PARIS — Sweden and Ukraine became the last two qualifiers for Euro 2016 after eliminating Denmark and Slovenia respectively in Tuesday’s playoffs.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a brace as Sweden beat its Scandinavian neighbour 4-3 on aggregate after a 2-2 draw in Copenhagen.
Ukraine held on after conceding an early goal to veteran center-back Bostjan Cesar before an equalizer deep into injury time by Andriy Yarmolenko saw it complete a 3-1 aggregate victory.
After Republic of Ireland beat Bosnia and Herzegovina Monday and Hungary ousted Norway the day before, all 24 teams for next year’s finals in France are now known.
Draw, seeds and pots unveiled
UEFA Wednesday revealed its coefficient seeds for Euro 2016, determining which nations go into which of the four pots for the December 12 draw.
France as host, Spain as champion, Germany, England, Portugal and Belgium all go into pot one as top seeds for the first-round draw that will establish six groups of four nations.
Performances at Euro 2012 (20 percent), the 2014 World Cup (40) and results during the Euro 2016 qualifiers (40) were taken into account to settle upon the seeds and therefore which team went into which pot.
One team from each pot will be drawn to go into each of the six groups.
The 2016 tournament (June 10 — July 10) is the first to feature 24 nations. From the initial six round-robin groups from which the top two teams and the four best third placed teams then go into a last-16 direct knockout format.
The four pots:
Pot 1 — France, Spain, Germany, England, Portuga, Belgium.
Pot 2 — Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia, Ukraine.
Pot 3 — Czech Republic, Sweden, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary.
Pot 4 — Turkey, Republic of Ireland, Iceland, Wales, Albania, Northern Ireland.
Top African sides qualify
Africa’s top sides all booked places in next year’s decisive World Cup qualifying group phase after coming through their knockout ties Tuesday.
Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Egypt, the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia, who have all played at previous World Cup finals tournaments, will be among 20 countries in the draw for the next round having won their two-legged ties.
Ghana and Nigeria both came through testing encounters against minnows while the north African trio of Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia enjoyed more comfortable results.
Ivory Coast’s Giovanni Sio scored twice as the African champions beat neighbor Liberia 3-0, for a 4-0 aggregate success, while Senegal overcame Madagascar 3-0 for a 5-2 aggregate triumph with goals from Cheikhou Kouyate, Moussa Konate and Mame Biram Diouf.
Cameroon held to a goalless draw at home against Niger but a 3-0 win in Friday’s first leg laid the platform for its success. An own goal gave South Africa a 1-0 victory over Angola in Durban for a 4-1 aggregate triumph.
Nigeria beat a spirited Swaziland 2-0 in Port Harcourt, Ghana also won 2-0 on aggregate against the tiny Comoros Islands in Kumasi, Algeria hammered Tanzania 7-0 for a 9-2 aggregate triumph, Egypt’s Ahmed Hassan scored twice in 4-0 win over Chad in Alexandria, Tunisia beat Mauritania 2-1 at home.
Burkina Faso also advanced Tuesday, along with the Cape Verde Islands, Congo, Mali and Libya. — Agencies
