UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying
Qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2008 finals tournament took place between August 2006 and November 2007. Fifty teams were divided into seven groups. In a double round-robin system, each team played against each of the others in their group on a home-and-away basis. The winner and runner-up of each group qualified automatically for the final tournament.
Austria and Switzerland qualified automatically as co-hosts of the event.
Qualified teams
| Team | Qualified as | Qualified on | Previous appearances in tournament |
| 0 | |||
| 2 | |||
| 9 | |||
| 2 | |||
| 6 | |||
| 3 | |||
| 0 | |||
| 6 | |||
| 6 | |||
| 2 | |||
| 7 | |||
| 7 | |||
| 4 | |||
| 2 | |||
| 8 | |||
| 3 |
Seedings
2005 UEFA national team coefficient were used to rank the teams according to their results in both UEFA Euro 2004 and 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification. Only the group matches counted towards the coefficients, also determining which pot a national team was put in. Greece were the defending champions, thus were automatically seeded in the top pool. Portugal did not have to qualify for UEFA Euro 2004 as they hosted the tournament. So only their record in 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying was used. the same case applies for Germany that did not have to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup as hosts and uses only their record in UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan had never competed in the European Championships, so only their World Cup record was used. Montenegro had not been admitted to UEFA/FIFA at the time the qualifying competition had started, and thus could not compete until the qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.The draw took place on 27 January 2006 in Montreux, Switzerland.
Austria and Switzerland were already assured of places at Euro 2008 as host nations.
Team highlighted in bold qualified to the finals.
Tiebreakers
If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:- Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question
- Superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question
- Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question
- Higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question
- If, after applying criteria 1) to 4) to several teams, two or more teams still have an equal ranking, the criteria 1) to 4) will be reapplied to determine the ranking of these teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6) and 7) will apply.
- Results of all group matches: 1. Superior goal difference 2. Higher number of goals scored 3. Higher number of goals scored away from home 4. Fair play conduct
- Drawing of lots
Summary
| [|Group A] | Group B | Group C | Group D | Group E | Group F | Group G |
Groups
The qualifying process started in August 2006. Austria and Switzerland were automatically granted places in the tournament finals as the host nations.The qualifying format had been changed from the previous tournament: the respective winners and runners-up from seven groups would automatically qualify for the finals, alongside the host nations. Therefore, there were no play-offs between the runners-up of the groups. Group A contained eight teams, while the other six groups each contained seven.
As the official successor of the previous football association, Serbia inherited the position originally allotted to Serbia and Montenegro in Group A prior to the dissolution of the state union. Montenegro were granted UEFA membership after qualifying had started and thus were not able to participate in this European Championship.