EURO 2016 qualifying draw results: England in an easy group

England have been drawn in what is considered the easiest group to play against: Switzerland, Estonia, Slovenia, San Marino and Lithuania.

With the top two teams in the group having tickets to the final round, England will almost certainly be present at the EURO 2016 finals when their group includes opponents that are considered much weaker such as Switzerland, Estonia,San Marino,Lithuania, Slovenia.

Meanwhile, Spain, Germany and Portugal are in much more difficult groups. Spain will have to compete with Ukraine and Slovakia in Group C, Germany will have to be careful against the Republic of Ireland, Poland and Scotland in Group D. In Group I, Portugal will have to struggle against two difficult teams, Serbia and Denmark.

Euro 2016 qualifying draw results:

Table A:Netherlands, Czech Republic,Türkiye,Latvia,Iceland,Kazakhstan,

Table B:Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belgium, Israel,Wales,Cyprus,Andorra,

Table C:Spain, Ukraine, Slovakia,Belarus,Macedonia,Luxembourg,

Table D:Germany, Republic of Ireland, Poland,Scotland,Gibraltar,Georgia,

Table E:UK, Switzerland, Estonia,San Marino,Lithuania, Slovenia

Group F: Greece, Romania, Finland, Faroes Islands, Hungary, Northern Ireland

Group G:Russia, Austria, Sweden, Montenegro, Moldova

Table H:Italy, Croatia, Malta, Bulgaria, Norway,Azerbaijan,Liechtenstein,

Table I:Portugal, Denmark, Serbia, Armenia, Albania, (France).

(Hosting France will still play in the qualifiers but matches involving them will not count towards points)

The qualifying matches will begin on September 7, 2014 and end on October 13, 2015. The 18 first and second-placed teams from the nine groups, plus the best third-placed team, will advance directly to the finals.

The remaining eight third-placed teams will play a play-off to determine the remaining four teams, making a total of 23 teams joining hosts France in the summer of 2016.

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This evening (February 23), 53 UEFA member teams will be divided into 9 groups for the EURO 2016 qualifying round. The most notable change of this qualifying round compared to previous tournaments is that the host team will also participate in the matches, but only for friendly matches.

Of the 9 groups, groups A to H have 6 teams, while group I will only have 5 teams participating in the official qualifying round, and the host of EURO 2016, France, will play with the group I teams. France’s matches are only friendly matches and do not count for points. This makes people wait to see how the group I teams will “treat” their matches against France?

Among the draw rules, the most important is that England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain will have to be drawn into groups of six teams. This is a requirement of the TV companies to maximize the matches of these “big guys” and increase revenue.

Another rule is that there will be two pairs of teams that are not allowed to be in the same group for political reasons: Azerbaijan-Armenia and Spain-Gibraltar. Unlike in previous qualifiers, Russia and Georgia, two countries with political conflicts, have agreed to play each other if they are drawn in the same group.

The strongest group (according to the current UEFA rankings) that could be created would include: Spain, Ukraine, Serbia, Montenegro, Iceland and Luxembourg.

But the most interesting group would probably be the five teams: Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia (or Slovenia), Montenegro, Medonia. These are teams from the former Yugoslavia, and it would be interesting to see the convergence of a footballing nation that was said to be “the strongest in Europe if it survived”.

Of the four pairs that had to “shoot out” to get through the European play-off round in the EURO 2012 qualifiers, Bosnia and Portugal have no chance to “settle the score” with each other because they are in the same group. But Türkiye may have a chance to “take revenge” on Croatia, Montenegro may also settle the score with the Czech Republic and similarly Estonia with the Republic of Ireland.

Euro 2016 seeding groups

Group 1: Spain, Germany, Italy, England, Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Russia, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Group 2: Ukraine, Croatia, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Republic of Ireland

Group 3: Serbia, Türkiye, Slovenia, Israel, Norway, Slovakia, Romania, Austria, Poland

Group 4: Montenegro, Armenia, Scotland, Finland, Latvia, Wales, Bulgaria, Estonia, Belarus

Group 5: Iceland, Northern Ireland, Albania, Lithuania, Moldova, FYR Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Cyprus

Group 6: Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands, Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Gibraltar.

According to Bongdaplus