Tell me what they did when they played in KO.
I don’t care about group stage, all the decent teams pass it.
This is funny, did you read my message?
Let me repeat, in 2014 WC, Spain, Italy, England, Ronaldo's Portugal, and Croatia all failed to pass the group stage losing against their supposedly "weak" American rivals, see below.
Spain lost to Chile and failed to pass the group stage.
England & Italy lost to Uruguay in a group topped by a Central American team, Costa-Rica and failed to pass the group stage.
Ronaldo's Portugal was left behind a North American team, USA and could not qualify.
Croatia was left behind another North American team, Mexico, and could not qualify.
Another Euro giant, EC 2016 finalist, France could only draw with mighty Ecuador in the group stage.
In the KO rounds, Argentina eliminated Switzerland, Belgium, and Holland. Argentina and Brazil both lost to Germany, the winner of the WC.
In total, South American sides played 13 games against their Euro rivals, won 9 and lost 4 (by the way I am not counting North American/Central American teams' wins/losses, only South American teams wins & losses).
Since you said, "all decent teams pass it", pass the group stage, that would mean Spain, Italy, England, Ronaldo's Portugal, Croatia were not decent sides.
Then what makes you think Euro is better than Copa in 2016?? especially considering the other fact that other top European sides like Holland, Switzerland, and Belgium were eliminated by Argentina, a SA side & EC 2016 finalist France could only draw with mighty Ecuador in the group stage.
So, in WC 2014, the EC 2012 finalists, Spain and Italy were eliminated in the group stage losing against teams like Costa Rica, Uruguay, Chile.
EC 2016 finalist, Portugal cannot even go beyond the group stage losing to mighty USA.
Other EC 2016 finalist, France could only draw with Ecuador.
Overall, it is weird how well European teams fared against these "irrelevant" "weak" SA rivals, isn't it?