Ball game on the river Elbe

The group draw for the European Championship in Germany 2024 will take place today in the Hamburg Philharmonic.

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Detail from Hamburg ahead of today's draw, Photo: UEFA
Detail from Hamburg ahead of today's draw, Photo: UEFA
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

The group draw for the 2024 European Championship will take place today in Hamburg. The ball drawing ceremony in the Philharmonic building - an architectural masterpiece that sits on the Elbe River - will begin at 18 p.m.

By the way, Hamburg is one of the 10 host cities of the Euros, which will be held in Germany from June 14 to July 14 next year.

As always, an interesting draw is expected, 24 national teams are eagerly awaiting what the balls will bring them. A special charm of the draw is given by the composition of the hats, which are not determined on the basis of the Fifa and Uefa lists, nor on the basis of history, tradition and names, but solely on the basis of the results in the qualifications, which were full of surprises.

So it happened that the last, fourth hat, with the current European champion Italy, but also Switzerland and Serbia, seems stronger and more "awkward" than the second one, which includes Hungary, Turkey, Romania, Albania...

In the first hat are superpowers like hosts Germany, former world champions France, England and Spain, as well as Portugal and Belgium.

The third hat is also interesting, with the Netherlands and Croatia, Slovenia and Scotland, and the Czech Republic and Slovakia, while in the last one there will be three blank cards, actually the letters A, B and C - those places will be filled in March by the winners of the League playoffs nation.

In any case, at least one "group of death" is expected, as in any major competition, and possible variants are, for example, Germany, Denmark, Croatia and Serbia, or perhaps France, Austria, Holland and Italy.

It is known that Germany will be placed in group A and that they will play in the opening game - on June 14 at the "Allianz Arena" in Munich. The final is a month later at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.

In addition to Munich, Berlin and Hamburg, the host cities are Dusseldorf, Gelsenkirchen, Cologne, Leipzig, Dortmund, Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

Six groups of four teams will be drawn, and the two first-placed teams from each group, plus the four best third-placed teams, will advance to the round of XNUMX.

First hat: Germany, Portugal, France, Spain, Belgium, England.

Second hat: Hungary, Turkey, Romania, Denmark, Albania, Austria.

Third hat: Holland, Scotland, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic.

The fourth hat: Italy, Serbia, Switzerland, play-off winners of the A, B and C divisions of the League of Nations.

Bonus video: