The qualifying competition consisted of three rounds: •
Preliminary round: The 23 lowest-ranked teams were drawn into five groups of four teams and one group of three teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams which were pre-selected as hosts (if a group was drawn without pre-selected hosts, the hosts were selected afterwards by agreement or draw by UEFA). The six group winners advanced to the main round. •
Main round: The 28 teams (22 highest-ranked teams and six preliminary round qualifiers) were drawn into seven groups of four teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams which were pre-selected as hosts. The seven group winners and the seven runners-up advanced to the play-offs. •
Play-offs: The 14 teams were drawn into seven ties to play home-and-away two-legged matches to determine the seven qualified teams.
Tiebreakers In the preliminary round and main round, the teams were ranked according to
points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of a mini-tournament, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings: • Higher number of points obtained in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question; • Superior
goal difference resulting from the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question; • Higher number of goals scored in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question; • If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 were reapplied exclusively to the mini-tournament matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 10 applied; • Superior goal difference in all mini-tournament matches; • Higher number of goals scored in all mini-tournament matches; • If only two teams had the same number of points, and they were tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the mini-tournament, their rankings were determined by a
penalty shoot-out (not used if more than two teams had the same number of points, or if their rankings were not relevant for qualification for the next stage). • Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in the mini-tournament matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points); • Coefficient ranking; • Drawing of lots. In the play-offs, the team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs qualified for the final tournament. If the aggregate score was level, the
away goals rule was applied, i.e., the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advanced. If away goals were also equal,
extra time was played. The away goals rule was again applied after extra time, i.e., if there were goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score was still level, the visiting team advanced by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals were scored during extra time, the tie was decided by
penalty shoot-out. ==Schedule==