Top teams stumble in qualifying
Nagelsmann is threatened with early cracking duels at the European Championships
October 9, 2023, 10:23 a.m
Julian Nagelsmann’s first international matches are coming up in the USA. In Europe, the European Championship qualification continues at the same time. Possibly with unpleasant consequences for the new national football coach. The DFB team is seeded as the head of Group A in the draw on December 2nd.
Despite all the concentration on the first international double pack as national coach, Julian Nagelsmann should also keep a close eye on the ongoing European Championship qualification. Depending on the last four match days, the national soccer team, which automatically qualified as hosts, is threatened with real top teams as early opponents in the 2024 home tournament.
While the DFB selection under the new head coach will face the USA on October 14th (9 p.m./RTL) in Hartford and the following Wednesday (2 a.m./ARD) in Philadelphia against Mexico, the race for tournament tickets is underway in Europe further. As of now, Germany could face cracking games against Holland and Italy in the group phase or, like the World Cup disaster in Qatar, a duel with Spain.
Because: The DFB team is the head of Group A in the draw on December 2nd in the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. According to UEFA rules, the five teams with the best points from qualification end up in the first draw pot. The next best six teams go into pots two and three. The worst three directly qualified teams and the three winners of the playoffs in March 2024 end up in pot four.
Spain and the Netherlands need help
In Pot 1 – and therefore certainly no German group opponents at the moment – are the teams from Portugal (15 points/goal difference +20), Scotland (15/+11), France (15/+11), England (13/+14) and Belgium (13/+12). Spain (9/+13) and the Netherlands (9/+3) could not reach these marks even if they won their remaining games. You have to hope for mistakes from the competition in order to end up in the first pot.
Italy (7/+2) is currently even further back in the seeding list. Austria (13/+8) under coach Ralf Rangnick, the last German opponent in a test match this year in December, still has every chance of reaching pot 1. Only the games between the first five teams in each group are included in the ranking not to grant any advantage in groups of six.
Germany will play its group games on June 14th in Munich, on June 19th in Stuttgart and on June 23rd in Frankfurt. At the 2021 European Championship, the DFB selection also had difficult group opponents in France (0:1), Portugal (4:2) and Hungary (2:2) and only qualified for the round of 16 with difficulty, in which they lost 0:2 was the final stop in England.