Contenders step closer to Belgium

The 28-team lineup for the 2006/07 UEFA European Under-17 Championship Elite round draw at 15.30 CET on 5 December in Nyon is now complete with Wales joining Italy and Serbia in claiming the last three places.

Nervous wait
With a three-week gap between the penultimate qualifying round mini-tournament and Group 4 being played in Malta, Wales had to wait to see if they would finish as the third-placed team with the best record against the top two in their pool. And once Italy and Serbia had both defeated Malta and Andorra, Wales knew their 2-1 win against Slovakia back on 21 September in Group 11 was the vital result that would take them into the second stage for the fourth time in five years.

Seeds enter
Before this week 22 teams - the top two from the other eleven groups - had already booked their berths in next spring's Elite round, along with the three top seeds given byes to this round; England, Portugal and Spain. The latter nation finished third in Luxembourg last season and also won the recent annual warm-up tournament involving the teams sitting out the qualifying round and the finals hosts Belgium.

Familiar names
Of the other nations moving through are five more of the teams that took part in the Luxembourg last May; holders Russia, runners-up Czech Republic, Spain's fellow semi-finalists Germany, plus Hungary and Serbia (who qualified in 2005/06 with Montenegro), while Belgium are already through to the finals as hosts. Also involved are the other four previous U17 champions - Switzerland, France, Turkey and Portugal. Bosnia-Herzegovina are the only nation to have advanced for the first time.

World Cup chance
In the draw the 28 sides will be split into seven groups of four to be played as one-venue mini-tournaments. Only the first-placed sides will compete in Belgium alongside the hosts from 2-13 May 2007. Along with the European title, the tournament will also carry five places in the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup, played in Korea Republic from 18 August-9 September.

Qualified teams
Seeds: England, Portugal, Spain
Group 1: Ukraine, Belarus
Group 2: Turkey, Czech Republic
Group 3: France, Iceland
Group 4: Italy, Serbia
Group 5: Germany, Russia (holders)
Group 6: Republic of Ireland, Azerbaijan
Group 7: Greece, Sweden
Group 8: Netherlands, Norway
Group 9: Poland, Finland
Group 10: Hungary, Scotland
Group 11: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovakia, Wales (best third-place)
Group 12: Northern Ireland, Switzerland