The play-offs of the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament decided the final four teams which qualified for the UEFA Euro 2016 final tournament. Eight teams, each of which finished third in their qualifying group were paired and contested in four ties, with the winner of each pair qualifying for the final tournament. Each of the four ties were played over two home-and-away legs with the four winners found according to the standard rules for the knockout phase in European competitions. The matches took place between 12 and 17 November 2015.
Ranking of third-placed teams The highest ranked third placed team from the groups qualified automatically for the tournament, while the remainder entered the playoffs. As most groups contained six teams but one contained 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 were counted in the third-placed ranking table.
Seeding The draw for the play-offs was held on 18 October 2015, 11:20 CEST, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon. The teams were seeded for the play-off draw according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings updated after the completion of the qualifying group stage. The four top-ranked teams were seeded and paired with the four unseeded teams. The order of legs of each tie was also decided by draw.
The seedings were as follows:
+ Pot 1 (seeded) Team 30,367 13 30,313 14 29,028 16 27,142 20+ Pot 2 (unseeded) Team 27,140 21 26,902 23 26,439 25 25,441 26
Summary The schedule of the play-offs was published by UEFA within one hour of the draw. The eight matches were spread over the six days, with the first legs on 12–14 November and the second legs on 15–17 November. The kickoff times were 18:00 or 20:45 CET (local times are in parentheses).
Matches
Ukraine won 3–1 on aggregate and qualified for UEFA Euro 2016.
Sweden won 4–3 on aggregate and qualified for UEFA Euro 2016.
Republic of Ireland won 3–1 on aggregate and qualified for UEFA Euro 2016.
Hungary won 3–1 on aggregate and qualified for UEFA Euro 2016.
Goalscorers
Discipline A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences: Receiving a red card (red card suspensions could be extended for serious offences) Receiving three yellow cards in three different matches, as well as after fifth and any subsequent yellow card (yellow card suspensions were carried forward to the play-offs, but not the finals or any other future international matches) The following suspensions were served during the play-off matches:
Team Player Offence(s) Suspended for match(es) Muhamed Bešić vs Andorra (6 September 2015) vs Republic of Ireland (13 November 2015) Roland Juhász vs Romania (11 October 2014) vs Finland (13 June 2015) vs Greece (11 October 2015) vs Norway (12 November 2015) Zoltán Gera vs Romania (11 October 2014) vs Faroe Islands (14 October 2014) vs Finland (13 June 2015) vs Faroe Islands (8 October 2015) vs Norway (12 November 2015) vs Norway (15 November 2015) John O'Shea vs Poland (11 October 2015) vs Bosnia and Herzegovina (13 November 2015) Jonathan Walters vs Georgia (7 September 2014) vs Gibraltar (4 September 2015) vs Poland (11 October 2015) vs Bosnia and Herzegovina (13 November 2015) Oleksandr Kucher vs Belarus (9 October 2014) vs Spain (27 March 2015) vs Spain (12 October 2015) vs Slovenia (14 November 2015) Taras Stepanenko vs Slovakia (8 September 2014) vs Slovakia (8 September 2015) vs Spain (12 October 2015) vs Slovenia (14 November 2015)
See also Denmark–Sweden football rivalry
References
External links UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying play-offs