Euro 2012 Draw: Italy Meet Serbia, Germany-Turkey & Portugal-Denmark

No clear group of death, but some are harder than others…
By Ewan Macdonald & Carlo Garganese

The qualifying draw for Euro 2012 was made in Warsaw, Poland with Group C arguably the toughest where Italy, Serbia and Slovenia were placed together.

Group A is also intriguing as Germany, Turkey and Austria were all drawn in the same pool while Portugal once again tackle Denmark in Group H.

Holders Spain have a relatively easy-looking group, although they will have to watch out for the Czech Republic and Scotland. England have an interesting British derby against Wales in Group G:

Group A
Germany
Turkey
Austria
Belgium
Kazakhstan

Azerbaijan Group B
Russia
Slovakia
Republic of Ireland
FYR Macedonia
Armenia
Andorra

Group C
Italy
Serbia
Northern Ireland
Slovenia
Estonia
Faroe Islands

Group D
France
Romania
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Belarus
Albania
Luxembourg

Group E
Netherlands
Sweden
Finland
Hungary
Moldova
San Marino

Group F
Croatia
Greece
Israel
Latvia
Georgia
Malta

Group G
England
Switzerland
Bulgaria
Wales
Montenegro

Group H
Portugal
Denmark
Norway
Cyprus
Iceland

Group I
Spain
Czech Republic
Scotland
Lithuania
Liechtenstein

Fifty-one of the 53 UEFA member associations will take part in qualifying, with hosts Poland and Ukraine qualifying automatically for the tournament.

Poland legend Zbigniew Boniek and Ukrainian heroes Andriy Shevchenko and Oleg Blokhin were some of the luminaries who helped conduct the draw.

The 51 teams were divided into six groups of six teams and three groups of five teams.

The winners of the nine groups and the best runner-up qualify directly for the final tournament. The eight remaining runners-up will have to battle it out in play-off matches to decide which teams grab the remaining four tickets for Poland/Ukraine.