Who will Wales be up against in the 2008 European Championship?
Tomorrow sees the draw for the 2008 European Championships to be held in Austria and Switzerland. Wales are one of 50 countries all vying for just 14 qualifying slots. Austria and Switzerland already have their place in the tournament as joint hosts.
The new style draw will create seven groups - six of them with seven teams and one with eight. For 2008 there will be no qualification play-offs - teams finishing first or second in each group will qualify. I’m going to predict Wales will end up in the toughest group and be drawn against Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Scotland, Moldova and the Faroe Islands. We shall see….
Pool 1 (seeded teams):
Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, England, Czech Republic, France, Sweden.
Pool 2:
Germany, Croatia, Italy, Turkey, Poland, Spain, Romania.
Pool 3:
Serbia-Montenegro, Russia, Denmark, Norway, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Slovakia.
Pool 4:
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ireland, Belgium, Latvia, Israel, Scotland, Slovenia.
Pool 5:
Hungary, Finland, Estonia, Wales, Lituania, Albania, Iceland.
Pool 6:
Georgia, Macedonia, Belarus, Armenia, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Moldova.
Pool 7:
Liechtenstein, Azerbaijan, Andorra, Malta, Faroe Islands, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, San Marino.
One team from each Pool will be drawn in each of the seven groups (A-G). Pool 7 also provides the eighth team for Group A.
UPDATE [1/27/06]: Wales will face the Republic of Ireland, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Cyprus and San Marino in Group D.
Other groups drawn today:
Group A: Portugal, Poland, Serbia & Montenegro, Belgium, Finland, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan
Group B: France, Italy, Ukraine, Scotland, Lithuania, Georgia, Faroe Islands
Group C: Greece, Turkey, Norway, Bosnia, Hungary, Moldova, Malta
Group E: England, Croatia, Russia, Israel, Estonia, Macedonia, Andorra
Group F: Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Latvia, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Liechtenstein
Group G: Holland, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Albania, Belarus, Luxembourg
Tough group for Wales, and they’ll need some good early results to put them in a good position for the end of the campaign. Good luck to the boys!
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January 27th, 2006 at 7:28 am
Not a bad group. Umlikely to qualify (what optimism!) but 3rd place is realistic which will raise our ranking/seeding hopefully for future.
Great potential trips though (if missus let’s me go)