Euro 2020 is going to sneak up on us. And we’re the hosts! Kind of… Here’s all you need to know about the Euro 2020 draw taking place on Sunday.
As you may already know, Ireland are one of many host nations for the Euro 2020 tournament.
The Aviva Stadium will be the home of three group stage games in June, as well as a round of 16 match on 30 June.
But will we be there? We’ll know a lot more about this question by Sunday afternoon, as we will know our group for the Euro 2020 qualifiers.
So who can we get? Who do we want? What the hell is going on?
Here’s everything you need to know.
First of all, here are the various pots that teams can be picked from:
UEFA Nations League pot (4): Switzerland*, Portugal*, Netherlands*, England*
Pot 1 (6): Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Poland
Pot 2 (10): Germany, Iceland, Bosnia and Herzegovina*, Ukraine*, Denmark*, Sweden*, Russia, Austria, Wales, Czech Republic
Pot 3 (10): Slovakia, Turkey, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland*, Norway*, Serbia*, Finland*, Bulgaria, Israel
Pot 4 (10): Hungary, Romania, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Cyprus, Estonia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Georgia*
Pot 5 (10): FYR Macedonia*, Kosovo*, Belarus*, Luxembourg, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Gibraltar, Faroe Islands
Pot 6 (5): Latvia, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Malta, San Marino
The * beside certain teams implies that they already have at least a playoff secured as a result of the UEFA Nations League.
So we will definitely have to play a team from Pot 2, Pot 4, Pot 5, and Pot 6. As well as that, a team from either the Nations League or Pot 1 will be entered into our group as well.
Who goes through?
The top two teams in each of the ten groups will automatically qualify for UEFA EURO 2020. The remaining four berths will be filled by the play-offs, which are contested by the 16 UEFA Nations League group winners (i.e. the four group winners in each of the four divisions) or the next best-ranked team in their league.
If a league does not have four teams to compete, the remaining slots are allocated to teams from another league, according to the overall UEFA Nations League rankings.
So a potential group for Ireland could be: Poland, Ukraine, Ireland, Estonia, Gibraltar and San Marino.
Sounds easy!
We bet it won’t be…
The draw takes place at 11am on Sunday.
COYBIG.
