adminLONDON. — World soccer champions Spain will start their campaign for a third successive European Championship in a group with Ukraine, Slovakia, Belarus, Macedonia and Luxembourg, meaning an emotional trip back to Kiev for Vicente del Bosque’s team who lifted the trophy there in 2012.
Spain will start their campaign with a home game against Macedonia and they will play their 10th and final qualifier in Ukraine in October, 2015.
Three-times champions Germany were grouped with three English-speaking sides from Ireland, Scotland and newcomers Gibraltar while the Netherlands, who lost to Spain in the 2010 World Cup final, face the Czech Republic and Turkey as well as Latvia, Iceland and Kazakhstan.
Germany, seeking their first European title since 1996, face Scotland in their opening match at home on September 7.
Newboys Gibraltar will mark their entry into official European competition for the first time at home to Poland on the same night.
Their home games are being played in Faro, Portugal, as their Uefa-sanctioned stadium in Gibraltar will not be finished until the end of 2016.
Italy, runners-up to Spain in 2012, will meet Croatia, Norway, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and Malta in Group H.
England, former World Cup winners but never European champions, play Switzerland, who England coach Roy Hodgson took to the 1994 World Cup in the United States, as well as Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania and San Marino, who have lost all 56 qualifiers they have played since 1992.
With 24 teams taking part in the 2016 finals in France, the draw no longer offers the daunting barrier it once did for the middle-ranking countries.
France qualify automatically as hosts and 23 of Uefa’s 54 member nations will qualify alongside them with the top two teams from each group assured of going through as well as the best third-placed finishers among the nine groups.
The remaining eight third-placed teams will play off to produce the other four finalists.
“Our history shows that we always qualify and beat these countries,” Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal told reporters.
“With the system now, that not only the first, but the second and maybe the third shall qualify, I think we can do the job. I won’t be in charge then of course because I am leaving after the World Cup, but I am sure we will be in the finals.”
Spain coach Del Bosque reacted cautiously to the draw.
“The group is not as easy as it looks, and you have to respect every team in it,” he told reporters. — AFP.
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