Euro 2024 qualifying groups draw results: How all 53 nations match up as the road to Euros in Germany begins

A total of 53 European nations learned their qualifying fates for Euro 2024 as the October 9 draw was held in Frankfurt, Germany.

A number of big countries are set to face off during qualification as a result, including Euro 2021 finalists England and Italy who will once again resume their rivalry in Group C, alongside Ukraine, North Macedonia, and Malta.

Gareth Southgate's side will be looking for revenge after the Azzurri took the 2021 crown on penalties at a packed-out Wembley Stadium, while North Macedonia will be eyeing up another shock against Italy after dumping Roberto Mancini's team out of 2022 World Cup reckoning at the play-off stage.

Elsewhere, Netherlands and France were also drawn together in Group B alongside Ireland, Greece and Gibraltar, though other top seeds Spain, Belgium and Portugal will likely be content with their groups.

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Euro 2024 groups

Here are the final groups that were drawn for Euro 2024 qualifying. 

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When was the Euro 2024 group stage draw?

The Euro 2024 qualifying draw took place on Sunday, October 9 in the host country Germany. Frankfurt's Festhalle Exhibition Centre was the venue for the draw (11:00 BST / 06:00 ET).

UEFA had four ex-players on hand to assist the draw: Former German internationals Jurgen Klinsmann and Karl-Heinz Riedle, and ex-Italy stars Gianluca Zambrotta and Demetrio Albertini.

UEFA provided a live stream of the draw on its official channels. 

Euro 2024 group pots, seeds

The 53 nations participating in qualifying were seeded ahead of the draw based on the final 2022/23 UEFA Nations League rankings following the completion of the Nations League group stage in September 2022.

Germany automatically qualifies as host and will not participate in qualifying.

Russia is banned from competing in the 2024 Euros as part of UEFA's decision to sanction the country following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2021.

Below were the pot designations ahead of the October 9, 2022 qualifying draw:

The four Nations League finalists — Netherlands, Croatia, Spain, Italy — were broken out into a separate pot because they required special consideration.

Given that those four nations needed to have open dates in June 2023 in order to participate in the Nations League finals, they had to be part of one of the five-team groups (A-G) and avoid the six-team groups (H-J), which feature additional matchdays.

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How the Euro 2024 qualifying draw worked

The draw followed a straightforward process: Officials began by drawing the Nations League Finalists pot, and then proceeded to Pot 1, and then Pot 2, and so on until each pot was emptied and teams were allocated to a group.

• Groups A-G: Seven groups of 5 teams each
• Groups H-J: Three groups of 6 teams each

Unless there were restrictions or exceptions (see list below), teams were drawn into the next available group in alphabetical order (from Group A through Group J).

That means the four Nations League teams were first drawn into Groups A-D and then the draw continued with the other Pot 1 teams slotted into Groups E-J. Up next was Pots 2-5 with every nation slotted in a group. 

The six-team groups are Groups H-J and so the three Pot 6 teams were drawn into one of those.

Draw restrictions, exceptions and conditions

The European governing body implemented a handful of restrictions to the draw. Were any of these scenarios to arise during the draw, they would have required adjustments:

• Prohibited matchups — The following teams were prohibited from being drawn together for political reasons: Armenia/Azerbaijan, Belarus/Ukraine, Gibraltar/Spain, Kosovo/Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo/Serbia.


• Winter exceptions — One group could only have a maximum of two nations from the following list due to winter weather considerations: Belarus, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Norway.


• Travel exceptions — UEFA outlined country pairings that would constitute "excessive travel distance" and tournament officials only allowed a maximum of one of those pairings in a single group.

When are the 2024 Euros?

The round-robin qualifying will take place from March to November 2023 and the top two teams from each group qualify directly to Euro 2024 in Germany.

The final three berths to the tournament will come through special playoffs that will be played in March 2024. These will be based on Nations League performance instead of group qualifying performance which has always been the case in the past.

The Euros will be held in Germany between June 14 and July 14 of 2024. A total of 24 nations will contend for the European title: 

• Group qualifying (20): Top two teams from each qualifying group;
• Playoff berths (3): Playoff participants based on Nations League (not group qualifying);
• Host nation (1): Germany qualifies automatically as host.

Euros 2024 qualifying schedule