England are among the top seeds in the draw for the elite qualifying round of the UEFA European U19 Championship.
The draw, which takes place at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon on Thursday, includes the 27 teams that progressed from the first qualifying round in October – as well as Spain, who were given a bye to join the competition at this stage.
Noel Blake’s Young Lions finished ahead of Switzerland, Slovenia and Andorra during October’s first round of qualifying, and now await their fate in Thursday’s draw.
As well as avoiding Spain, being placed among the top seeds also means England are certain to be drawn away from holders Serbia, Portugal and Czech Republic – but could conceivably be drawn in the same group as Germany and Italy, who are in the second and third pots respectively.
In the draw, seven groups will be formed, all consisting of one team apiece from the four seeding pots.
Elite round draw seedings
- Pot A: Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, Georgia, Serbia (holders), Russia, England
- Pot B: Germany, Ukraine, Belgium, Republic of Ireland, Israel, Austria, Sweden
- Pot C: Norway, Montenegro, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, Denmark, Greece
- Pot D: Bulgaria, Scotland, Romania, Cyprus, Wales, Lithuania, Iceland
It is also impossible for any nation to face opponents they have already played in the initial qualifying phase.
Following the completion of the draw, one nation will be selected as hosts for each group and the fixtures will be played over the course of a week in May 2014.
Only the section winners will advance to join hosts Hungary in the finals from 19–31 July 2014 – with the top six performers (teams finishing first to third in the group stage) at the Finals automatically qualifying for the FIFA U20 World Cup in New Zealand in 2015.
Speaking after the first qualifying round in Slovenia, manager Noel Blake said that although several steps away, World Cup qualification is at the forefront of everybody’s minds.
He said: “That’s what you get when you play in tournaments – and equally the more you stay in tournaments, the more international and tournament experience you get.
“They know the objectives. The ultimate objective is to go to the U20s World Cup, but before we can do that we have to deal with this first. This is part of that process.”
The draw takes place at 11.15am on Thursday and will be streamed live on UEFA.com.
