There will therefore be a gala poster during the group stage of Euro 2020, and it concerns France: Didier Deschamps' Bleus will play either against Italy in Rome (Group A) or against England in Wembley (Group D), either against Spain in Bilbao (Group E) or against Germany in Munich (Group F). The victory of the Germans against Northern Ireland, Tuesday, November 19, has indeed demoted France in the pot 2 draw, which brings together the four worst group leaders and the two best second playoffs. Since, in this pot, two host countries, Russia and the Netherlands, are automatically placed in groups B and C, the Blues can only fall in groups A, D, E or F.
Indeed, this atypical Euro 2020 will take place in 12 cities across the continent. There are no qualifying countries, but UEFA has guaranteed all host countries that if they qualified, they would play at least two matches – and maybe three – at home during the group stage. . UEFA therefore drew a list of city pairs, each pair being associated with one of the six groups of the Euro (Group A: Rome and Baku, Group B: St. Petersburg and Copenhagen, Group C: Amsterdam and Bucharest, group D: London and Glasgow, group E: Bilbao and Dublin and group F: Munich and Budapest).
Any qualified host country is automatically placed in its group; the other qualifying countries will be randomly placed in the draw on Saturday 30 November in Bucharest, each group of 4 consisting of a team drawn in each pot.
– Pot 1: Belgium (B), Italy (A), England (D), Germany (F), Spain (E), Ukraine (C)
– Pot 2: France, Poland, Switzerland, Croatia, Netherlands (C), Russia (B)
– Pot 3: Portugal, Turkey, Denmark (B), Austria, Sweden, Czech Republic
– Pot 4: Wales, Finland + League A (C or F), League B (E), League C (C, D or F) league winners, League D (A, C, D or F)
Potentially explosive matches
Except that other constraints are at work. In pot 1, the host countries Italy, England, Spain and Germany are already placed in their groups A, D, E and F, a draw should have decided which of Belgium or Ukraine would go in group B , the other necessarily going to Group C. However, because of the conflict in Crimea, UEFA decided that Russia (Group B) and Ukraine could not be placed in the same group. Ukraine will therefore go into Group C with the Netherlands, while Belgium, the best qualifying team and leader of the FIFA ranking, will play in St. Petersburg against Russia and in Copenhagen against Denmark, in the United States. group B. There has been better protection for a seed. If Brussels, replaced at short notice by London, had delivered its new stadium in time, Belgium would have been a host country and the story would have been different … Note that if Russia wins group B and Ukraine finishes second in the group C, we could have a Russia-Ukraine explosive on Friday, July 3 in Munich in the quarter-finals.
Where the story, already not simple, is complicated a little bit is that the last four qualified countries will be known only at the end of March, after dams featuring the best teams in the League of Nations n having failed to qualify directly through the Euro qualifiers. For example, Bosnia, Slovakia and the two Ireland, league B leagues of the League of Nations, will fight in dams to win a place for the Euro. But since Ireland is the only host country of the Euro in this barrage, its winner is automatically placed in group E (Bilbao and Dublin).
Since in the A league only Iceland failed to qualify directly, she will be joined by three league C teams, to draw lots among Bulgaria, Israel, Hungary and Romania. The remaining team will join Scotland, Norway and Serbia in the league of the league C. If Hungary and Romania (host countries of the Euro) are drawn in the A league barrage, its winner will be surprisingly placed temporarily in two groups: C (Bucharest) and F (Budapest), as well as another team from pot 4 (say Finland), while the winner of league C will go directly to group D (Glasgow ). If Romania won the A league block, it would go to Group C and Finland to Group F. But if Iceland won the block, then a second draw, the 1stst April, would determine who from Iceland and Finland would go in group C, the other necessarily going in group F. You still follow?
A will of Michel Platini
It was not long before a big problem arose. If Ireland had not equalized at the 86e against Denmark on Monday (1-1), Denmark and Russia, both of them in Group B, would have been in pot 2. Two teams from the same pot can not in the same group. UEFA would have had to manually change the pots, which would have been talking.
If the Blues had not conceded this tying goal of Turkey late in the game at the Stade de France on October 14, they would have been seeded instead of Ukraine, but it is not sure they would have been much better off. They would have been placed, like Belgium, either in group B with Russia and Denmark, or in group C with the Netherlands. But they would have avoided Group A and one or two long trips to Baku. From this point of view, we can think that the worst draw for France would be Italy, Portugal and Wales (Group A), and the best draw England, Austria and a barrage (Group D).
UEFA President Michel Platini decided in 2012 that Euro 2020 would be played across Europe. Today, we imagine the sleepless nights of UEFA administrators busy managing both the legal complications arising from the need to work with 12 different legislations on the same tournament and the puzzle of this draw to the rules. convoluted and unpublished.
