Euro 2020 • Non-Gaming • Sport • Eurogamer.net

Trowel 2 Dec 2018 11:56:02 22,185 posts
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Cracking work by UEFA to do the group draw on a Sunday morning with barely any advertising.

Scotland's group is interesting - good job they've already banked the playoff place - but poor little NI...

The top two teams from each of the 10 groups will qualify for the tournament, which is being held in 12 countries.

Scotland and England are guaranteed a play-off place if they fail to qualify, with four extra places available through the Nations League play-offs.

Group A: England, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Kosovo

Group B: Portugal, Ukraine, Serbia, Lithuania, Luxembourg

Group C: Netherlands, Germany, Northern Ireland, Estonia, Belarus

Group D: Switzerland, Denmark, Republic of Ireland, Georgia, Gibraltar

Group E: Croatia, Wales, Slovakia, Hungary, Azerbaijan

Group F: Spain, Sweden, Norway, Romania, Faroe Islands, Malta

Group G: Poland, Austria, Israel, Slovenia, Macedonia, Latvia

Group H: France, Iceland, Turkey, Albania, Moldova, Andorra

Group I: Belgium, Russia, Scotland, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, San Marino

Group J: Italy, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Finland, Greece, Armenia, Liechtenstein

You-can-call-me-kal 2 Dec 2018 12:01:44 12,841 posts
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What happens to our group if we qualify through the Nations League?

fontgeeksogood 2 Dec 2018 12:16:07 3,715 posts
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Yet again the racists prevent Canada from continuing our dominance

askew 2 Dec 2018 12:16:17 17,992 posts
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Is that how it works? I thought you were just guaranteed a play-off spot…

Trowel 2 Dec 2018 12:20:43 22,185 posts
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A quick reminder on how to qualify:

The top two from each group go through automatically. That takes up 20 of the 24 spots for the Euro 2020 finals.

The other four places will be won through the play-offs...

Who makes the play-offs is based on performance in the Nations League, rather than in actual Euro 2020 qualifying.

As it stands, 16 teams have already won a place in the play-off stage.

They are the winners of each Nations League group:

Switzerland, Portugal, Netherlands, England, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine, Denmark, Sweden, Scotland, Norway, Serbia, Finland, Georgia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Belarus.

But if they go through automatically?...

If one of those 16 teams already in the play-offs wins an automatic spot for Euro 2020, their play-off place will of course have to go to somebody else.

It will be taken up will be taken by the next best-ranked team in their Nations League tier.

So for example - if England qualify, their play-off spot could end up with Iceland - assuming they have failed to also qualify.

Effectively this means that there will be a place for a team from each tier of the Nations League:

From the bottom tier, one of Georgia, Macedonia, Kosovo and Belarus will definitely be at the finals.

askew 2 Dec 2018 12:21:32 17,992 posts
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Thank you user Trowel.

Trowel 2 Dec 2018 12:25:28 22,185 posts
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So top two from each Euro group, then the rest come from the Nations League playoffs. Anyone with a playoff place who's qualified from their Euro group is replaced in the playoffs by the next team in their Nations League.

I think.

Gaol 2 Dec 2018 12:30:38 3,362 posts
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So next couple of years as Scotland fan is pointless, as no chance against Russia and Belgium with the current squad, and we are already in the play-offs. Unless we get a result against Russia or Belgium early on there is little point following it. Hardly any point for English fans either as they will stroll that group.

These competitions are getting progressively less exciting as the number of games and number of countries reaching the final grow, and the Nations League thing is over-elaborate pish.

Jono62 2 Dec 2018 12:40:53 21,365 posts
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Sounds very complicated.

docrob 6 Dec 2018 21:59:32 1,037 posts
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Gaol wrote:
So next couple of years as Scotland fan is pointless, as no chance against Russia and Belgium with the current squad, and we are already in the play-offs. Unless we get a result against Russia or Belgium early on there is little point following it. Hardly any point for English fans either as they will stroll that group.

These competitions are getting progressively less exciting as the number of games and number of countries reaching the final grow, and the Nations League thing is over-elaborate pish.

Actually I thought it was a decent draw for Scotland. Leastways it could have been a whole lot worse. Belgium will win, but Russia are eminently beatable for 2nd place. Also, we have a home playoff booked if we don’t, which means a lot of the pressure is off and we might attack more.

I think our first game is away v Kazakhstan. This is the most obvious banana skin fixture, so having it first up is good. Win it and it sets us up really nicely. Lose, and it’s not too late to salvage things.

AaronTurner 6 Dec 2018 23:40:54 10,191 posts
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I thought it was a good draw for us as well. I think Russia are a team that are beatable and I'd rather automatic qualification than a playoff spot...