The draw for the group stage of the European Football Championship took place in Hamburg

Saturday’s draw for the group stage of the European Football Championship, which Germany will host next year, turned out to be relatively successful for several giants. The hosts of the tournament, as well as the national teams of Belgium and Portugal, found themselves in the quartets with a lineup that expected easy access to the playoffs. Of those teams whose getting to the championship was already a feat, the most unlucky were the Albanians, who ended up in a group with the Spaniards, Croats and Italians.

Among the most high-profile events, including in the absolutely literal sense of the word, the draw for the group round of the European Football Championship, which took place in Hamburg, which will be held in Germany from June 14 to July 14 next year and the selection for which the Russian team, as you know, missed due to Due to international sanctions, a strange emergency occurred. As the procedure progressed, very distinct sounds were suddenly heard from the speakers, suspiciously reminiscent of female moans. The Guardian even boldly called them pornographic. Deputy Secretary General of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), Giorgio Marchetti, who had the chance to host the ceremony, seemed slightly embarrassed, but, after making a lot of effort, he still did not lose his rhythm.

It’s understandable why media resources paid increased attention to these sounds—it’s just that there were few other bright clues at the draw.

At such events, they usually wait for the appearance of a “group of death”, that is, one from which reaching the playoffs in itself is already valor and in which a recognized football giant could easily perish if he suddenly makes an accidental misfire. But the format of the continental championship itself, adopted in 2016 after increasing the number of tournament participants from 16 to 24, does not imply the presence of a mortal danger. Two teams are guaranteed to qualify from each of the six groups. But to this dozen are added four more teams from the list of third-place finishers with the best results. So it’s not so easy for a giant to miss the playoffs, much more difficult than, for example, at the World Championships, and therefore it’s more correct to talk only about relative luck or bad luck.

In this case, everything is simple with losers. The main one is, apparently, the Albanian national team.

Not highly rated, she had a great qualifying tournament, outperforming both the Czechs and the Poles and earning a rather promising seeding in the second basket in the draw. But it was of little use. The Spaniards and Croats fell out of the baskets neighboring the Albanians, and the worst of the options fell out of the fourth: the current title holders, the Italians, who survived the main qualification on the flag, managed to end up in it. If the Albanian team makes it to the playoffs through such a meat grinder, it will be akin to a miracle.

The French certainly cannot be considered among the obvious lucky grandees.

Having been in the upper basket before the draw, from the lower baskets they received the Dutch, strong Austrians, who were always hinting at a breakthrough, and the fourth slot will be filled by the winner of the final stage of qualification. These are three mini-tournaments in March, which will determine the holders of the remaining vacant tickets to the European Championship. So, the winner of the strongest mini-tournament in terms of team selection will join the French in Group D. His favorites are the Poles. They were unprepossessing in qualifying, but their personnel potential hints at a chance to make some noise in Germany.

The British have a similar group – with Danes, Serbs and Slovenes.

But for some grandees, happiness smiled from ear to ear.

Let’s say that the hosts of the championship, the Germans, jumped out of the fourth basket from the sharp-toothed Swiss, who had already learned that at top tournaments they don’t quit early. However, their other rivals are quite ordinary – the Scots and Hungarians. The Belgians will have to fight with Romanians and Slovaks of approximately the same status, plus the winner of the play-off mini-tournament, the semi-final pairs of which are as follows: Bosnia and Herzegovina against Ukraine, Israel against Iceland. Whoever penetrates Germany through him is unlikely to become a particularly dangerous competitor even for the Belgian national team, which has undergone a radical renewal.

Finally, those who love the Portuguese team and Cristiano Ronaldo have no reason to be nervous in advance. Their opponents are the Czechs, who currently lack class, the unstable Turks, and a team that will be destined to win the weakest of the spring mini-tournaments in March. His semi-final confrontations look very exotic. In them, the Georgians will fight with the Luxembourgers, and the Greeks, who have recently surrendered, will fight with the Kazakhs.

Alexey Dospehov