Well ok...different is one thing...but if it happens early, it completely ruins the game. One team has no chance of winning...they turtle up and try not to lose. That strategy wouldn't work in the knockout stage, though.
Outside of Group winners playing Group runner ups in the first round, how do they seed the knockout stage? Same as the tiebreakers? (Total points, goal differential, total goals, etc.?)
Every group advances two teams to the knock out round. This is the point of the group stage. To determine who advances. What happens if the entire group is deadlocked, both in record and GF/GA? I know that's extremely unlikely, but there must be a rule in place for it.
I'm very happy I got to read the first page before it was deleted. I had the great misfortune of reading the entire thing shutup and put your blue polo on Don't wear one