Euro: UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifying

[Savi]

Damn. Why not just postpone the draw until the playoffs are done?

 

[Lepardi]

Damn. Why not just postpone the draw until the playoffs are done?

Because it makes a lot more sense to start selling tickets for the fans of teams who already qualified in December. Now fans from all 20 countries will know where their team is playing on November 30th. We can also start booking flights and accommodation once the draw is done. The best flight connections from Helsinki to wherever Finland is playing will be sold in a second (there's a 50 percent chance Finland will play Belgium in either Copenhagen or St. Petersburg).

Fans from the four countries qualifying through the playoffs can apply for tickets in April.

 

[member 305909]

If a country has political reasons not to play against some other country that country shouldn't have been allowed to host any matches.

Btw, how serious is the threat that WADA bans Russia from all sporting activity and that would include football?

 

[YNWA14]

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

That has to be a photoshop

 

[YNWA14]

That has to be a photoshop

I don't think so:



Bale is a legend.

 

[HajdukSplit]

Here are the full details about the playoff draw tomorrow, an 8-page guide from UEFA, however there will be other draws as well: https://editorial.uefa.com/resource...95edbc5-1000/euro_play-off_draw_procedure.pdf

Basically to round it up:
- Draw is tomorrow (November 22) at 12:00 CET
- The first draw is the playoff draw to determine the three open spots in League A and the remaining spot in League C (Bulgaria, Israel, Hungary, Romania). The team drawn in League C will play Scotland away in the semifinals. The remaining three teams will go to League A, the lowest ranked will face Iceland away in the semifinals while the other two will play each other.
- The second draw is to determine the hosts of the 'playoff final'. The final match will be played March 31
- The third draw deals with Group B of Euro 2020 where Denmark & Russia are in the same group and are hosts of that group. The draw tomorrow will simply determine who hosts that match, whoever 'wins' that draw will play all three games at home at Euro despite not being seeded
- The fourth draw is confusing as hell even after reading it a couple times Basically if one of the playoff hosts (Scotland, Hungary, Romania, Ireland) qualify they will go into the group at Euro where their cities are hosting

 

[Lepardi]

- The third draw deals with Group B of Euro 2020 where Denmark & Russia are in the same group and are hosts of that group. The draw tomorrow will simply determine who hosts that match, whoever 'wins' that draw will play all three games at home at Euro despite not being seeded

This draw is also of interest to Belgian, Finnish and Welsh fans. The loser of this draw between Russia and Denmark will host the match between Belgium and Wales/Finland.

- The fourth draw is confusing as hell even after reading it a couple times Basically if one of the playoff hosts (Scotland, Hungary, Romania, Ireland) qualify they will go into the group at Euro where their cities are hosting

Path B playoff winners have already been placed in group E. No need for extra draws there because Ireland are the only host in that path.

I didn't think the draw was awfully confusing. Here's an example of how it will work:

Let's say Hungary and Romania are both drawn into playoff path A with Iceland. Bucharest hosts group C and Budapest hosts group F. A draw would then determine which of these groups the playoff path A winner is placed in. If it's group C, the winner of playoff path D (no hosts in that path) goes into group F, and vice versa. If the playoff path A winners are drawn into group C, they will play in that group unless Hungary wins the playoffs. In that case they go into group F hosted by Budapest, and the playoff path D winners go into group C.

This system means that the winners of playoff path D will have about a 75 percent chance of playing in the group they're drawn into today.

 

[HajdukSplit]

Scotland draw Israel in Path C

Path A is now complete:
Iceland vs. Romania
Bulgaria vs. Hungary

 

[HajdukSplit]

Playoff finals hosts

A: winner of Bulgaria/Hungary
B: winner of Bosnia-Herzegovina/Northern Ireland
C: Winner of Norway/Serbia
D: Winner of Georgia/Belarus

Interestingly none of the group hosts minus Hungary host the final, Bulgaria's reward for their 1 win in qualifying is potentially two home games to the path of Euro 2020

 

[ScottishCanuck]

Oh well. We're not qualifying then. Not beating Serbia or Norway away.

 

[HajdukSplit]

So in conclusion

Path A
Iceland vs. Romania
Bulgaria vs. Hungary (winners hosts final)

Path B
Bosnia-Herzegovina vs. Northern Ireland (winners host final)
Slovakia vs. Rep of Ireland

Path C
Scotland vs. Israel
Norway vs. Serbia (winners host final)

Path D
Georgia vs. Belarus (winners host final)
Macedonia vs. Kosovo

The Path C winners will go into the group with England at Euro; which means Path D will either go in Germany's or Netherland's group

 

[HajdukSplit]

Denmark will host Russia in Group B meaning they play all three games at home. Belgium, Russia and one of Finland/Wales play twice in St. Petersburg

 

[HajdukSplit]

If it means anything two of the playoff matchups will be rematches from the Nations League

- Bosnia-Herzegovina were in the same group as Northern Ireland and BiH won both games
- Scotland and Israel were also in the same group, both teams won their home games, Scotland winning 3:2 which won them the group (Israel won 2:1 in Haifa).

The Path A matchups don't have much history, Iceland and Romania met in 1998 World Cup qualifying when Iceland were relative minnows while Bulgaria-Hungary have met more frequently but not since 2011. Slovakia-Rep of Ireland have drawn 4 out of their 5 fixtures, the most recent was a friendly in the build up to Euro 2016. Norway-Serbia have only played one friendly in the mid-2000s. Georgia-Belarus have played three times with a record of 1-1-1, they met quite recently in 2017 in a friendly which ended in a draw. Obviously Kovoso never played Macedonia, that will be a big game on and off the field

 

[Pouchkine]

Laughing stock bad.

 

[Savi]

This playoff system is just plain weird

Imagine being in the NL League C, and knowing you can still go to the EC by beating other League C teams in a playoff, but then suddenly UEFA decides to draw you away to a League A team
Why not move the League D teams up so we don't get stuck with a Macedonia or Belarus at the EC

 

[Pouchkine]

Who are the idiots who thought of that???

So basically the Nations League is a joke the Euro Qualifying almost don't matter now and finally we get a bizarre 3rd playoffs system that no one understands...

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

This playoff system is just plain weird

Imagine being in the NL League C, and knowing you can still go to the EC by beating other League C teams in a playoff, but then suddenly UEFA decides to draw you away to a League A team
Why not move the League D teams up so we don't get stuck with a Macedonia or Belarus at the EC

Euro is more competitive than the WC or so some say...

 

[Pouchkine]

Well it was when it was 8-16 teams for sure. No easy games and tough to qualify.

 

[Lepardi]

Well it was when it was 8-16 teams for sure. No easy games and tough to qualify.

Are Kosovo and Georgia any worse than Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Panama?

 

[cgf]

Are Kosovo and Georgia any worse than Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Panama?

This misses the point. For the "Euros are tougher" argument to hold water, the Euros needed it's worst teams to be much better than the WM's worst teams to balance out not having Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay/Colombia/Peru joining the european powerhouses amongst the contenders.

 

[Pouchkine]

Are Kosovo and Georgia any worse than Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Panama?

When it was 8-16 teams Euro.

 

[Pouchkine]

This misses the point. For the "Euros are tougher" argument to hold water, the Euros needed it's worst teams to be much better than the WM's worst teams to balance out not having Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay/Colombia/Peru joining the european powerhouses amongst the contenders.

Colombia and Peru contenders???????? Uruguay were a non factor for almost 40 years.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

And who are the actual contenders for euro?

 

[Lepardi]

And who are the actual contenders for euro?

The Euros have been won twice this century by a team who weren't contenders.