UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying

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This page describes the qualifying procedure for the UEFA Euro 2008.

1 Seedings
2 Tiebreakers
3 Summary
4 Groups
5 Top goalscorers
6 Qualified nations
7 Trivia
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Seedings

Qualification coefficients were used to rank the teams according to their results in both UEFA Euro 2004 and FIFA World Cup 2006 qualifying stages. Only the group matches, and not any additional playoffs, counted towards the coefficients, also determining which pot a national team was put in. Some points to note:

Greece are European champions, thus were automatically seeded in the top pool.
Portugal did not have to qualify for UEFA Euro 2004 as hosts. Only their record in 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying was used.
Germany did not have to qualify for the World Cup 2006 as hosts. Only their record in UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying was used.
Kazakhstan had never competed in the European Championships, so only their World Cup record was used. The team's last continental qualifying was for the 2000 Asian Cup. Their record in that competition (P4, Pts6) is not used.
After the independence from Serbia for Montenegro, Serbia took up the old Serbia & Montenegro's fixtures. Montenegro had not been admitted to UEFA/FIFA at the time the qualifying competition had started, and therefore will not compete until the qualifying for the next World Cup.

The draw took place on 27 January 2006 in Montreux, Switzerland.^[1]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Greece Netherlands Portugal England Czech Republic France Sweden	Germany Croatia Italy Turkey Poland Spain Romania	Serbia Russia Denmark Norway Bulgaria Ukraine Slovakia	Bosnia and Herzegovina Republic of Ireland Belgium Latvia Israel Scotland Slovenia
Pot 5	Pot 6	Pot 7
Hungary Finland Estonia Wales Lithuania Albania Iceland	Georgia FYR Macedonia Belarus Armenia Northern Ireland Cyprus Moldova	Liechtenstein Azerbaijan Andorra Malta Faroe Islands Kazakhstan Luxembourg San Marino

[edit] Tiebreakers

If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings.

Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question.
Superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question.
Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question.
Higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question.
If, after applying criteria 1) to 4) to several teams, two or more teams still have an equal ranking, the criteria 1) to 4) will be reapplied to determine the ranking of these teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6) and 7) will apply.
Results of all group matches: 1. Superior goal difference 2. Higher number of goals scored 3. Higher number of goals scored away from home 4. Fair play conduct.
Drawing of lots.

[edit] Summary

Below is a table containing all seven qualifying groups. Teams that have secured a place in the final tournament are highlighted in green. The order of teams is by final group position.

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

[edit] Groups

The qualifying process started in August 2006. Austria and Switzerland were granted places in the tournament finals as host nations.

The qualifying format has been changed compared to the previous tournament. The winners and runners-up from seven groups will automatically qualify for the Championship, with the hosts filling the other two slots in the 16-team tournament. The move means there will no longer be play-offs between teams finishing in second place in the groups. Six of the qualifying groups contain seven teams, and the other eight.

As the official successor of the previous football association, Serbia inherited the position originally allotted to Serbia and Montenegro in Group A prior to the dissolution of the state union. Montenegro were granted UEFA membership after qualifying had started and thus were not able to participate in this European Championship.

Key:

Teams highlighted in green qualified for the finals.

[edit] Group A

Main article: UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Group A

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Poland	28	14	8	4	2	24	12	+12
Portugal	27	14	7	6	1	24	10	+14
Serbia	24	14	6	6	2	22	11	+11
Finland	24	14	6	6	2	13	7	+6
Belgium	18	14	5	3	6	14	16	-2
Kazakhstan	10	14	2	4	8	11	21	-10
Armenia	9	12*	2	3	7	4	13	-9
Azerbaijan	5	12*	1	2	9	6	28	-22

	ARM	AZE	BEL	FIN	KAZ	POL	POR	SRB
Armenia	—	Canc.*	0–1	0–0	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–0
Azerbaijan	Canc.*	—	0–1	1–0	1–1	1–3	0–2	1–6
Belgium	3–0	3–0	—	0–0	0–0	0–1	1–2	3–2
Finland	1–0	2–1	2–0	—	2–1	0–0	1–1	0–2
Kazakhstan	1–2	1–1	2–2	0–2	—	0–1	1–2	2–1
Poland	1–0	5–0	2–0	1–3	3–1	—	2–1	1–1
Portugal	1–0	3–0	4–0	0–0	3–0	2–2	—	1–1
Serbia	3–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	1–0	2–2	1–1	—

(*) Armenia and Azerbaijan played only 12 matches due to UEFA's decision to cancel the two fixtures between these countries, with no points awarded to both teams. [1]

Notes on the tie-breaking situation:

Serbia and Finland are ranked by their head-to-head records:
- Serbia – 4 pts (0:0 H vs Finland, 2:0 A vs Finland)
- Finland – 1 pt (0:2 H vs Serbia, 0:0 A vs Serbia)

[edit] Group B

Main article: UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Group B

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Italy	29	12	9	2	1	22	9	+13
France	26	12	8	2	2	25	5	+20
Scotland	24	12	8	0	4	21	12	+9
Ukraine	17	12	5	2	5	18	16	+2
Lithuania	16	12	5	1	6	11	13	-2
Georgia	10	12	3	1	8	16	19	-3
Faroe Islands	0	12	0	0	12	4	43	-39

	FRO	FRA	GEO	ITA	LTU	SCO	UKR
Faroe Islands	—	0–6	0–6	1–2	0–1	0–2	0–2
France	5–0	—	1–0	3–1	2–0	0–1	2–0
Georgia	3–1	0–3	—	1–3	0–2	2–0	1–1
Italy	3–1	0–0	2–0	—	1–1	2–0	2–0
Lithuania	2–1	0–1	1–0	0–2	—	1–2	2–0
Scotland	6–0	1–0	2–1	1–2	3–1	—	3–1
Ukraine	5–0	2–2	3–2	1–2	1–0	2–0	—

[edit] Group C

Main article: UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Group C

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Greece	31	12	10	1	1	25	10	+15
Turkey	24	12	7	3	2	25	11	+14
Norway	23	12	7	2	3	27	11	+16
Bosnia and Herzegovina	13	12	4	1	7	16	22	-6
Moldova	12	12	3	3	6	12	19	-7
Hungary	12	12	4	0	8	11	22	-11
Malta	5	12	1	2	9	10	31	-21

	BIH	GRE	HUN	MLT	MDA	NOR	TUR
Bosnia and Herzegovina	—	0–4	1–3	1–0	0–1	0–2	3–2
Greece	3–2	—	2–0	5–0	2–1	1–0	1–4
Hungary	1–0	1–2	—	2–0	2–0	1–4	0–1
Malta	2–5	0–1	2–1	—	2–3	1–4	2–2
Moldova	2–2	0–1	3–0	1–1	—	0–1	1–1
Norway	1–2	2–2	4–0	4–0	2–0	—	1–2
Turkey	1–0	0–1	3–0	2–0	5–0	2–2	—

Notes on the tie-breaking situation:

Moldova and Hungary are ranked by their head-to-head records:
- Moldova – 3 pts, +1GD (3:0 H vs Hungary, 0:2 A vs Hungary)
- Hungary – 3 pts, -1GD (2:0 H vs Moldova, 0:3 A vs Moldova)

[edit] Group D

Main article: UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Group D

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Czech Republic	29	12	9	2	1	27	5	+22
Germany	27	12	8	3	1	35	7	+28
Republic of Ireland	17	12	4	5	3	17	14	+3
Slovakia	16	12	5	1	6	33	23	+10
Wales	15	12	4	3	5	18	19	-1
Cyprus	14	12	4	2	6	17	24	-7
San Marino	0	12	0	0	12	2	57	-55

	CYP	CZE	GER	IRL	SMR	SVK	WAL
Cyprus	—	0–2	1–1	5–2	3–0	1–3	3–1
Czech Republic	1–0	—	1–2	1–0	7–0	3–1	2–1
Germany	4–0	0–3	—	1–0	6–0	2–1	0–0
Republic of Ireland	1–1	1–1	0–0	—	5–0	1–0	1–0
San Marino	0–1	0–3	0–13	1–2	—	0–5	1–2
Slovakia	6–1	0–3	1–4	2–2	7–0	—	2–5
Wales	3–1	0–0	0–2	2–2	3–0	1–5	—

[edit] Group E

Main article: UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Group E

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Croatia	29	12	9	2	1	28	8	+20
Russia	24	12	7	3	2	18	7	+11
England	23	12	7	2	3	24	7	+17
Israel	23	12	7	2	3	20	12	+8
FYR Macedonia	14	12	4	2	6	12	12	0
Estonia	7	12	2	1	9	5	21	-16
Andorra	0	12	0	0	12	2	42	-40

	AND	CRO	ENG	EST	MKD	ISR	RUS
Andorra	—	0–6	0–3	0–2	0–3	0–2	0–1
Croatia	7–0	—	2–0	2–0	2–1	1–0	0–0
England	5–0	2–3	—	3–0	0–0	3–0	3–0
Estonia	2–1	0–1	0–3	—	0–1	0–1	0–2
FYR Macedonia	3–0	2–0	0–1	1–1	—	1–2	0–2
Israel	4–1	3–4	0–0	4–0	1–0	—	2–1
Russia	4–0	0–0	2–1	2–0	3–0	1–1	—

Notes on the tie-breaking situation:

England and Israel are ranked by their head-to-head records:
- England – 4 pts (3:0 H vs Israel, 0:0 A vs Israel)
- Israel – 1 pt (0:0 H vs England, 0:3 A vs England)

[edit] Group F

Main article: UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Group F

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Spain	28	12	9	1	2	23	8	+15
Sweden	26	12	8	2	2	23	9	+14
Northern Ireland	20	12	6	2	4	17	14	+3
Denmark	20	12	6	2	4	21	11	+10
Latvia	12	12	4	0	8	15	17	-2
Iceland	8	12	2	2	8	10	27	-17
Liechtenstein	7	12	2	1	9	9	32	-23

	DEN	ISL	LVA	LIE	NIR	ESP	SWE
Denmark	—	3–0	3–1	4–0	0–0	1–3	0–3*
Iceland	0–2	—	2–4	1–1	2–1	1–1	1–2
Latvia	0–2	4–0	—	4–1	1–0	0–2	0–1
Liechtenstein	0–4	3–0	1–0	—	1–4	0–2	0–3
Northern Ireland	2–1	0–3	1–0	3–1	—	3–2	2–1
Spain	2–1	1–0	2–0	4–0	1–0	—	3–0
Sweden	0–0	5–0	2–1	3–1	1–1	2–0	—

(*) The abandoned match between Denmark and Sweden was a 3–0 win awarded to Sweden, after UEFA's hearing on 8 June 2007. [2] [3]

Notes on the tie-breaking situation:

Northern Ireland and Denmark are ranked by their head-to-head records:
- Northern Ireland – 4 pts (2:1 H vs Denmark, 0:0 A vs Denmark)
- Denmark – 1 pt (0:0 H vs Northern Ireland, 1:2 A vs Northern Ireland)

[edit] Group G

Main article: UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Group G

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Romania	29	12	9	2	1	26	7	+19
Netherlands	26	12	8	2	2	15	5	+10
Bulgaria	25	12	7	4	1	18	7	+11
Belarus	13	12	4	1	7	17	23	-6
Albania	11	12	2	5	5	12	18	-6
Slovenia	11	12	3	2	7	9	16	-7
Luxembourg	3	12	1	0	11	2	23	-21

	ALB	BLR	BUL	LUX	NED	ROU	SVN
Albania	—	2–4	1–1	2–0	0–1	0–2	0–0
Belarus	2–2	—	0–2	0–1	2–1	1–3	4–2
Bulgaria	0–0	2–1	—	3–0	1–1	1–0	3–0
Luxembourg	0–3	1–2	0–1	—	0–1	0–2	0–3
Netherlands	2–1	3–0	2–0	1–0	—	0–0	2–0
Romania	6–1	3–1	2–2	3–0	1–0	—	2–0
Slovenia	0–0	1–0	0–2	2–0	0–1	1–2	—

Notes on the tie-breaking situation:

Albania and Slovenia are tied on their head-to-head records, and are thus ranked by their overall goal difference in the group:
- Albania – 2 pts, 0GD, 0GF, 0 away goals (0:0 H vs Slovenia, 0:0 A vs Slovenia) – Overall GD = -6
- Slovenia – 2 pts, 0GD, 0GF, 0 away goals (0:0 H vs Albania, 0:0 A vs Albania) – Overall GD = -7

[edit] Top goalscorers

Scorer	Goals	Mins played	Nation	Club
David Healy	13	1075'	Northern Ireland	Leeds United/Fulham
Eduardo da Silva	10	1061'	Croatia	Arsenal
Euzebiusz Smolarek	9	824'	Poland	Racing Santander
Lukas Podolski	8	660'	Germany	Bayern Munich
Jon Dahl Tomasson	8	989'	Denmark	Villarreal
Cristiano Ronaldo	8	1153'	Portugal	Manchester United
Steffen Iversen	7	669'	Norway	Rosenborg
Mladen Petrić	7	677'	Croatia	Borussia Dortmund
Nikola Žigić	7	867'	Serbia	Valencia
David Villa	7	896'	Spain	Valencia

Source: UEFA

[edit] Qualified nations

Host nations	Qualifiers
Austria Switzerland	Germany Greece Czech Republic Romania Italy	France Croatia Poland Netherlands Spain	Sweden Turkey Portugal Russia

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

Germany's 13-0 away victory against San Marino became the biggest win in UEFA European Championship qualifying history, beating the previous record of Spain's 12-1 win against Malta in 1983. ^[2]
Gary Caldwell scored the winner, as Scotland inflicted a first defeat upon France in competitive qualifiers, with a 1-0 win against Les Bleus being the first team to do so since Russia won 3-2 in Paris in the Euro 2000 qualifiers.^[3]
Luxembourg ended their 12 year wait for a victory, with a 1-0 victory in Belarus, Fons Leweck scoring in the 5th minute of injury time.^[4]
Poland got through the qualifying round for the first time in its history.^[5]
David Healy became the record goalscorer in a single UEFA European Championship qualifying campaign when he scored his 13th goal for Northern Ireland (in 11 games) against Denmark on 17th November 2007, overtaking the previous best of 12 goals in 10 games by Croatia's Davor Šuker.^[6]
England were the only seeded team not to qualify, Russia were the only unseeded team to qualify.
In the match between England and Croatia at Wembley, Tony Henry made a comical error whilst singing the national anthem of Croatia he was meant to sing "Mila kuda si planina" which roughly tanslates into English as "You know my dear how we love your mountains." He incorrectly sang "Mila kura si planina" which can be interpreted as "My dear, my penis is a mountain."^[7]
Germany were the qualifiers' biggest goalscorers with 35 goals. Slovakia finished 2nd with 33 goals, despite missing out on qualification.