YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE EURO 2020 DRAW
IRELAND will today find out who their opponents will be in next year’s Euro 2020 qualification campaign when the draw is made in Dublin this morning. Here’s a guide to what awaits the returning Ireland manager Mick McCarthy as he sets out to guide the Boys in Green back to a major tournament. WHEN DOES THE DRAW BEGIN? 11am today in the Convention Centre, Dublin. HOW ARE THESE EUROS DIFFERENT FROM PREVIOUS YEARS? For starters, there are 12 cohosts spread across Europe in England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, Russia, Romania, Hungary, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark and Azerbaijan. Four games will be played at Lansdowne Road, so there’s a huge incentive for Ireland to progress. THERE WILL BE A NEW DRAW FORMAT, HOW WILL THAT WORK? The 55 nations in the draw are classified on the basis of the overall UEFA Nations League rankings and are divided into seven pots with the Nations League pot (UNL) containing the four finalists, England, Holland, Switzerland and Portugal. Pot 1 contains six teams, Pots 2 to 5 contain 10 teams and Pot 6 the remaining five teams. Look out for Ireland in Pot 3. A number of conditions will apply in the draw however. The four Nations League semifinalists are drawn into the first four groups, A, B,C and D, which are groups of five. Groups E to J will be of six teams. Furthermore, a maximum of two hosts can be drawn into the same group, so Ireland can’t get drawn against teams like Italy and Germany. For political reasons, Gibraltar and Spain, Kosovo and BosniaHerzegovina, and Kosovo and Serbia may not be drawn in same group. There are also winter venue restrictions and a group can include a maximum of two of the following: Belarus, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Lithuania, Russia, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway and Ukraine. WHO GOES THROUGH? The top two teams from each of the ten groups qualify for the finals with the four other places to come via the Nations League play-offs in March 2020 — not to be confused with the Nations League finals in Portugal next summer. WHAT ABOUT OUR OLD FAVOURITE: THE PLAYOFF PLACE? There are four play-off slots allocated for each Nations League — A, B, C and D. Ireland were 11th in League B, 23rd overall. If 15 teams ranked above us progress through the regular qualification, which is most likely, we’d be in the play-offs, which involve a semi-final and final. If push comes to shove, we’d probably be away in the semifinals but let’s see how things go in the qualifiers first. WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD DRAW FOR MICK MCCARTHY? Poland appear the weakest team in Pot 1 while Iceland in Pot 2 lost all four Nations League games and are nowhere near the form of Euro ’16 at the moment. Lithuania, who lost all six games in the Nations League, or Estonia, who only won one, would be preferred opponents from the fourth tier. Gibraltar or the Faroes wouldn’t worry McCarthy too much in Pot 5.