UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying Group A

Group A of UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying was split into ten groups of national teams. Group A was played between 22 March and 17 November 2019 and featured five teams with the top two teams qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament.[1] The group consisted of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, England, Kosovo and Montenegro.[2] Teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format.[3]

England finished as group winners, with a single loss to the Czech Republic and seven wins, whilst the Czech Republic finished second with five wins and three losses. Both teams qualified directly for the main draw of UEFA Euro 2020.[4] Unlike previous editions, the participants of the play-offs were not decided based on results from the qualifying group stage, but instead based on their performance in the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the finals are to be played from 11 June to 11 July 2021, rather than in 2020.

Group summary

On 14 October 2019, during the Bulgaria v England match, there was racist behaviour from a group of Bulgarian fans. This included Nazi salutes, monkey chants and racist booing. The behaviour was widely condemned by the public and various groups, including the anti-racist football campaign Kick It Out. The next day, Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borisov called for Bulgarian Football Union president Borislav Mihaylov to resign following the racist incident. Mihaylov resigned a few hours later.[5]

Standings

Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification England Czech Republic Kosovo Bulgaria Montenegro
1  England 8 7 0 1 37 6 +31 21 Qualify for final tournament — 5–0 5–3 4–0 7–0
2  Czech Republic 8 5 0 3 13 11 +2 15 2–1 — 2–1 2–1 3–0
3  Kosovo 8 3 2 3 13 16 −3 11 Advance to play-offs via Nations League 0–4 2–1 — 1–1 2–0
4  Bulgaria 8 1 3 4 6 17 −11 6 0–6 1–0 2–3 — 1–1
5  Montenegro 8 0 3 5 3 22 −19 3 1–5 0–3 1–1 0–0 —
Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers

Matches

The fixtures were released by UEFA the same day as the draw, which was held on 2 December 2018 in Dublin.[6][7] Times are CET/CEST,[note 1] as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Bulgaria 1–1 Montenegro
 Report
Attendance: 5,652[8]
Referee: Ruddy Buquet (France)
England 5–0 Czech Republic
 Report
Attendance: 82,575[8]
Kosovo 1–1 Bulgaria
 Report
Attendance: 12,580[8]
Montenegro 1–5 England
 Report
Attendance: 8,329[8]
Czech Republic 2–1 Bulgaria
 Report
Attendance: 13,482[8]
Montenegro 1–1 Kosovo
 Report
Attendance: 100[8][note 2]
Bulgaria 2–3 Kosovo
 Report
Attendance: 4,994[8]
Czech Republic 3–0 Montenegro
 Report
Attendance: 11,565[8]
Kosovo 2–1 Czech Republic
 Report
Attendance: 12,678[8]
England 4–0 Bulgaria
 Report
Attendance: 82,605[8]
Referee: Marco Guida (Italy)
England 5–3 Kosovo
 Report
Attendance: 30,155[8]
Montenegro 0–3 Czech Republic
Report
Attendance: 5,951[8]
Czech Republic 2–1 England
 Report
Attendance: 18,651[8]
Montenegro 0–0 Bulgaria
Report
Attendance: 2,743[8]
Bulgaria 0–6 England
Report
Attendance: 17,481[8]
Referee: Ivan Bebek (Croatia)
Kosovo 2–0 Montenegro
 Report
Attendance: 12,600[8]
Czech Republic 2–1 Kosovo
 Report
Attendance: 10,986[8]
England 7–0 Montenegro
 Report
Attendance: 77,277[8]
Bulgaria 1–0 Czech Republic
 Report
Attendance: 0[8][note 3]
Kosovo 0–4 England
Report
Attendance: 12,326[8]
Referee: Paweł Gil (Poland)

Goalscorers

There were 72 goals scored in 20 matches, for an average of 3.6 goals per match.

12 goals

8 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Discipline

A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:[3]

  • Receiving a red card (red card suspensions could be extended for serious offences)
  • Receiving three yellow cards in three different matches, as well as after fifth and any subsequent yellow card (yellow card suspensions were not carried forward to the play-offs, the finals or any other future international matches)

The following suspensions were served during the qualifying matches:

Team Player Offence(s) Suspended for match(es)
 England Jordan Henderson Yellow card vs Montenegro (25 March 2019)
Yellow card vs Czech Republic (11 October 2019)
Yellow card vs Bulgaria (14 October 2019) 		vs Montenegro (14 November 2019)
Danny Rose Yellow card vs Montenegro (25 March 2019)
Yellow card vs Bulgaria (7 September 2019)
Yellow card vs Czech Republic (11 October 2019) 		vs Bulgaria (14 October 2019)
 Kosovo Besar Halimi Yellow card vs Bulgaria (25 March 2019)
Yellow card vs Bulgaria (10 June 2019)
Yellow card vs England (10 September 2019) 		vs Montenegro (14 October 2019)

Notes

  1. ^ CET (UTC+1) for matches in March and November 2019, and CEST (UTC+2) for all other matches.
  2. ^ Montenegro were sanctioned by UEFA to play one home match (against Kosovo on 7 June 2019) without spectators for racist behaviour in their home match against England.[9]
  3. ^ The Bulgaria v Czech Republic match was played behind closed doors due to a UEFA punishment against Bulgaria for racist behaviour in their home match against England.[10]

References

  1. ^ "UEFA Euro 2020: Qualifying Draw Procedure" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 27 September 2018. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  2. ^ "UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying draw made in Dublin". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2 December 2018. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  3. ^ a b "Regulations of the UEFA European Football Championship 2018–20". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 9 March 2018. Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  4. ^ "With 7-0 Win against Montenegro, England Qualifies for Euro 2020". Mirror Herald. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  5. ^ "Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov calls for country's football chief to resign after racist abuse". CNN. 15 October 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  6. ^ "UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying schedule: all the fixtures". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2 December 2018. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  7. ^ "European Qualifiers 2018–20: Group stage fixture list" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2 December 2018. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t "Summary UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying – Group A". Soccerway. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  9. ^ "Disciplinary - Inside UEFA – UEFA.com". UEFA.com. 26 April 2019.
  10. ^ "Bulgaria fans' racism: Racist abuse of England players leads to stadium ban". BBC Sport. British Broadcasting Corporation. 29 October 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2019.