UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying


The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament is a football competition that is being played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that will advance to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, to be staged across Europe in June and July 2021. The competition is linked with the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League, giving countries a secondary route to qualify for the final tournament. For the first time since 1976, no team will automatically qualify for the UEFA European Championship as the host country.
The national teams of all 55 UEFA member associations entered the qualifying process, with Kosovo taking part for the first time. The group stage draw took place at the Convention Centre Dublin, Republic of Ireland, on 2 December 2018.

Qualified teams


TeamQualified asQualified onPrevious appearances in tournament
5
'9
'11
3
2
'10
9
4
'9
9
0
6
5
2
'9
'12
7
4
8
1

Format

There was no automatic qualifying berth, and all 55 UEFA national teams, including the 12 national teams whose countries would stage matches, had to compete in the qualifiers for the 24 places at the finals tournament. As the host cities were appointed by UEFA in September 2014, before qualifying, it was possible for the national teams from the host cities to fail to qualify for the finals tournament.
With the creation of the UEFA Nations League starting in 2018, the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League was linked with UEFA Euro qualifying, providing teams another chance to qualify for the tournament. The qualifying process guaranteed that at least one team from each division of the previous Nations League season would qualify for the final tournament.
The main qualifying process began with the qualifying group stage in March 2019, instead of late 2018 immediately following the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and ended in November 2019. The qualifiers were played on double matchdays in March, June, September, October and November 2019. As with the 2016 qualifying tournament, the group stage decided 20 of the 24 teams that advanced to the final tournament. Following the admission of Kosovo to UEFA in May 2016, it was announced that the 55 teams will be drawn into 10 groups after the completion of the League phase of the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League, and the draw seeding will be based on the overall rankings of the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League. There were five groups of five teams, and five groups of six teams, with the four UEFA Nations League Finals participants guaranteed to be drawn into groups of five teams. The top two teams in each of the 10 groups qualified for the final tournament.
Following the qualifying group stage, the qualifying play-offs will take place to determine the remaining 4 teams for the finals tournament. Unlike previous editions, the participants of the play-offs will not be decided based on results from the qualifying group stage. Instead, 16 teams will be selected based on their performance in the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League. These teams will be divided into four paths, each containing four teams, with one team from each path qualifying for the final tournament. Each league will have its own play-off path if at least four teams have not already qualified in the conventional qualifying group stage. The Nations League group winners will automatically qualify for the play-off path of their league. If a group winner has already qualified through the qualifying group stage, they will be replaced by the next best-ranked team in the same league. However, if there are not enough non-qualified teams in the same league, then the spot will go to the next best team in the overall ranking. However, group winners cannot face teams from a higher league.
Each play-off path will feature two single-leg semi-finals, and one single-leg final. The best-ranked team will host the fourth-ranked team, and the second-ranked team will host the third-ranked team. The host of the final will be decided by a draw, with semi-final winner 1 or 2 hosting the final. The four play-off path winners will join the 20 teams that have already qualified for the final tournament. The UEFA Executive Committee approved the use of the video assistant referee system for the play-offs during their meeting in Nyon, Switzerland on 4 December 2019, the first time the technology will be used in the qualifying competition.

Tiebreakers for group ranking

If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied:
  1. Higher number of points obtained in the matches played among the teams in question;
  2. Superior goal difference in matches played among the teams in question;
  3. Higher number of goals scored in the matches played among the teams in question;
  4. Higher number of goals scored away from home in the matches played among the teams in question;
  5. If, after having applied criteria 1 to 4, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 10 apply;
  6. Superior goal difference in all group matches;
  7. Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
  8. Higher number of away goals scored in all group matches;
  9. Higher number of wins in all group matches;
  10. Higher number of away wins in all group matches;
  11. Fair play conduct in all group matches ;
  12. Position in the UEFA Nations League overall ranking.
Notes

Criteria for overall ranking

To determine the overall rankings of the European Qualifiers, results against teams in sixth place are discarded and the following criteria are applied:
  1. Position in the group;
  2. Higher number of points;
  3. Superior goal difference;
  4. Higher number of goals scored;
  5. Higher number of goals scored away from home;
  6. Higher number of wins;
  7. Higher number of wins away from home;
  8. Fair play conduct ;
  9. Position in the UEFA Nations League overall ranking.

    Schedule

Below is the schedule of the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying campaign.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, the qualifying play-offs, originally scheduled for 26 and 31 March 2020, were postponed by UEFA on 17 March 2020. Afterwards, UEFA tentatively scheduled for the matches to take place on 4 and 9 June 2020. However, the play-offs were later postponed indefinitely by UEFA on 1 April 2020. The scheduling of the play-offs was reviewed by the UEFA Executive Committee during their meeting on 17 June 2020. At the meeting, UEFA decided to stage the play-off semi-finals on 8 October 2020, and the finals on 12 November 2020. To facilitate this, an additional matchday was added to both international windows, allowing for triple-headers to be played in order to complete the league phase of the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League as scheduled. The changes to the International Match Calendar for October and November 2020 were approved by the FIFA Council on 25 June 2020.
StageMatchdayDates
Qualifying group stageMatchday 121–23 March 2019
Qualifying group stageMatchday 224–26 March 2019
Qualifying group stageMatchday 37–8 June 2019
Qualifying group stageMatchday 410–11 June 2019
Qualifying group stageMatchday 55–7 September 2019
Qualifying group stageMatchday 68–10 September 2019
Qualifying group stageMatchday 710–12 October 2019
Qualifying group stageMatchday 813–15 October 2019
Qualifying group stageMatchday 914–16 November 2019
Qualifying group stageMatchday 1017–19 November 2019
Play-offsSemi-finals8 October 2020
Play-offsFinals12 November 2020

The fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 2 December 2018 following the draw.

Draw

The qualifying group stage draw was held on 2 December 2018, 12:00 CET, at the Convention Centre Dublin in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. The 55 teams were drawn into 10 groups: five groups of five teams and five groups of six teams.
The teams were seeded based on the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League overall ranking. The four participants of the 2019 UEFA Nations League Finals in June 2019 were placed in a separate pot and drawn into Groups A–D which only have five teams so that they only have to play eight qualifying matches, leaving two free matchdays to play in Nations League Finals. The following restrictions were also applied with computer assistance:
The teams were seeded based on the November 2018 UEFA Nations League overall rankings. Teams in italics are final tournament hosts. Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.

Summary

Groups

Matches took place from 21 March to 19 November 2019.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Group I

Group J

Play-offs

Teams that failed in the qualifying group stage may still qualify for the final tournament through the play-offs. Each league in the UEFA Nations League will be allocated one of the four remaining final tournament spots. Four teams from each league that have not already qualified for the European Championship finals will compete in the play-offs of their league. The play-off berths were first allocated to each Nations League group winner, and if any of the group winners had already qualified for the European Championship finals, then to the next best ranked team of the league, etc.

Team selection

Draw

Path A

Path B

Path C

Path D

Goalscorers

Overall ranking

The overall rankings were used for seeding in the final tournament draw. Results against sixth-placed teams were not considered in the ranking.

Team of the European Qualifiers

Following the completion of the qualifying group stage, UEFA released a "Team of the European Qualifiers" on 29 November 2019. The team featured 11 players based on accumulated scores from the FedEx Performance Zone player rankings, which was based on form from qualifying. Additional weighting was given for teams that played only eight matches.
GoalkeeperDefendersMidfieldersForwards
Andriy Pyatov Ragnar Sigurðsson
Sergio Ramos
Merih Demiral		 Ioannis Kousoulos
Eran Zahavi
Georginio Wijnaldum
Bernardo Silva		 Harry Kane
Raheem Sterling
Memphis Depay

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