UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying
Encyclopedia
The qualifying competition for UEFA Euro 2012 is a series of parallel association football competitions held over 2010 and 2011 to decide the qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2012, to be held in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 and Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. The draw for the qualifying rounds was held on 7 February 2010 in the Congress Hall
Sala Kongresowa
The Congress Hall is a 2,880 seat theater at the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland. It was opened in 1967....

 of the Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, with matches set to take place between August 2010 and November 2011.

There were nine groups. Six of these groups had six teams (one each from pots 1 to 6 below); the remaining three groups consisted of five teams (one each from pots 1 to 5 below). Group competition was a double round robin: each team hosted a game with every other team in its group. The first-place team in each group qualified, along with the second-place team with the most points against teams ranked in the top five in the group. The remaining eight second-place teams are paired for two-game play-offs, with the winner of each total goals tie qualifying for the finals. The two host countries complete the field of sixteen teams.

Qualified nations

Country |Qualified as|Date qualification was secured Previous appearances in tournament

Seedings

The pot allocations for the qualifying group stage draw were based on the UEFA national team coefficient rankings as of the end of 2009. The sole exception was the automatic placement of Spain, as reigning European champions, as the top-ranked team (their coefficient ranking would have also placed them in this position anyway). Each nation's coefficient was generated by calculating:
  • 40% of the average ranking points per game earned in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying stage
    2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)
    The European zone of qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup saw 53 teams competing for 13 places at the finals. The qualification process started on 20 August 2008, after UEFA Euro 2008, and ended on 18 November 2009. The qualification process saw the first competitive matches of...

    .
  • 40% of the average ranking points per game earned in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying stage and final tournament.
  • 20% of the average ranking points per game earned in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying stage
    2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)
    Listed below are the dates and results for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for UEFA teams. A total of 51 teams took part, divided in 8 Groups - five groups of 6 teams each and three groups of 7 teams each - competing for 13 places in the World Cup...

     and final tournament
    2006 FIFA World Cup
    The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...

    .


The 51 entrants were divided into the following six pots for the drawing of nine qualifying groups on 7 February 2010 in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, Poland:
Pot 1
Rank | Team
1 (title holders) 39,964
2 38,294
3 37,821
4 35,838
5 34,819
6 33,677
7 33,226
8 32,551
9 32,477
Pot 2
Rank | Team
10 31,268
11 30,871
12 30,695
13 30,395
14 29,811
15 29,447
16 29,222
17 28,228
18 28,145
Pot 3
Rank | Team
20 28,052
21 27,198
22 26,827
24 26,210
25 25,971
26 25,646
27 24,518
28 24,381
29 24,365
Pot 4
Rank | Team
30 24,221
31 23,303
32 23,048
33 22,071
34 21,515
35 21,426
36 21,274
37 19,409
38 18,791
Pot 5
Rank | Team
39 18,751
40 18,319
41 17,792
42 15,819
43 15,734
44 15,404
45 15,164
46 14,730
47 13,581
Pot 6
Rank | Team
48 13,500
49 11,872
50 11,517
51 10,620
52 9,197
53 7,783


Notes
  • The co-hosts and , which qualified automatically, were ranked 19th (28,133) and 23rd (26,620) respectively.


Before the draw UEFA confirmed that, for political reasons, Armenia
Armenia national football team
The Armenia national football team represents Armenia in association football and is controlled by the Football Federation of Armenia, the governing body for football in Armenia...

 would not be drawn against Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan national football team
The Azerbaijan national football team is the national football team of Azerbaijan and is controlled by Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan...

 (due to the dispute concerning territory of Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...

) and Georgia
Georgia national football team
The Georgia national football team is the national association football team of Georgia and is controlled by the Georgian Football Federation. The Georgian team's first match took place in 1990, while Georgia was still part of the Soviet Union. The team have attempted to qualify for each major...

 would not be drawn against Russia
Russia national football team
The Russia national football team represents Russia in association football and is controlled by the Russian Football Union , the governing body for football in Russia. Russia's home grounds are Luzhniki Stadium, Lokomotiv Stadium , and Petrovsky Stadium in St.Petersburg and their head coach is...

 (due to the dispute regarding the territory of South Ossetia
South Ossetia
South Ossetia or Tskhinvali Region is a disputed region and partly recognized state in the South Caucasus, located in the territory of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic....

). Armenia and Azerbaijan were drawn together in Group A during the draw ceremony, forcing UEFA to reassign Armenia to Group B, as Azerbaijan had refused to play in Armenia when they had been drawn together during UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying.

Tiebreakers

As in Euro 2008 qualifying: If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings.
  1. Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question
  2. Superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question
  3. Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question
  4. Higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question
  5. If, after applying criteria 1) to 4) to several teams, two or more teams still have an equal ranking, the criteria 1) to 4) will be reapplied to determine the ranking of these teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6) and 7) will apply
  6. Results of all group matches:
    1. Superior goal difference
      Goal difference
      In sports such as ice hockey and association football, goal difference is often the first tiebreaker used to rank teams which finish a league competition with an equal number of points....

    2. Higher number of goals scored
    3. Higher number of goals scored away from home
    4. Fair play conduct
  7. Drawing of lots

Qualifying group stage

The following 18 dates were reserved for group matches in qualifying:
  • 3–4 and 7 September 2010
  • 8–9 and 12 October 2010
  • 25–26 and 29 March 2011
  • 3–4 and 7 June 2011
  • 2–3 and 6 September 2011
  • 7–8 and 11 October 2011

For the first time, Tuesday evenings replaced Wednesday evenings for midweek qualifying fixtures where two matchdays occurred in the same week. This was in order to allow players an extra day to return to their clubs for domestic duty the following week. Consequently, teams were permitted to move the earlier weekend match forward to the Friday evening.
Legend
Group winners and best runner-up among all groups directly qualified for the finals
The remaining eight runners-up advanced to the play-offs

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Group I

Ranking of second-placed teams

The highest ranked second placed team from the groups qualified automatically for the tournament, while the remainder entered the play-offs. As some groups contain six teams and some five, matches against the sixth-placed team in each group were not included in this ranking. As a result, a total of eight matches played by each team count toward the purpose of the second-placed ranking table.

Qualifying play-offs

The play-off ties were played over two legs, with the first legs on 11 November and the second legs on 15 November 2011. The four winners are found according to the standard rules for the knockout phase in European competitions, and the winners qualified for the Euro 2012 tournament.

Seedings

The draw for the play-offs was held on 13 October 2011 in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

, Poland, to determine the four pairings as well as the order of the home and away ties.

After the controversy caused by the UEFA play-offs during 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying – which was widely assumed to be an unseeded draw and then later seeded by FIFA – UEFA stated from the outset that the draw for the play-offs would be seeded. The four runners-up with the best positions in the UEFA team coefficient ranking system were therefore seeded.

Each nation's coefficient was generated by calculating:
  • 40% of the average ranking points per game earned in the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying group stage.
  • 40% of the average ranking points per game earned in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying stage
    2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)
    The European zone of qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup saw 53 teams competing for 13 places at the finals. The qualification process started on 20 August 2008, after UEFA Euro 2008, and ended on 18 November 2009. The qualification process saw the first competitive matches of...

     and final tournament
    2010 FIFA World Cup
    The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010...

    .
  • 20% of the average ranking points per game earned in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying stage and final tournament.


The seedings were as follows:
Pot 1 (seeded)
Team
32.723 7
31.202 11
28.203 13
27.982 15
Pot 2 (unseeded)
Team
27.601 18
27.199 19
21.876 35
20.355 37

Matches

Team 1 was home team in the first game, and guest team in the second game.

|}

Goalscorers

There were 636 goals scored by 339 different players and 17 own goal
Own goal
An own net occurs in goal-scoring games when a player scores a goal that is registered against his or her own team. It is usually accidental, and may be a result of an attempt at defensive play that failed or was spoiled by opponents....

s. This list reflects the top 15 players or those tied in the top 15.

12 goals Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

9 goals Miroslav Klose
Miroslav Klose
Miroslav Josef Klose is a German footballer who plays as a striker for Lazio in the Serie A. Since bursting onto the international stage at the 2002 World Cup, he has become well known for his knack of scoring headers, front-flip goal celebrations, and decisive short passing.Klose holds German...



7 goals

Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, OIH, , commonly known as Cristiano Ronaldo, is a Portuguese footballer who plays as a winger or striker for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and is the captain of the Portuguese national team...

 Mikael Forssell
Mikael Forssell
Mikael Kaj Forssell is a Finnish footballer who plays as a striker for Football League Championship team Leeds United and for the Finnish national team.-Club career:...


Robbie Keane
Robbie Keane
Robert David "Robbie" Keane is an Irish association football player who plays as a striker for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer and captains the Irish national football team....


David Villa
David Villa
David Villa Sánchez , nicknamed , is a Spanish footballer who currently plays as a striker for FC Barcelona and the Spanish national football team. He can also operate as a winger....


6 goals

Henrikh Mkhitaryan Konstantin Vassiljev
Konstantin Vassiljev
Konstantin Vassiljev is an Estonian professional footballer, who plays in Russian Premier League, for Amkar Perm. He plays the position of midfielder and is 1.75 m tall and weighs 72 kg. He is also a member of the Estonia national football team.-Early career:Vassiljev made his first-team...

 Mario Gómez
Mario Gómez
Mario Gómez García is a German footballer who plays as a striker for FC Bayern Munich in the German Bundesliga. Gómez joined Bayern after six years in Stuttgart. The fee was a record for a player transferred in the Bundesliga, estimated to be 30–35 million euro...


Gergely Rudolf
Gergely Rudolf
Gergely Rudolf is a Hungarian football player who currently plays for Greek club Panathinaikos on loan from Genoa.-Debrecen:Gergely Rudolf signed a contract with the Hungarian champion Debrecen in 2007....

 Antonio Cassano
Antonio Cassano
Antonio Cassano is an Italian footballer who plays for Serie A club Milan as a striker. Nicknamed Il Gioiello di Bari Vecchia , he is known for his short temper as much as his ability on the pitch, which led to the coining of the neologism Cassanata by his former coach, Fabio Capello, in November...


Dirk Kuyt
Dirk Kuyt
Dirk Kuyt is a Dutch footballer who plays for English club Liverpool. He started his career as a striker, but he has been converted into a winger and plays the position for both Liverpool and the Netherlands national team....

 Robin van Persie
Robin van Persie
Robin van Persie is a Dutch footballer who plays as a striker for Arsenal and the Dutch national team. He is a youth product of Feyenoord. Having joined Arsenal in 2004, Van Persie became the club captain on 16 August 2011...


5 goals

Gevorg Ghazaryan
Gevorg Ghazaryan
Gevorg Ghazaryan is an Armenian footballer. He is currently playing for the Ukrainian Premier League club Metalurh Donetsk. He plays as an attacking midfielder but can play up front as well...

 Marvin Ogunjimi
Marvin Ogunjimi
Marvin Ogunjimi is a Belgian football forward of Nigerian descent, who currently plays for RCD Mallorca and the Belgian national team.-Club career:...

 Mesut Özil
Mesut Özil
Mesut Özil is a footballer who plays for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and for the German national team. Özil has been a youth national team member since 2006, and a member of the German national team since 2009. He gained international attention during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and was nominated...


Hélder Postiga
Hélder Postiga
Hélder Manuel Marques Postiga is a Portuguese footballer who plays for Real Zaragoza in Spain, as a striker.After starting professionally at Porto, Postiga went on to have spells in England , France and Greece , before returning to his country with Sporting.A Portuguese international on more than...

 Nani
Nani
-People:*Nani, a Portuguese footballer who plays for Manchester United*Gianluca Nani, former technical director at West Ham United*Nanabhoy Palkhivala, nicknamed Nani, an Indian jurist and economist*Nani Roma, a Spanish rally racing driver...

 Adrian Mutu
Adrian Mutu
Adrian Mutu is a Romanian footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Cesena.-Argeş Piteşti:Mutu began his professional career with his home club Argeş Piteşti...


Tim Matavž
Tim Matavž
Tim Matavž is a Slovenian football player who plays as a striker for the Dutch club PSV Eindhoven.-Club career:Matavž began his football career at the age of 6 playing for NK Bilje. In 2004 he moved to ND Gorica youth squads...

 Zlatan Ibrahimović
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Zlatan Ibrahimović is a Swedish footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Milan and the Swedish national team for which he is captain....


Attendances

Data compiled from soccerway.com.
Host team Highest Lowest Total Average
15,600 3,000 56,646 11,329
1,100 550 4,110 822
14,403 8,500 57,903 11,581
47,500 22,500 189,000 37,800
29,858 6,000 83,770 16,754
28,500 7,000 97,854 19,571
44,185 24,231 174,285 34,857
28,000 9,000 74,000 14,800
27,230 1,672 47,972 11,993
28,000 8,370 83,457 16,691
15,444 2,088 27,588 6,897
17,873 6,600 51,433 12,858
37,167 15,544 108,631 27,158
84,459 73,426 308,464 77,116
8,660 5,185 33,637 6,727
5,654 974 12,111 2,422
23,257 8,192 80,617 16,123
79,299 24,710 324,110 64,822
54,500 7,824 160,746 32,149
74,244 43,751 267,640 53,528
27,200 13,520 87,195 17,439
25,169 9,209 93,091 18,618
9,767 5,267 28,800 7,200
33,421 10,801 88,403 17,681
19,480 18,000 76,180 19,045
18,000 8,500 63,300 12,660
7,600 4,315 27,807 5,561
6,100 1,886 16,177 4,044
9,180 3,500 21,928 5,482
8,052 1,857 22,180 4,436
29,500 4,100 58,100 11,620
10,605 2,614 30,624 6,125
10,500 6,534 48,334 9,667
11,500 7,442 41,032 10,258
51,700 25,000 204,926 40,985
15,200 12,604 70,335 14,067
24,828 13,490 85,234 21,309
47,829 9,100 119,761 29,940
51,650 33,200 256,029 42,915
49,137 8,200 113,723 22,745
49,515 18,000 164,385 32,877
4,127 714 10,920 2,184
51,564 34,071 174,007 43,502
35,000 350 78,878 15,776
10,892 4,300 38,497 7,699
15,790 9,848 68,868 13,774
27,559 15,660 76,320 19,080
33,066 21,083 144,125 28,825
37,500 16,880 100,377 25,094
49,532 32,174 213,420 42,684
68,959 8,194 103,531 25,883

External links

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