Paris (AFP)
The sixteen nations fighting in March for the last four Euro-2020 tickets will know their opponents on Friday in the draw for the play-offs in Nyon (Switzerland), which will further refine the final composition of the groups to one week of the main draw. November 30th.
For these survivors, unable to clinch their ticket via the playoffs ended Tuesday, the dams represent a second chance. The last to hope to see the Euro-2020 (12 June-12 July).
The sixteen qualified for the dams are already known. Their identity comes from the results of the 2018-2019 League of Nations, this new competition launched by UEFA after the World Cup to make some international windows more attractive.
Each league (or division, from A to D) of the League of Nations corresponds to a "way" of qualification, and therefore a ticket for the Euro, obtained after a barrage of four in the form of semi-final and final single match, scheduled respectively on Thursday, March 26, 2020 and Tuesday, March 31, 2020.
In the semifinals, the highest ranked in the League of Nations hosts the lowest ranked of the four barrages of the "track", while the second highest ranked hosts the third. The host country for the final of each lane is drawn on Friday.
- Unexpected luck -
Rare enough, the "small" nations here have an unexpected chance to qualify for the Euro: a ticket will be awarded to Georgia, North Macedonia, Kosovo or Belarus, competing in the "road" D .
If the posters of tracks B and D are already known, it becomes worse for the "lanes" A and C. League A teams, only Iceland is not already qualified for the Euro. The Icelanders are therefore waiting to know their opponents: it will be three teams drafted in League C of the League of Nations, namely Bulgaria, Israel, Hungary or Romania.
Of these four teams, one nation will be placed in the "track" C, alongside Scotland, Norway and Serbia. The Scots, better ranked than their opponents, know they will host their semifinal, but are waiting for the name of their opponent, while the Norwegians welcome the Serbs.
This draw, scheduled for one week of the grand draw of the finals on November 30 in Bucharest (Romania), will further refine the outcome of it.
Indeed, four barrage nations are host countries of the competition and would, in case of qualification, automatically be transferred to a pre-established group (Scotland in Group D with England, for example).
And in order to avoid the need for a new emergency draw in early April in the event that a host country qualifies and disrupts the groups, UEFA will temporarily pre-allocate one or more groups to each of the "tracks". ", anticipating the possible qualifications of host countries.
The draw of the dams per lane:
Track D
. Semi-final 1: Georgia - Belarus
. Semi-final 2: North Macedonia - Kosovo
Path C
. Semi-final 1: Scotland - (team drawn by lot)
. Semi-final 2: Norway - Serbia
Track B
. Semi-final 1: Bosnia and Herzegovina - Northern Ireland
. Semi-final 2: Slovakia - Ireland
Lane A
. Semi-final 1: Iceland - (team to be determined)
. Semi-final 2: (team to be determined) - (team to be determined)
© 2019 AFP