October's U21 qualifying action

Qualifying for the 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in Italy and San Marino, which started in March and continued in June, resumed in earnest over the last week.

• October results
• November fixtures
  
• The groups

How qualifying works

• Italy have a bye to the finals in summer 2019 but co-hosts San Marino must qualify.
• Kosovo and Gibraltar are making debuts among record field of 54 teams competing in qualifying.
• The nine group winners qualify automatically for the finals.
• The four runners-up with the best records against the teams first, third, fourth and fifth in their group go into the play-offs, where a pair of two-legged ties will decide the last two qualifiers.

The groups: what has happened so far?

Group 1
Greece and Croatia are both in control of the group with perfect records. Croatia had two home games, beating Belarus 2-1 and the Czech Republic 5-1, while Greece won 2-0 in Moldova and then 5-0 in San Marino. Belarus are two points behind in third but have played two more games. Croatia, after their game in hand against San Marino on 7 November, visit Greece five days later.

Group 2
Spain secured a 4-1 success in Slovakia on Tuesday to move to two wins out of two. Northern Ireland have nine points from four games after defeating Estonia 4-2. It was not a good month for Slovakia, who had won both September games but lost 2-0 at home to Iceland before the Spain defeat.

Group 3
Denmark's perfect and free-scoring start has stretched to four games after beating Georgia 5-2 and winning 5-0 in Finland. Poland are five points behind with a game in hand, drawing 3-3 with Finland and defeating Lithuania 2-0 as they prepare to play Denmark on 13 November after that extra match in the Faroe Islands, who beat Georgia.

Group 4
England, seeking to qualify for a seventh straight finals, are unbeaten at the top after defeating Scotland 3-1 and Andorra 1-0 to move on to ten points from four games. Scotland, who bounced back with a 2-0 win in Latvia, are four points behind with a game in hand, while the Netherlands and Ukraine are one further back after a 1-1 draw.

Group 5
Holders Germany beat Azerbaijan 6-1 but then lost 3-1 in Norway. Leading the group by four having played a game more than Germany are the Republic of Ireland, who after drawing 0-0 with Norway defeated Israel 4-0. Kosovo are level with Germany but, like Ireland, have played a match extra.

Group 6
Belgium and Sweden remain separated by one point after drawing 1-1. Leaders Belgium then won 2-0 in Cyprus while Sweden, who have a game in hand, beat Malta 3-0. Cyprus had gone top before going to Belgium thanks to a 2-1 win against Turkey but are now third, two points off the lead. Hungary drew 0-0 in Turkey and have four points from only two games.

Group 7
Serbia hold the lead with three perfect wins, including 2-0 in FYR Macedonia and 3-2 against Russia this month. Russia and Armenia are both two points back but have played more games than Serbia. Austria, however, are a further point behind and have only played three times, including a 5-0 win in Armenia on Tuesday, when history was made by Gibraltar defeating FYR Macedonia 1-0, their first UEFA football competition victory at any level. Austria host Serbia on 10 November.

Group 8
Romania remain three points clear at the summit after a 2-0 win in Switzerland. The Swiss then prevailed 2-0 in Liechtenstein but have now played a game more than the leaders. Portugal are seven points behind with two games in hand after a 3-1 loss in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who like Wales are one behind Switzerland.

Group 9
France trailed Montenegro 1-0 and Luxembourg 2-0 at half-time in their two October games but won them 2-1 and 3-2 respectively and with nine points from three games are two clear of unbeaten Slovenia. The top two are matched in Domzale on 12 November.

Road to Italy and San Marino: remaining match dates

Qualifying group stage
8–14 November 2017
22–27 March 2018
7–8 June 2018
5–11 September 2018
11–16 October 2018

Play-offs
12–20 November 2018

Final tournament
16–30 June 2019