Croatia will still be a top seed in the Euro 2020 qualifying draw despite being relegated from the Nations League on Sunday.
On Sunday, December 2, starting at 12:00 Croatia time at the Dublin Convention Center, a series of qualification groups will be selected for the European Football Championship, which will be played in 12 countries during June and July 2020, reports Gol.hr on November 20, 2018.
Despite the unfortunate defeat against England at Wembley on Sunday, the Croatia national football team still managed to achieve the status of a top-seed for the qualifying draw. The top group for the draw will include the top 10 national teams from ‘League A’ of Nations League, while the two worst teams in the top league will fall into the second division.
One of these two nations is Iceland, while the other will be either Poland or Germany, who tragically missed a massive advantage over the Netherlands when the Dutch team came back to equalize 2:2 in the 85th minute. Germany now has two points and a goal difference of 3:7, while Poland has one point but one game less. Tonight, Poland visits Portugal where a draw would be enough, as they have a goal difference of 3:5.
As far as the qualifications are concerned, since UEFA has made the decision to play the Euro 2020 throughout all of Europe, no national team has qualified as a host, and all 55 UEFA teams will have to qualify.
The teams will be divided into 10 groups – five with five teams and five with six teams. The participants of the Nations League ‘Final Four’ (England, Netherlands, Portugal, and Switzerland) will certainly be placed in groups of five in order to guarantee free terms in June next year.
Croatia, thus, has even more of a chance of being placed in a group of six teams as only one top-seed who is not in the ‘Final Four’ may be in a group of five teams.
Out of a total of 24 participants in the Euros, 20 of them will advance via qualifications – by placing first and second in their groups. The other four will be awarded after the Nations League semi-finals scheduled in March of 2020.
Qualifying Draw for Euro 2020:
1st Division Group: England, Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Croatia, Belgium, France, Italy, (Germany or Poland)
2nd Division Group: Denmark, Czech Republic, Austria, BiH, Iceland, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine, Wales, (Germany or Poland)
3rd Division Group: Ireland, Norway, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey, Northern Ireland, Finland, (Bulgaria, Israel, Romania, Hungary or Scotland)
4th Division Group: Albania, Cyprus, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Montenegro, Slovenia, (Bulgaria, Israel, Romania, Hungary or Scotland)
5th Division Group: Belarus, Armenia, Gibraltar, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, (Malta or the Faroe Islands)
6th Division Group: Andorra, Latvia, Liechtenstein, San Marino, (Malta or the Faroe Islands)
To read more about the Croatia national team, follow TCN’s dedicated page here.
