The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: •
Qualifying round: Apart from
Spain and
France, which received byes to the elite round as the teams with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 48 teams were drawn into 12 groups of four teams. Each group played a single round-robin, with one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The 12 group winners, the 12 runners-up, and the two third-placed teams with the best record against the first and second-placed teams in their group advanced to the elite round. •
Elite round: 28 teams were drawn into seven groups of four teams. Each group played a single round-robin, with one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The seven group winners qualified for the final tournament.
Tiebreakers For the qualifying round and elite round, teams were ranked according to
points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were to be applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 14.01 and 14.02): • Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams; •
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams; • Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams; • If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams; • Goal difference in all group matches; • Goals scored in all group matches; •
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams had the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and were tied after applying all criteria above (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); • Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points); • UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw; • Drawing of lots. To determine the two best third-placed teams from the qualifying round, the results against the teams in fourth place were discarded. The following criteria were applied (Regulations Article 15.01): • Points; • Goal difference; • Goals scored; • Disciplinary points; • UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw; • Drawing of lots. ==Qualifying round==