Qualifying
The draw for the qualifying round took place in Montreux, Switzerland on 27 January 2006 at 12:00 CET.
The qualifying process commenced a month after the 2006 World Cup. Austria and Switzerland automatically qualified for the tournament finals as host nations.
The qualifying format was changed compared to previous tournaments. The winners and runners-up from seven groups automatically qualified for the Championship, with the hosts filling the other two slots in the 16-team tournament. The change means there were no play-offs between teams finishing in second place in the groups – they qualified directly for the finals. Teams that finished in third place had no opportunity to qualify. Six of the qualifying groups contained seven teams, and the other, Group A, contained eight.
Read more about this topic: UEFA Euro 2008