good.

Agree. Take Austria tonight settling for a point so that they now have 1 point from 2 games. 1 point from 2 games was invariably time to go and pack the suitcase or pray for a miracle on last matchday.

As much as i loved watching all the round 1 matches, i'm now far enough into the tournament that i want to see some proper quality. Far too much of a muchness from very similar average teams. Only the slightly different style of play and different kit colours lets you know your watching a different match to the previous one in the day. So for me Its starting to get disappointing now. Mainly as the attacking play is at times is woeful. If i see a player in open play shape to shoot from 20+ yards out I automatically assume that's the end of that attack as the ball is going into row Z or near the corner flag.

And as much as every team is well organised, although that has been the case at euros for last 4 tournaments at least, the defending isnt exactly the reason so few goals are being scored. Look how many scrappy goals in last 5mins have been scored in this tournament, especially as a majority of those would have not been scored against solid defending. Most decent teams in all types of football can shut up shop. Still the upside of this is most games are still in the balance 75mins in and a goal is more than likely coming.