Euro 2020 qualifying started on Wednesday with 55 countries
battling for 20 spaces at the tournament next year.
Next year's
European Championship, which runs from 12 June to 12 July, will look a lot
different to previous versions of the competition.
While we are
used to tournaments taking place in a single host nation - or across two
countries, as with Poland and Ukraine in 2012 and Austria and Switzerland in
2008 - the 2020 edition will be played out across the continent, with games in
12 countries.
No team
automatically qualifies this time, with the games to be held across London,
Glasgow, Dublin, Rome, Baku, St Petersburg, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Bucharest,
Bilbao, Munich and Budapest.
The opening
match will be played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
Wembley will
host seven games - three group matches, one last-16 tie, both semi-finals and
the final.
Glasgow's
Hampden Park and Dublin's Aviva Stadium will host last-16 matches and three
group games. Every host country to qualify will play a minimum of two games at
home.
The format of
Euro 2020 will be the same as Euro 2016 - six groups of four teams, with the
top two and the best four third-placed teams going into the last 16.
How does qualifying
work?
There are 10
qualifying groups, of five and six teams, with the top two countries from each
group going through automatically.
The first round of
qualifiers are on 21-23 March 2019 - and the final games are on 17-19 November
2019. The Nations League finalists, including England, are not in action on
matchday two or three in June 2019 so they can play the finals of that
tournament.
There are no
play-offs after these qualifying groups for third place.
Group
A: England, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Kosovo.
Group
B: Portugal, Ukraine, Serbia, Lithuania, Luxembourg.
Group
C: Netherlands, Germany, Northern Ireland, Estonia, Belarus.
Group
D: Switzerland, Denmark, Republic of Ireland, Georgia, Gibraltar.
Group
E: Croatia, Wales, Slovakia, Hungary, Azerbaijan.
Group
F: Spain, Sweden, Norway, Romania, Faroe Islands, Malta.
Group
G: Poland, Austria, Israel, Slovenia, Macedonia, Latvia.
Group
H: France, Iceland, Turkey, Albania, Moldova, Andorra.
Group
I: Belgium, Russia, Scotland, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, San Marino.
Group
J: Italy, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Finland, Greece, Armenia, Liechtenstein.
But what was that whole Nations League thing
about? Where does that fit in now?
The 16
teams who won their three or four-team groups in the Nations League last year
guaranteed themselves a Euro 2020 play-off place, against teams of a similar
level to themselves, if they fail to finish in the top two places in these
upcoming qualifying groups. England and Scotland are among those teams.
If
some do qualify for Euro 2020 - which is highly likely - then the next best
team in their Nations League tier (in terms of position in their group, points
and goal difference) who don't qualify automatically themselves take their
play-off place.
The
play-off draw is on 22 November 2019, with the semi-finals and finals being
played from 26 to 31 March 2020.
These
are the teams guaranteed a play-off place at least.
League
A: Portugal,
England, Switzerland, Netherlands
League
B: Ukraine,
Denmark, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sweden
League
C: Finland,
Norway, Scotland, Serbia
League
D: Georgia,
Belarus, Macedonia, Kosovo
The
Nations League finals - between England, Portugal, Switzerland and the
Netherlands - in June this year have no impact on Euro 2020 qualifying.
What state are Europe's other leading nations
in?
Germany
come into qualifying on a low after going out of the group stages at the last
World Cup and getting relegated in the Nations League.
Coach
Joachim Low took the unusual move of effectively retiring
Bayern Munich trio Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels and Thomas Muller as
part of a "new start". The trio, all aged 29 or 30, helped Germany
win the 2014 World Cup and have a combined 246 caps.
European
champions Portugal are likely to have legend Cristiano Ronaldo back in the
team. He sat out the entire Nations League to give him time to adjust to life
in Italian football with Juventus, but he says he is now ready to return.
Ronaldo,
with 85 goals, is the second top scorer in international history, 24 behind
Iran icon Ali Daei.
World
champions France are the favourites to win Euro 2020, although they lost their
most recent competitive game 2-0 to the Netherlands in the Nations League.
Spain
manager Luis Enrique and Italy boss Roberto Mancini take charge of qualifying
campaigns for the first time - though both lost matches in the Nations League.
Simon
Gleave, head of sports analysis, Gracenote, said: "The top eight nations
in Europe according to the Gracenote World Football Ranking - France, Belgium,
Spain, England, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany and Croatia - all have more
than an 80% chance of qualifying for Euro 2020.
"Switzerland,
Italy, Denmark, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Poland, Serbia, Russia, the Czech
Republic, Wales, Sweden and Turkey are most likely to complete the 20 direct
qualifiers for Euro 2020."
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