UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

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

, 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.

Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question
Superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question
Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question
Higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question
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
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
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 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

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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

-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 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 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.

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

UEFA EURO 2012 at UEFA.com

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