The 24 teams have now been confirmed for Euro 2016 – the biggest European Championship tournament there has ever been following UEFA’s decision to add eight extra teams in the space of four years.
There is a large list of bookmaker offers surrounding next summer’s event, and you can back your picks to win the Euros now or wait till next year.
Albania, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Wales will all be making their debuts, whilst Austria and Ukraine have technically qualified for the first time having only participated in a Euros tournament previously by virtue of being the co-host.
This past week the final four teams were confirmed through the playoffs. Let’s take a look at those.
Hungary 3-1 Norway
Hungary were less than quarter-of-an-hour away from qualifying as the best third-place team in the group stage, before they conceded two late goals and became the only team to lose to Greece.
Not since 1972 have the former World Cup runners-up competed in this tournament, but they were comfortable winners in the playoffs against a Norwegian side who were both poor and short of ideas in the final third for three hours during the two legs.
Tamas Priskin scored a fine goal to open the score at the recently built national stadium, home to Ferencvaros. Players who could make an impact in the finals next summer include Balazs Dzsudzsak and Adam Szalai.
Republic of Ireland 3-1 Bosnia & Herzegovina
After taking four points from the World Champions in the group stage some may have considered it a surprise that the Republic of Ireland didn’t finish in the top two and qualify automatically, but German and Poland managed to do just that.
Martin O’Neill’s side got a favourable draw in that Bosnia and Herzegovina were an ageing side at the World Cup less than two years ago and don’t have a whole host of recognisable talent. Ireland did very well in keeping Edin Dzeko and Miralem Pjanic over the two legs.
In the second leg in Dublin, Ireland opened the scoring with a very controversial penalty – most to us miffed why it was given, but none complaining. English-born Jonathan Walters tucked it away. The Stoke City forward gave the hosts a two-goal cushion in the second half and the Bosnians never looked getting back in the tie at that point.
Sweden 4-3 Denmark
An exciting two-legged affair between Scandinavian sides ended in favour of Sweden as Denmark are one of other three nations who competed in Euro 2012 that won’t be at France in 2016 (the others being Greece and the Netherlands).
The scoreline was a lot closer than the tie suggests; in face Sweden were up 4-1 on aggregate before Denmark scored two goals in the final 10 minutes of the second leg in Copenhagen on Tuesday.
Many will be excited to see Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the finals again – the Paris Saint-Germain star has netted 12 of his country’s last 15 goals, including three of the four in this playoff tie.
Ukraine 3-1 Slovenia
Ukraine blew Slovenia away at home in the first leg with the 2-0 scoreline perhaps a bit flattering on the visitors.
The minnows of Slovenia then took an early lead in Maribor before they got caught out on the counter in the 97th minute through Andriy Yarmolenko as they pushed for an equaliser on aggregate.
As a result, Ukraine will be participating in only their second-ever European Championships after co-hosting the last one in which they were eliminated in the group stage at the hands of England of France.
Euro 2016 Predictions
Germany remain the clear favourites for the tournament despite a less-than-convincing qualifying campaign and they are worth putting your Winner Sports offer code or any other free betting bonus on as the eventual winners. Some questions have been raised over head coach Joachim Low and his tactical knowledge, but no one can deny they have the best squad available.
Whether France or Spain will be able to match up to the World Champions next summer remains to be seen and it’s certainly hard to look beyond these three to a potential champion.
The new format should also favour the favourites as it will allow them to rotate more players during the group stage with some of the third-place teams progressing into the second round. Four group winners will also be considered to having a favourable knockout tie by facing one of the third-place teams.