England draw Croatia in Euro 2020 group stage

Portugal lifting the trophy in 2016

Saturday's draw for Euro 2020 showed up some big matches for England and Wales. Because of the nature of next year's tournament with 12 host cities, some countries like England was automatically drawn in the group that featured their cities as hosts, which means that they would play all their home games at Wembley meanwhile they had a possibility of Scotland joining them because of the playoff path. If Scotland does they get face play their games in Glasgow. All roads to Wembley on the 12th July begin in Rome with Turkey taking on Italy at the Stadio Olimpico the month before.

Northern Ireland in the playoffs

All that's left to handle in the qualifying phase is the playoffs. There are 4 playoff paths, which feature 4 teams. The structure is that of a cup semi-final, and final. So, for example, Playoff A features England's conquerors 4 years ago Iceland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. Iceland face Romania and Hungary take on Bulgaria, and the winners of the two matches play each other in a final, and the winner of that final will qualify for Euro 2020. Playoff B features both Northern and Republic of Ireland. However, they don't play each other until that path final. To get there, they both have to beat Slovakia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Playoff C features Scotland which if they win will be drawn into Group D with England, their playoff path includes Norway, Israel and Serbia.  The final way includes teams like North Macedonia, Georgia, Kosovo and Belarus.

Virgil Van Dijk gets a taste of home.

The group of death was Group F with Germany, France and Portugal. The last team that would join the group will be dependant on the result of the playoff paths because if Romania wins their Playoff route, they would be playing in Group C as they would be a host country, and the winner of Playoff route D would be in that group.

Italy was put in Group A and would be playing in the first game in Rome against Turkey. Wales were drawn in the same group and, Wales fans get in contact with Arsenal and Chelsea fans about going to Azerbaijan would play their first 2 games in Baku and would face Italy in Rome.

Finland has to face Belgium and Russia.

Group B features the World number 1 in Belgium, and they have the most extended trip of the group stage swapping between Copenhagen against  Euro 92 winners Denmark and the groups other hosts, Russia in St Petersburg. They also have to play tournament rookies Finland in St Petersburg.

Group C features the winner of either of the two playoff stipulations mentioned earlier alongside former champions Holland, Ukraine and Austria and they would be spending their group in Holland and Romania. Holland will be playing their games in the Johan Cruyff Arena which saw the famous Champions League semi-final back in May between Ajax and Tottenham.

Harry Kane looking to lead England to glory

Group D features England as hosts they get to play at Wembley. The first match for England is a repeat of the World Cup semi-finals and the last game in the Nations League group stage against Croatia. They then have to play either Scotland or one of the other Playoff C teams and then finish off against Euro 96 runners up the Czech Republic. If Scotland qualifies they get to play their games at Hampden Park in Glasgow.

Group E features possibly 2 hosts as Spain are one of them, and they have to play the winner of Path B which includes the other host city Republic of Ireland, Sweden and Poland. The matches will be played either in Bilbao Spain or in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin

All that's left like I said is the playoffs for the last 4 teams. The BBC and ITV will be coming out with which games they will be covering throughout the tournament.

I'll be back with more soon.

KRO Mark