This week sees the start of the qualifying campaign for Euro 2024, which will take place in Germany in June 2024.
Over 50 countries will be competing for one of the 23 available places in the finals next year, with Germany qualifying automatically as the host nation.
The qualifying campaign will be completed for 20 qualifiers throughout 2023, with the final three places in the tournament decided by a series of three separate playoffs, which will be contested in March 2024.
Before then, the qualifying teams will be drawn into groups later on this year ahead of what should be an intriguing summer of football across Europe.
Italy are the defending champions after they defeated England on penalties in the 2020 final at Wembley (played in 2021 due to the pandemic).
The fixtures for the qualifiers begin with two matchdays this week, played back-to-back, with the first Matchday from Thursday to Saturday and the second from Sunday to Tuesday.
Bet365 Sport will be covering all these games and more with their usual extensive coverage and betting markets with a wealth of outright markets, pre-match markets on individual games and of course individual in-game betting.
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Pre-Qualifiers Betting – Outright Winner
Bet365 is currently offering odds on who will win the tournament ahead of the qualifying campaign and Germany and France lead the betting as the joint 11-2 favourites with England 7/1, Spain 15/2, Italy 9/1, the Netherlands 11/1, Portugal 12/1, Belgium 14/1 and Denmark 16/1.
It is 25/1 bar these teams with Cyprus the current longest odds option available at 1000/1.
Home nations fans may be interested to know that after England at 7/1, next in the betting is Wales at 80/1, Scotland are 150/1 with Northern Ireland 400/1.
Euro 2024 – Qualification Groups
There are ten groups in qualifying and the top two teams in each group at the end of qualifying earning a spot at the finals and the final three being decided by the playoffs to be held in March 2024.
Group A
- Spain
- Scotland
- Norway
- Georgia
- Cyprus
Group B
- Netherlands
- France
- Republic of Ireland
- Greece
- Gibraltar
Group C
- Italy
- England
- Ukraine
- North Macedonia
- Malta
Group D
- Croatia
- Wales
- Armenia
- Turkey
- Latvia
Group E
- Poland
- Czech Republic
- Albania
- Faroe Islands
- Moldova
Group F
- Belgium
- Austria
- Sweden
- Azerbaijan
- Estonia
Group G
- Hungary
- Serbia
- Montenegro
- Bulgaria
- Lithuania
Group H
- Denmark
- Finland
- Slovenia
- Kazakhstan
- Northern Ireland
- San Marino
Group I
- Switzerland
- Israel
- Romania
- Kosovo
- Belarus
- Andorra
Group J
- Portugal
- Bosnia-Herzegovina
- Iceland
- Luxembourg
- Slovakia
- Liechtenstein
Euro 2024 Qualifiers – Matchday 1
Games kick off at 7.45pm each day unless stated.
Thursday 23rd March
- Kazakhstan v Slovenia (3pm)
- Bosnia-Herzegovina v Iceland
- Denmark v Finland
- Italy v England
- North Macedonia v Malta
- Portugal v Liechtenstein
- San Marino v Northern Ireland
- Slovakia v Luxembourg
Match To Watch – Italy v England
It is somehow fitting that the last game of the last Euros will be the first game for both these teams of the next tournament. Champions Italy will open their defence of the trophy against England in Naples, hoping a partisan crowd can cheer the home team onto success.
England’s form in the Nations League, when they also faced Italy twice (drawing both times), was poor and while their World Cup form improved, they still fell short losing out in the quarter finals to France.
This is a tough start to a tricky campaign for Gareth Southgate’s men with away trips to North Macedonia and Ukraine also looking difficult. Therefore, anything that they can pick up here would be viewed as a bonus.
Tip – The draw is 11/5 here with bet365 and that looks a solid bet here.
Friday 24th March
- Bulgaria v Montenegro (5pm)
- Austria v Azerbaijan
- Czech Republic v Poland
- France v Netherlands
- Gibraltar v Greece
- Moldova v Faroe Islands
- Serbia v Lithuania
- Sweden v Belgium
Match to Watch – France v Netherlands
Having narrowly lost the World Cup Final a few months back, France now begin their quest to land the Euro 2024 tournament at home against a talented Dutch side who have been in good form in the Nations League.
The French though have arguably the best player in the world at the moment, Kylian Mbappe in their ranks and after hitting a hat-trick in the World Cup Final, and finishing on the losing side, he will want to go one better here.
France do stutter occasionally in qualifying for big tournaments, but at the moment, I feel they are a slightly better side than the Dutch who would be delighted with a point from this game but who I feel will ultimately end up with nothing this evening.
Tip – Take France to earn a narrow win here at 17/20
Saturday 25th March
- Scotland v Cyprus (2pm)
- Armenia v Turkey (5pm)
- Belarus v Switzerland (5pm)
- Israel v Kosovo (5pm)
- Andorra v Romania
- Croatia v Wales
- Spain v Norway
Match to Watch – Croatia v Wales
As Wales enter the post-Gareth Bale era, Croatia are also a team that sees its star players reaching a venerable age, with Luka Modric now 37, but still showing no signs of quitting at least until the Nations League 2023.
However, the home side also have a number of talented youngsters coming through, top of the list being defender Josko Gvardiol. Wales too have some talented youngsters but there is a huge void left behind where Bale used to play in the team.
Without Bale, I feel this is going to be a very difficult campaign for Wales especially starting with the most difficult game on the schedule.
Tip – With no Gareth Bale, this is going to be a tough one for Wales. Take Croatia to win at 3/5.
Euro 2024 Qualifiers – Matchday 2
Sunday 26th March
- Kazakhstan v Denmark (2pm)
- England v Ukraine (5pm)
- Liechtenstein v Iceland (5pm)
- Slovenia v San Marino (5pm)
- Slovakia v Bosnia-Herzegovina
- Northern Ireland v Finland
- Luxembourg v Portugal
- Malta v Italy
Monday 27th March
- Montenegro v Serbia
- Netherlands v Gibraltar
- Poland v Albania
- Austria v Estonia
- Sweden v Azerbaijan
- Moldova v Czech Republic
- Hungary v Bulgaria
- Rep of Ireland v France
Tuesday 28th March
- Georgia v Norway (5pm)
- Wales v Latvia
- Romania v Belarus
- Switzerland v Israel
- Kosovo v Andorra
- Turkey v Croatia
- Scotland v Spain
Odds on the second set of games will be made available once the fixtures for the teams on Matchday 1 have been played.
