I've been trying to get my head around how this is going to work, and then see if i can get an idea of how it will pan out. The first thing I've noticed is that Pot 1 could easily be composed of: England Ukraine Netherlands Spain Belgium Italy Four of those are hosts, leaving just Ukraine and Belgium. Ukraine won't play in Russia's group (B), so Belgium will have to. Ukraine will be in group F. I'm beginning to think that the draw will be a bit of a non-event.
Yeah, less of an event that usual. And it was less of an event already in 2016 because of the 24-team format, when even 3rd-place teams advance (so there's no real chance for a group of death like there is with 16 teams). Although we could have up to 5 'host' countries failing to qualify which I guess would make the draw more of an event than if all of them qualified.
At the moment Pot 1 is looking like: Belgium Italy Ukraine England Germany Spain So presumably that means Ukraine in the Amsterdam/Bucharest group, and Belgium in Copenhagen/St Pete.
England are about to join Belgium, Italy and Ukraine as top seeds. True, currently Germany and Spain look to be headed that way too but aren't nailed on yet.
I've just remembered there's a rule about the playoffs that says potential hosts shouldn't be in the same path together, in order to make it possible for them all to qualify. So far, Scotland and Romania are the hosts definitely in the playoffs. Scotland are in the League C path, and Romania via a convoluted process are in the League A path (I think). Meanwhile Hungary need to beat Wales in order to qualify directly. Failing that they will be in the playoffs and default to joining Romania,which needs to be avoided. One of them could swap with a League D team, but that explodes the rule about Nations League group winners not facing teams from a higher league. So presumably Hungary or Romania would be swapped into the League B path somehow. And then there's Denmark, who could end up in the League B playoffs. Denmark plus Scotland plus Hungary plus Romania must be the UEFA Emergency Panel nightmare.
Yeah, I think if Russia beat San Marino and Netherlands beats Estonia, then Portugal will be in Pot 3. Otherwise, pot 2. But, yes, the drawing of Portugal might be the only interesting part of the draw. Looking at other pot 3 teams, Turkey has looked good in qualifying so teams might also want to avoid them. Other than that, not a lot to fear.
So I forgot about Dublin. Now that Denmark have qualified automatically, the hosts in the playoffs are: Ireland Scotland Romania maybe Hungary To keep all three or four in separate paths is going to involve some playoff gerrymandering. And if one of the hosts drops into the League D path then we could easily end up with no League D team in the finals after all.
That would be stupid! Who do I have to cheer for to make sure that doesn't happen? Wales? I don't get the bending-over-backwards to make things so much easier for Euro 2020 host countries. If they qualify, fine - let them play 2 matches at home. That's already a lot of favoritism. Why the need to make their qualifying route easier too?
So, 4 hosts are in the playoffs. The host draw preference thing is a mess and unless they put one host in each of the four playoff "paths" I'm not really sure how they do the tournament draw on 11/30 without it being subject to some tinkering in March after the playoffs. Maybe there's a way. It would really stink if they put host preference (which may well be "ticket sales preference") ahead of the Nations League protocol that they set up. If a host gets put into the minnows group that would be completely unfair. Georgia, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Belarus all won their LN groups fair and square and deserve the right to play for the last spot.
It appears that UEFA will not do anything extraordinary with the playoff draw and instead will be content with having two hosts in one path. It appears either Romania or Hungary will be drawn into Scotland's path group, in which case only one can advance, or Romania and Hungary will end up in Iceland's path A, in which case, again, only one of them can advance. So, I guess the final draw on 11/30 will need to have at least one "if X then Y" contingency in it. For example, if Path C ends up with both Scotland and Romania they have to allow for the Path C winner to go either to Glasgow or Bucharest. Since a host cannot possibly come out of path 4, presumably they will simply use the path 4 playoff winner as a wild card. Just as an example, suppose that the playoff draw has Hungary in path A, Ireland in path B, and Scotland and Romania in path C. I could see them putting the path A winner in Budapest, putting the path B winner in Dublin, putting the path C winner in Glasgow, and putting the path D winner in Bucharest, with the proviso that if Hungary wins path C, then Hungary would go to Bucharest and the path D winner would go to Glasgow. Or something like that. It's actually feasible to do and still have a coherent draw on 11/30 so long as there are no more than two hosts in one path (which correspondingly means that one path has no hosts). https://www.uefa.com/european-quali...0b23-6cc12880102c-1000--play-off-draw-friday/
Selecções apuradas Alemanha Áustria Bélgica Croácia Dinamarca Espanha Finlândia França Holanda Inglaterra Itália País de Gales Polónia Portugal República Checa Rússia Suíça Suécia Turquia Ucrânia Alinhamento do “play-off” Caminho A: Islândia, Bulgária/Israel/Hungria/Roménia* Caminho B: Bósnia e Herzegovina, Eslováquia/República da Irlanda/Irlanda do Norte** Caminho C: Escócia, Noruega, Sérvia, /Bulgária/Israel/Hungria/Roménia* Caminho D: Geórgia, Macedónia do Norte, Kosovo, Bielorrússia *Um sorteio decidirá quem, entre Bulgária, Israel, Hungria ou Roménia, preencherá o lugar em aberto no Caminho C, e quais as outras três equipas que irão para o Caminho A.
This is all we can really know until after the Playoff Draw (November 22nd) and then the Group Stage Draw (November 30th).
I think one of the points in red is wrong. It looks as though UEFA has settled on the draw coming on Friday and they won't move Romania and Hungary to path A. There's a 50/50 chance that it could turn out that way if Bulgaria or Israel are drawn to be the last team in Path C, but there's also a 50/50 chance that Scotland's groups -- Path C -- could have two potential hosts in it (Scotland and either Hungary or Romania). If that happens, then Group D in the finals will need to be a contingent group -- the fourth team in that group would be the winner of Path C, unless it is Hungary or Romania, in which case presumably the winner of Path D would be placed in Group D and Hungary or Romania would be placed in their proper group. Groups C and F would also be contingent groups, getting either the Path C winner or (presumably) the Path D winner. The restriction on Kosovo seems like it won't end up a problem. I don't see any way that they can't slot the Path D winner in Groups C, D or F. Edit: Nope, this is wrong. Group C can't have Kosovo, so Path D could complicate things. I think there is likely to have to be a multi-contingency plan if Kosovo advances but Romania does not. Edit: Yet another edit -- the official draw rules don't seem to separate Russia and Kosovo or Ukraine and Kosovo. Very confusing!
If France, Portugal and Wales get drawn in the same group along with any of the top seeds (can't be Belgium or Ukraine) that will be very tasty indeed. Just a shame that 24 team tournaments allow some 3rd placed teams through.
Yeah, or Portugal + Netherlands. The path B playoff is shaping-up to be the toughest actually. Winner of that goes to Spain's group. So there is a potentially tricky group there. 50% chance either France or Croatia will join that group, and 20% Portugal does.
No isue and no confusion. Kosovo or any other playoff winner cannot meet Russia. Groups A & B will have Finland or Wales as their 4th seeds one playoff will have 2 hosts say league C - Scotland and Hungary winner goes to glasgow unless Hungary then winner of D goes to Glasgow. same for other cases theplayoff winner of League B goes to Dublin/Bilbao group E guaranteed.
Group B: Belgium, Russia, Denmark and Wales/Finland (Denmark will play all its games at home, in Copenhagen) Winner of Path A will go to group C (or F) and will be paired with another team from pot 4 (maybe with the winner of Path D, but I'm not sure if Kosovo can play in Romania) which will go automatically to group F (or C). If Romania wins the path will go in group C (and the paired team from pot 4 will go in F), if Hungary wins the path will go in group F (and the paired team from pot 4 will go in C). I'm curious if UEFA will accept Iceland- Romania to be played in Reykyavik in march. Iceland didn't play an offical game at home in first 5 months of the year in the last +25 years (from what I checked). It seems their national stadium doesn't have heating system.
Yeah, it turns out there is no Kosovo Ukraine prohibition., as stated somewhere on this board (maybe the tickets thread). That would have created a significant problem. But since that is ok, they were able to use the path D winner as a wild card to compensate for having two hosts (Romania and Hungary) in one path. No problem if Kosovo go to group C.
The problem with Kosovo is only with Russia, not with Ukraine. It's about the place where Kosovo will have to play their games. They can't enter in Russia with Kosovo passports because Russia didn't recognise Kosovo. This problem should occur also if Kosovo will have to play in Bucharest, in group C. Romania didn't recognise Kosovo. P.S for this reason it would have been a smart decision not to accept Kosovo in UEFA until they are not a UN member (anyway, the vote at UEFA was very tight, 28-26 if I remeber well). Few years ago, Ukraine- Kosovo was played in Poland because Ukraine didn't recognise Kosovo. From what I remeber there was an handball game Romania- Kosovo few years ago, which was played in Romania (I don't know how).