UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying

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

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. [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/EURO/news/Kind=1/newsId=386707.html Explanation of the drawing and the procedure followed] ]

Source: [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/statistics/players/typestat=gs/index.html UEFA]

Qualified nations

Trivia

*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. [ [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/fixturesresults/round=2241/match=83623/report=index.html Records tumble as Germany soar] ]
*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. [ [http://euro2008.uefa.com/tournament/qualifying/matches/match=83970/index.html Battling Scotland stun France] ]
*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. [ [http://euro2008.uefa.com/tournament/qualifying/matches/match=83693/index.html Luxembourg end 12-year wait for win] ]
*Poland got through the qualifying round for the first time in its history. [ [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/fixturesresults/round=2241/match=83801/report=rp.html Smolarek sends Poland to first EURO] ]
*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. Despite this feat, which saw his countrymen defeat three teams ranked in the World's top ten at the time, Spain, Denmark and Sweden, Northern Ireland crucially lost both fixtures against an Iceland side who failed to win any of their other twelve fixtures in the group and missed out on qualification in third place. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/7099070.stm Healy keeps NI's Euro dream alive] ]
*England was the only seeded team not to qualify, whereas Russia was the only unseeded one 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 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." [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/7109058.stm Anthem gaffe 'lifted Croatia'] ]
*Germany were the qualifiers' biggest goalscorers with 35 goals. Slovakia finished 2nd with 33, despite missing out on qualification.
*The team with the highest FIFA ranking [Ranking as of June 4, 2008] to fail to qualify was England, ranked #9. The lowest ranked team (other than the hosts) which did qualify for the tournament was Sweden, ranked #30.

References

External links

* [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/EURO/news/Kind=1/newsId=352326.html "EURO 2008 seedings confirmed"] at UEFA.com
* [http://www.uefa.com/newsfiles/19079.pdf Competition regulations (PDF file)] at UEFA.com