The Portugal national football team faced its opponents this Sunday in qualifying for the European Championship 2024, the final stage of which will be played in Germany, in a draw in which it was seeded.
For example, the draw dictated that Portugal is the seed of Group J and will face Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Liechtenstein.
The groups in this draw are as follows:
Group A – Spain, Scotland, Norway, Georgia, Cyprus
Group B – Netherlands, France, Ireland, Greece, Gibraltar
Group C – Italy, England, Ukraine, North Macedonia, Malta
Group D – Croatia, Wales, Armenia, Turkey, Latvia
Group E – Poland, Czech Republic, Albania, Faroe Islands, Moldova
Group F – Belgium, Austria, Sweden, Azerbaijan, Estonia
Group G – Hungary, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Lithuania
Group H – Denmark, Finland, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, Northern Ireland, San Marino
Group I – Switzerland, Israel, Romania, Kosovo, Belarus, Andorra
Group J – Portugal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Liechtenstein
The quinas team, European champions in 2016, were part of pot 1 of the draw that took place in Frankfurt, looking for the 13th consecutive finals in Europeans and Worlds, the eighth in a row in the continental championship.
The draw included 53 of the 55 countries that make up UEFA, with only host country Germany, which has a guaranteed presence in the final, and Russia, which has been banned from all competitions due to the invasion of Ukraine.
The teams were divided into 10 qualifying groups, of which seven with five teams and the other three with six, with the four finalist teams in the Nations League (Netherlands, Croatia, Spain and Italy) having to remain in the five-team groups, given their participation in the last four of that test, in June of the following year.
The other seeds, such as Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, Hungary, Switzerland and Poland, had as main opponents the members of pot 2: France, England, Austria, Czech Republic, Wales, Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Scotland and Finland.
The conditions for the draw included the impossibility of dividing the group Armenia and Azerbaijan, Belarus and Ukraine, Gibraltar and Spain, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo and Serbia, and the limitation to two countries by the list of countries with group severe winters, including Belarus, Estonia, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Norway.
There is also the limitation of major journeys, such as between Portugal and Azerbaijan, which cannot be in the same group.
The first two places in each of the 10 groups qualify directly for the final stage of Euro2024, the remaining three places are decided via a playoffto play in March 2024.
Euro2024 will take place from June 14 to July 14, 2024 in Germany.
This was the composition of the pots for qualifying for Euro2024:
Nations League Pot: Netherlands, Croatia, Spain and Italy.
Pot 1: Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, Hungary, Switzerland and Poland.
Pot 2: France, Austria, Czech Republic, England, Wales, Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Scotland and Finland.
Pot 3: Ukraine, Iceland, Norway, Slovenia, Republic of Ireland, Albania, Montenegro, Romania, Sweden and Armenia.
Pot 4: Georgia, Greece, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Faroe Islands and North Macedonia.
Pot 5: Slovakia, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Belarus, Lithuania, Gibraltar, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova and Malta.
Pot 6: Andorra, San Marino and Liechtenstein.
Source: DN
