What are Scotland’s best and worst case scenarios in the Euro 2024 draw?

Scotland finished second behind Spain in their qualification group

Harry Latham-Coyle
Saturday 02 December 2023 10:59 GMT
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Scotland have reached next summer’s Euros
Scotland have reached next summer’s Euros (Getty Images)

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Scotland are safely through to Euro 2024 after finishing second in qualifying Group A.

Steve Clarke’s side were beaten only once across their campaign and secured a famous victory over Spain to help book their place at next summer’s tournament.

Their 17-point tally sees them go into Pot 3 for the draw for the Euros.

They will not face any of the other five nations in that pot in the group stages of the competition.

With three play-off qualifiers still to be confirmed, the pots look like this:

Pot 1: Germany (hosts), Portugal, France, Spain, Belgium, England

Pot 2: Hungary, Turkey, Romania, Denmark, Albania, Austria

Pot 3: Netherlands, Scotland, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic

Pot 4: Italy, Serbia, Switzerland, Play-off winner A, Play-off winner B, Play-off winner C

So what is the toughest possible draw for Scotland?

While the pots are based on qualifying form, and thus a useful gauge of team quality, we will go by Fifa’s world rankings to determine the best and worst case scenarios for Clarke and his team.

The toughest possible draw for Scotland (current world ranking 36th) would be: France (2nd), Denmark (19th), Italy (9th).

On paper, the easiest draw would be: Germany (16th), Albania (62nd), Kazakhstan* (100th).

*Kazakhstan are part of qualifying play-off Path C

When is Euro 2024?

The 17th edition of the men’s Euros will be held in Germany between 14 June and 14 July.

Which cities are hosting fixtures?

Berlin

Munich

Hamburg

Dusseldorf

Frankfurt

Cologne

Stuttgart

Gelsenkirchen

Leipzig

Dortmund

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