Euro 2012 Qualifying Draw

Seems a bit early to be looking at Euro qualifying already but the time has come to see what the qualifying will look like. Just to clarify this is the qualifying for the finals tournament in 2012. The qualifying goes as follows: The 51 UEFA members are drawn into nine groups of either five or six nations. In the end of the group stages, 16 teams will make it to the finals. The Hosts, which are Poland and the Ukraine are given automatic births just like the host of the World Cup.

There are some great ties in this draw. Group B looks to be the most interesting group with World Cup 2010 attendees Slovakia being grouped with two teams who narrowly missed out in the European playoffs. Russia will likely be looking to rebound from their missed qualification much like the very unlucky Republic of Ireland. Russia nearly pushed Germany into the playoffs and Ireland probably should have knocked out France, but neither were quite so lucky.

The other particularly interesting groups are G, H, and I. Group G sees England matched up with home nations rival Wales as well as a struggling Bulgaria and an up and coming Switzerland who are going to this years World Cup. Group H sees Denmark and Portugal, two World Cup qualifiers who came from the same European qualifying group, meet again with an up and coming Norway team and Iceland. Finally Group I sees European holders Spain grouped with a weakened Czech Republic and a Scotland team who has a lot to prove as they have plummeted through the FIFA rankings and nearly made the Euro 2008 tournament only to be brushed aside convincingly in World Cup qualifying.

Though there are some interesting matchups in the other groups such as Turkey and Germany in group A, Serbia, Slovenia and Italy in Group C, Romania, France and World Cup qualifier Serbia in Group D, Sweden and Holland in Group E, and Croatia and Greece in Group F, these groups appear a bit more straight forward. Hopefully we get a set of 16 teams to build a final that is nearly as good as Euro 2008 was.

Euro 2012 qualifying draw:

GROUP A: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Austria, Turkey, Germany
GROUP B: Andorra, Armenia, Macedonia, Republic of Ireland, Slovakia, Russia
GROUP C: Faroe Islands, Estonia, Slovenia, Northern Ireland, Serbia, Italy
GROUP D: Luxembourg, Albania, Belarus, Bosnia, Romania, France
GROUP E: San Marino, Moldova, Hungary, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands
GROUP F: Malta, Georgia, Latvia, Israel, Greece, Croatia
GROUP G: Montenegro,Wales, Bulgaria, Switzerland, England
GROUP H: Iceland, Cyprus, Norway, Denmark, Portugal
GROUP I: Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Scotland, Czech Republic, Spain