EURO 2024 play-offs: How they worked, state of play
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
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The spots for the final three places at UEFA EURO 2024 were decided following the play-offs.
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Poland, Ukraine and Georgia earned the final three spots at UEFA EURO 2024 following the conclusion of the play-offs.
Twelve teams were initially in contention, with six semi-finals taking place on 21 March. The winners advanced to three finals on 26 March, and the victors in those games complete the 24-team EURO finals line-up.
What were the play-off results?
Semi-finals (21 March)
Path A: Poland 5-1 Estonia, Wales 4-1 Finland
Path B: Israel 1-4 Iceland, Bosnia and Herzegovina 1-2 Ukraine
Path C: Georgia 2-0 Luxembourg, Greece 5-0 Kazakhstan
Finals (26 March)
Path A: Wales 0-0 Poland (aet; Poland win 5-4 on penalties)
Path B: Ukraine 2-1 Iceland
Path C: Georgia 0-0 Greece (aet; Georgia win 4-2 on penalties)
How did the play-offs work?
The play-offs were all single-leg knockout matches. If ties were level at the end of normal time they would go to extra time and, if required, a penalty shoot-out.
Who will play-off winners face at EURO 2024?
The final tournament draw took place on 3 December, so the play-off winners' group stage opponents in Germany next summer are already known.
Group D: Poland, Netherlands, Austria, France
Group E: Belgium, Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine
Group F: Türkiye, Georgia, Portugal, Czechia
How were play-off teams decided?
Twelve teams were selected based on their performances in the 2022/23 Nations League – nominally the group winners of Leagues A, B and C, but if they had already qualified they were replaced by the next best-ranked team in their league. The four play-off slots were allocated to each league from League C to League A in reverse alphabetical order.
If fewer than four teams from one league entered the play-offs (as was the case with League A), the first available slot was allocated to the best-ranked group winner of League D, Estonia.
Remaining slots were then allocated on the basis of the overall 2022/23 Nations League rankings to the best-ranked teams that had not already qualified, subject to the restriction that group winners of Leagues A, B and C cannot be in a play-off path with teams from a higher league.
Within each path, the top-ranked teams host the fourth-ranked sides and the second-ranked teams welcome the third-ranked sides. Final hosts were determined in November's draw.
Are the play-offs new?
There have been play-offs for six of the last seven EUROs. The UEFA EURO 2020 play-offs offered a different format, though. For the first time, teams had to come through more than one round and, unlike all previous editions, sides qualified to participate via the Nations League, rather than the European Qualifiers.
The same format was employed for the European play-offs for the 2022 FIFA World Cup (though, in that case, only two Nations League teams qualified for the play-offs together with ten European Qualifiers group runners-up), and therefore this is now the third time that single-leg matches will be used.
