16/05 - 20:00
The UEFA European Championships expanded to 24 teams in 2016 and then the route to qualification involved playoffs via UEFA Nations League results for the first time for UEFA EURO 2020, which took place in 2021.
In a weeks’ time we will finally have the full draw for all 24 teams at UEFA EURO 2024 in Germany with the three playoff routes taking place on Thursday and then Tuesday.
This is our mini preview of the three playoff paths over the next few days…
Wales vs Finland
Poland vs Estonia
Final = Cardiff or Helsinki
The playoff winners of Path A will head into an extremely tough group in Germany alongside the likes of 2018 world champions France, Ronald Koeman’s Dutch and Ralf Rangnick’s Austria. There are two strong and heavy favourites for the semi-finals as Wales and Poland should both earn victories before facing each other in Cardiff next Tuesday. Wales finished qualification very well and benefit a lot from home advantage, whereas Poland significantly underperformed to an almost humiliating degree in qualifying and are heavily reliant on a Robert Lewandowski that is beginning to show his age. Whoever does get themselves through will be favourites to lose all three games this summer.
UEFA EURO 2024 Group D: Austria, France, Netherlands
Bosnia-Herzegovina vs Ukraine
Israel vs Iceland
Final = Sarajevo or Wroclaw
@Getty / Adam Nurkiewicz
We have a potential final showdown between two teams that have been blighted in their preparations due to ongoing conflicts in their country. Despite being in Sarajevo for the semi-final, Ukraine are expected to defeat Bosnia-Herzegovina on Thursday evening, whilst Israel are also favourites against a poor Icelandic team. The final would be played in Wroclaw in Poland if Ukraine did win their semi-final and Serhiy Rebrov is in charge of a genuine ‘golden generation’ with Anatoliy Trubin and Andriy Lunin fighting for the goalkeeping spot, the likes of Mykola Matvyenko, Vitaly Mykolenko and Illya Zabarnyi in defence, Taras Stepanenko, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ruslan Malinovskiy, Viktor Tsygankov and Heorhiy Sudakov in midfield with attackers such as Artem Dovbyk, Mykhaylo Mudryk and Roman Yaremchuk.
UEFA EURO 2024 Group E: Belgium, Romania, Slovakia
Georgia vs Luxembourg
Greece vs Kazakhstan
Final = Tbilisi or Luxembourg City
This one is an interesting path as it is supposedly full of four weaker sides getting an unusual shot at a major tournament and whilst that is generally true, all four have real credit behind them. Georgia have some really interesting players coming through, such as Georges Mikautadze and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Greece were winners of the competition in 2004 but haven’t been at a tournament since 2014. Gus Poyet has majorly improved them in the last 18 months or so, though. Both Luxembourg and Kazakhstan have also come on leaps and bounds recently, both on and off the field, with both teams unfortunate not to automatically qualify for the competition. This one is wide open with Greece having to play if they defeat Kazakhstan but the Greeks do remain favourites.
UEFA EURO 2024 Group F: Czech Republic, Portugal, Turkey
