EURO 2012 logo (from uefa.com)

Latvian national football team must get past Croatia, Greece, Israel, Georgia and Malta to go to final tournament in Poland and Ukraine after Sunday's UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying draw in Warsaw.  The new European championship qualifying campaign starts in September, 2010.

Qualifying explained
Fifty-one countries participated in the draw, which was conducted by four famous names from Polish and Ukrainian football: Andriy Shevchenko, Andrzej Szarmach, Oleg Blokhin and Zbigniew Boniek. The groups will be contested according to a league system on a home-and-away basis, with games scheduled between September 2010 and October 2011.

The nine winners and the runner-up with the best record against the top five sides in their pool qualify directly for the final tournament, the last before the championship is expanded to 24 teams. The eight remaining runners-up go into play-off matches in November 2011 to decide the final four sides to join co-hosts Poland and Ukraine.

UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying draw

Group A: Germany, Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan
Group B: Russia, Slovakia, Republic of Ireland, FYR Macedonia, Armenia, Andorra
Group C: Italy, Serbia, Northern Ireland, Slovenia, Estonia, Faroe Islands
Group D: France, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belarus, Albania, Luxembourg
Group E: Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Moldova, San Marino
Group F: Croatia, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Georgia, Malta
Group G: England, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Wales, Montenegro
Group H: Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Cyprus, Iceland
Group I: Spain, Czech Republic, Scotland, Lithuania, Liechtenstein

Bye to finals (hosts): Poland, Ukraine

UEFA EURO 2012 event calendar
Date Event
03, 04, 07/09/2010 - EURO qualifying matches
08, 09, 12/10/2010 - EURO qualifying matches
25, 26, 29/03/2011 - EURO qualifying matches
03, 04, 07/06/2011 - EURO qualifying matches
02, 03, 06/09/2011 - EURO qualifying matches
07, 08, 11/10/2011 - EURO qualifying matches
11, 12/11/2011 - EURO qualifying play-offs
15/11/2011 - EURO qualifying play-offs
08/06/2012 - EURO kicks off in Warsaw

Material used from www.uefa.com

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