NYON, Switzerland (AP) — Israel was drawn to face Iceland in the qualifying playoffs for the European Championship, and Ukraine was paired with Bosnia-Herzegovina on Thursday.
The winners of those two games will then face each other next March for a place at Euro 2024 in Germany, setting up a potential decisive match between Israel and Ukraine.
Both Ukraine and Israel must currently play “home” games in a neutral country for security reasons because their own country is at war. Israel was drawn as the host against Iceland, while Bosnia is at home against Ukraine.
Israel has never qualified for the European Championship since becoming a member of UEFA since 1994.
In the other playoff brackets, Wales will host Finland and that winner will then host Poland or Estonia.
The third-tier playoff bracket will see the winner of Georgia or Luxembourg host either Greece or Kazakhstan.
All six playoff semifinals are played on March 21. All three finals are scheduled five days later.
The winners of the three playoff brackets will complete the 24-team Euro 2024 lineup, joining 20 teams that qualified from the 10 qualifying groups plus host Germany.
When the draw for the tournament is made Dec. 2 in Hamburg, the three vacant slots for playoff winners will be placeholders coming out of the lowest-ranked pot of No. 4 seeds.
Teams entered the playoffs based on their results and standings in Nations League groups played last year. Their standing in Euro 2024 qualifying groups this year did not affect seeding for Thursday’s draw.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
