Portugal line up against England

The draw for the qualifying round of the 2002/04 UEFA European Under-21 Championship has taken place in Europarque, Santa Maria da Feira in Porto.

Followed senior draw closely
The division of the associations into ten groups for the U-21 event followed closely the split for the senior qualifying tournament. But where the EURO 2004™ qualifiers comprises ten groups of five teams each, the U-21 competition has eight groups of five and two groups of four.

Portugal in Group 7
The starting point for the U-21 draw were the ten groups drawn for the senior event. However, as the Faroe Islands, Liechtenstein and Andorra have no U-21 sides these countries were removed from their respective groups. Then Portugal were added to Group 7, one of the three groups reduced to four teams following a separate draw, as their senior side were not in the draw for EURO 2004™ given their direct entry into the final round as the host country. They will face England, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Slovakia and Turkey.

Teams to watch
Italy are Europe's reigning U-21 champions after winning the 2000 final tournament in Slovakia. Switzerland will host the 2002 finals which will be contested from 16-28 May. The eight participating teams are Switzerland, Italy, France, England, Portugal, Greece, Belgium and Czech Republic.