The draw will take place at 12 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. UK on Saturday, Dec. 2. The winners of the three playoff paths, which are to be played in March, will all be in Pot 4 too. UEFA will hold a draw on Thursday 6 a.m. ET / 11 a.m. UK to determine which one of three Playoff B teams -- Finland, Iceland or Ukraine -- will have to take part in Playoff A, which will in turn create the fixtures based upon ranking. Path A: Poland, Wales, Estonia Path B: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel Path A or B: Finland, Iceland, Ukraine Path C: Georgia vs. Luxembourg, Greece vs. Kazakhstan https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/38950490/italy-pot-4-euro-2024-finals-draw-december-2
How have Italy ended up in Pot 4? That’s the one Pot 4 team nobody will want. Ditto the Netherlands and Croatia in Port 3.
Poor qualifying campaign. None of the teams in pot 4 could win more than half their games. A few others did the same in higher pots but didn’t lose as much.
This explains the seedings. We were the joint 4th best ranked team in qualifying - How EURO 2024 pots were set:- Portugal best nation that qualified- Austria in Pot 2 as best ranked 2nd- Netherlands best nation in Pot 3- Italy lacked one point to enter Pot 3- Switzerland worst nation that qualified pic.twitter.com/mX9ZH5tnbP— Football Rankings (@FootRankings) November 21, 2023 Full chart -
The #EURO2024 draw is on Saturday 👊What are your predictions? 🔮 pic.twitter.com/hajXUDCzeY— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) November 27, 2023
Draw simulator - https://swissfootballdata.com/2023/11/21/interactive-uefa-euro-2024-draw-simulator/amp/
Of the countries in Pot 2/3/4 the last time we played them. Pot B Hungary - 2022 Türkiye - 2016 Romania - 2021 Denmark - 2021 Albania - 2021 Austria - 2021 Pot C Netherlands - 2019 Scotland - 2023 Croatia - 2021 Slovenia - 2017 Slovakia - 2017 Czech Republic - 2021 Pot D Italy - 2023 Serbia - Never Switzerland - 2022 Play Off - A Wales - 2022 Finland - 2001 Poland - 2021 Estonia - 2015 Play Off - B Bosnia and Herzegovina - Never Ukraine - 2023 Israel - 2007 Iceland - 2020 Play Off - C Georgia - 1997 Luxembourg- 1999 Greece - 2006 Kazakhstan- 2009 Pot A Germany - 2022 Portugal - 2016 France - 2022 Spain - 2018 Belgium - 2020 (Upcoming match in 2024.j
To me, the hardest possible draw looks like: Hungary, Netherlands & Italy. Hungary > Denmark atm imo, Denmark have declined since the Euros and Hungary seem to keep getting better - as we well know. Easiest possible draw looks something like: Albania, Czechs & whoever comes out of playoff A or C. Don’t want either of those, my preference would be to draw the Netherlands along with two easier games so we get one game to prep ourselves for the knockout stages in terms of intensity while still being likely to progress if we lose.
This just makes it more confusing. Why are the Netherlands in Pot 3 when they have better points and GD than every team in Pot 2 but one. Why are Albania in Pot 2 when 5/6 teams in Pot 3 have a better record than them? This does in part make it clearer why Pot 3 looks stronger than Pot 2.
It’s because the Netherlands did not win their group (France did). Pot 2 is all group winners and the highest ranked second place team (Austria).
doesn’t really seem fair for a team to get a double punishment for having a tough qualifying group. Not that it really matters mind you in this case given there doesn’t seem much difference between pot 2 and 3.
Preferred it when pots where done on rankings/UEFA coefficient. Don't really feel the new system seeds teams correctly according to there actual strength. I bet if you matched these pots up with the countries ELO World ranking they'd be wildly different (outside of Pot 1).
It doesn't seed correctly at all. That's probably the weakest pot 2 I've ever seen for a Euros draw and the strongest pot 4. Going to make some weird groups.
Over two years ago and we still only managed a draw in the second game. Those NL games weren't valueless when it comes to evaluating the two teams and if you look at the four most recent meetings between us you can conclude they're a tough game for us by the fact we've only beaten them once. Even if those games were friendlies you could still draw that conclusion, how many other sides outside of the major nations have we struggled like that with in recent years? They're currently on a twelve-match unbeaten run and if you look at how they held their own against France, Germany and Portugal (for the most part) without their best player at Euro 2020 I think they'll be a tough side to play next summer.
If the NL is anything to go by, then Italy are better than England. If England want to win Euros, they shouldn't be hindered by a plucky but mediocre team.
It doesn’t work like that. Those fixtures were two years and Italy have declined notably since then, Hungary haven’t. That’s why the Hungary games mean more than the Italy ones. Obviously Hungary shouldn’t stop any potential contender from winning the tournament but you don’t want too many high intensity games in the group stage for fatigue reasons.
Hungary failed to qualify for the World Cup in the same manner, and then found themselves in a much easier group than Italy for the Euros. The Hungarian squad is well put together now, they have a class player in Szoboszlai, but if you look at most of the squad, they are playing for unranked teams or sitting on the bench, possibly in the piss poor Hungarian league. You can get in their starting line up from Barnsley, ffs! Plus, they've not only been lucky with their Euro qualifying group, but also with two tough away games behind closed gates. Obviously no one should underestimate that team, but shouldn't overrate them either, and the 0-4 in Wolverhampton should be enough motivation if the draw does bring England up against them.
Hungary are certainly much improved from their standard of recent decades but I wouldn't be using the nations league as a benchmark. There were lots of crazy results in the nations league, largely because of UEFA cramming the games in when they did. France nearly got relegated too and Denmark did the double over them yet come the world cup groups it was France with the win, making the final and Denmark going home after the group stage. Turkey are probably the best team right now of the second seeds, although they were in good form going into the last euros and then shambolic in it.
Hungary were actually good in the last euros and largely gave three of Europe’s elite a stern test without their best player. They’re very well coached and will be tough for most imo.
When you have tournaments with the third place teams potentially qualifying you always get nations playing very defensively against the top seeds. Hungary would probably be the best at that approach from that pot. It is hard to gauge quality because apart from the pot 1 teams qualifying performances were pretty awful in most groups.
Will be the first tournament that my parent won't be watching it with me. They used to love the euros and world cup.
IMO Turkey is the Pot 2 team to avoid, after Germany, as they will have the most supporters given the high number of Turks living in Germany. Real nationalistic as well in the last few years with Erdogan.