DFB squad must already worry about the European Championship draw
After the poor performances against Turkey and Austria, any group in the draw for the 2024 European Championship finals could be the group of death for the German team. We show particularly complicated, but also feasible constellations.
Friday, June 14, 2024, opening match of the European Championship in Munich. Germany against Turkey or Germany against Austria. It's possible that the DFB squad will get a quick chance to get revenge on their recent test match opponents at the start of the home tournament. Or they could be in for another rude awakening. Next week on Saturday, December 2, the final round will be drawn at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. 24 nations will be divided into six groups of four teams each. Turkey and Austria are in the second of four draw pots. The probability that Germany will meet one of the two teams during the preliminary round is at least one third.
Who is in which pot?
After all, and this is currently the only good news for the DFB team, Germany is guaranteed to avoid almost all the heavyweights of European soccer for the time being. Portugal, France, Spain, Belgium and England are all in the first draw pot and therefore cannot be drawn to host Group A.
The only relevant factor for the allocation to the four draw pots is the team's performance in qualifying. As the host nation, Germany is automatically seeded in position A1 and will play its preliminary round matches in Munich, Stuttgart and Frankfurt. The top five teams in the qualifying groups will be allocated to Groups B to F as group headers.
In pot two are Hungary, Turkey, Romania, Denmark and surprise team Albania as the five worst winners of the qualifying groups and Austria as the best second-placed nation. Pot three contains the Netherlands, Scotland, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The three worst runners-up are in pot four, including defending champions Italy, Serbia and Switzerland. There will also be three placeholder pools in the draw for the play-off winners yet to be determined. This means that three of the six preliminary round groups will not be completed until the end of March.
- Pot 1: Germany (seeded as hosts in Group A), Portugal, France, Spain, Belgium, England
- Pot 2: Hungary, Turkey, Romania, Denmark, Albania, Austria
- Pot 3: Netherlands, Scotland, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic
- Pot 4: Italy, Serbia, Switzerland, 3x play-off winners
What could Germany's European Championship group look like?
If Germany, in its current form, ends up in a group with Turkey, the Netherlands and Italy, the Nagelsmann team would not have to worry about the knockout round. This is despite the fact that, as at the last two European Championships, even the four best third-placed teams qualify for the round of 16.
However, if the draw goes perfectly, the DFB team could also find themselves in a group with Albania, Slovenia and a play-off winner yet to be determined. The DFB officials would certainly have nothing to complain about if they were drawn against Romania, Scotland and Serbia. The scenario with three neighboring countries in the group seems much more complicated: Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
If you want to simulate the draw, click here.
Who will play in the playoffs?
Twelve national teams that performed well in the Nations League 2022 can look forward to a kind of parachute. The best four teams from Leagues A, B and C of the competition will play for the last three starting places in play-offs. As only two teams from League A missed out on direct qualification, another team from League B will move up. The draw will be held this Wednesday afternoon to determine whether Ukraine, Finland or Iceland will play in play-off tournament B or A. In addition, the best team from League D can also look forward to a place in Playoff Tournament A. You can find the details of Estonia's curious playoff qualification here.
After two semi-finals (no first and second leg), the three playoff finals will be decided. The home ties for the finals will be drawn separately.
- Play-off tournament A: Poland - Estonia (HF1), Wales - Finland/Ukraine/Iceland (HF2)
- Play-off tournament B: Israel - Ukraine/Iceland (HF1), Bosnia-Herzegovina - Finland/Ukraine (HF2)
- Play-off tournament C: Georgia - Luxembourg (HF1), Greece - Kazakhstan (HF2)
Who is missing?
The biggest disappointment in the qualifiers is likely to be Norway with superstars Erling Haaland and Martin Ödegaard. The country's golden generation has once again failed to make it to the finals and has not qualified since Euro 2000. Because the Nations League also turned into a fiasco in the last few meters, the last remaining chance is also gone. In retrospect, a single draw in Slovenia or Serbia at the end of the Nations League would have been enough for the play-offs, but both games were lost.
The Swedish national team suffered a similar fate, finishing behind Belgium and Austria in the qualifiers and even going down 3-0 in Azerbaijan. In the Nations League, they played in the same group as Norway, but did even worse. The players from the island of Ireland are also not even in the play-offs, with both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland finishing far behind in the regular qualifiers and Nations League.
Given the upcoming European Football Championship 2024, Erling Haaland expresses his enthusiasm for representing Norway's national soccer team, despite their disappointing qualification miss. Regardless, perhaps the DFB should consider integrating the prolific striker into their plans for potential group stage matchups, as Germany could potentially face Norway in the competition.
Source: www.ntv.de
