BALTIMORE, Maryland October 30, 2015 - As national soccer teams around the world gear up for World Cup Qualifying games aimed at establishing the field for the 2018 World Cup, the nations of Europe head into the final leg of the 2016 European Championships, to be played in France. The only automatic qualifier for the tournament, France, has now been joined by 19 other nations who have earned their way into the finals in the tournament's group stage. The group stage totally eliminated some 26 national teams, including the Netherlands, which made it to the Final Four in the 2014 World Cup.
There were nine groups, eight of which included six teams and one which had five teams. The winners and runner-ups of each group qualified for the tournament finals. Of the nine third-place teams, the one with the best overall record also qualified for the 24-team tournament finals. The other eight third place nations are matched up against one other third place team, and each pair then plays a home and home series, with the team with the best Goal Differential moving on to the finals. For those readers in America, be advised that these two-game playoff series are not at all unusual. The English Championship League uses them in determining the third team earning promotion to the Premier League. Four teams qualify for the Championship tournament deciding the third team to be promoted. In the first round, the teams play home and home. The final round is a one-game, winner take all affair played at Wembley Stadium in London.
Here is the way the qualifying looks up to the minute. In Group A, the Czech Republic finished first with a record of 7 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, good for 22 points. Iceland finished second with 20 points and a record of 6 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses. Turkey, the third place team with 18 points and a record of 5 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses, was awarded a berth in the finals for being the best overall third place team. The Netherlands, Kazakhstan and Latvia were eliminated.
In Group B, Belgium finished first after a slow start. Their final record was 7 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, good for 23 points. Wales finished a very strong second, with 6 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss, good for 21 points. Bosnia and Herzogovina finished third with a final record of 5 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses, giving it 17 points. Bosnia and Herzogovina will now play a home and home series with Ireland to determine which will move on to the final round. The first of those two games will be on November 13 in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzogovina. The three eliminated nations are Israel, Cyprus and Andorra. The Israelis started strong but faded in the latter games.
In Group C, the very strong Spainish team, with a record of 9 wins and 1 loss, and 27 points, finished first. In ten games, the Spainish scored 23 goals and gave up only 3. Slovakia took second place with 22 points and a record of 7 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses.Ukraine finished third with a record of 6 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses, good for 19 points. The Ukraine will square of with Slovenia in the home and home series that will decide which of those two move on to the finals. The first of those two games is scheduled for November 14 at Lviv in the Ukraine. The three eliminated teams are Belarus, Luxembourg and Macedonia.
Group D's title holder is powerful Germany, which, after opening group play with a loss in Poland, went on to earn a record of 7 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, good for 22 points. Poland finished second a mere one point behind the Germans. The White Eagle record was 6 wins, 3 draws and only 1 loss. Ireland was the third place team with a record of 5 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses, good for 18 points. As mentioned, the Irish are matched with Bosnia and Herzogovina and begin play in the home and home series on November 13 at Zenica. The three eliminated teams are Scotland, Georgia and Gibralter. If they gave an award for the best fourth place team, it would go to Scotland, which earned 15 points for 4 wins and 3 draws in their 10 games.
In Group E, England ran the table, going 10-0 and outscoring opponents 31-3. No other team had as many points - 30 - as the English. Switzerland was second with 21 points and a record of 7 wins and 3 losses. The third-place finisher in Group E was Slovenia, which finished with a record of 5 wins, 1 draw and 4 losses, good for 16 points. Slovenia, as noted above, is matched with the Ukraine, with the first game in the home and home scheduled for November 14 at Lviv in the Ukraine. The three teams eliminated from this group are Estonia, Lithuania and San Marino.
Northern Ireland was the winner of Group F. They finished with a record of 6 wins, 3 draws and only 1 loss and 21 points. Romania finished second in the group and, amazingly, they were the only other team besides England to finish undefeated. Their record was 5 wins and 5 draws, good for 20 points. Hungary was third with 16 points and a record of 4 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses. The Hungarians are matched with Norway in the play-off round, and they will begin that series in Oslo on November 13. The three eliminated teams are Finland, the Faroe Islands and disappointing Greece. The Greeks final record was an almost shocking 1 win, 3 draws and 6 losses. Faroe Islands, on the other hand, had their best record ever in either World Cup or Euro competitio
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