Although it doesn't commence until June of next year, the Euro 2016 tournament continues to deliver a seething expectation, and not only because of its new format, but also because we are yet to know who the full compliment of participating countries will actually be.

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Next year's competition will be the first time that the European Championships - which take place every four years - will be made up of 24 countries. The previous iterations only had 16 teams but now - and this has nothing to do with any German led austerity to raise more money from more ticket sales as had been suggested to me - the 24 competitors will face each other in six groups of four rather than four groups of four. So far so simple. However, thus far only 20 countries have officially qualified for Euro 16 which means that there are still four coveted spots up for grabs "How's that?" I hear the fellow down the back yell. Well let's look briefly at how the qualifications played out.

The tournament takes place in France which means that the French automatically qualified. Good for them. There were nine groups in the qualification pool with the top two countries also making it through and the top third place team overall (which happened to be Turkey) also receiving an invite. That comprised the first 20 countries to make it and from within those 20 there are already being written the narratives of pioneers. Wales, Northern Ireland, Albania, Slovakia and Iceland will all be making their debuts at the competition whilst incredibly the Netherlands, who reached the semi-finals of the last World Cup, didn't even make the playoffs. So with the top third placed country automatically going through that leaves 8 other third place countries to battle it out for the last four golden tickets. The countries, and the match-ups, are as follows;

Norway Vs. Hungary

On Thursday November 12th the Norwegians will host Hungary with the return leg taking place on Sunday November 15th in the beautiful city of Budapest.

Norway found themselves in group H and earned their third place behind behind Italy and Croatia whilst the Hungarians huffed and puffed their way to their third place finish behind Northern Ireland and Romania in Group F.

History seems to be leaning towards the Scandinavian nation pinching this one given that Hungary have not beaten their opponents since 1981, which spans an era of nine meetings between the two countries, but, more significantly, the recent Hungarian form has been underwhelming, winning just one of their last four qualifying games. The Norwegians, who are vying for their first European Championships since 2000, are, it seems, in better form having beaten Croatia and narrowly losing to the Italians in their final two outings. We think the relative youth and progressive footballing mantra of the Norwegians will win out, especially since an aging Hungarian side will have to play two highly competitive games in the space of four days.

Prediction; Norway to advance.

Bosnia and Herzegovina Vs Republic of Ireland

The Irish will travel away for their first leg on Friday November 13th and will play the ever welcoming hosts in Dublin on Monday November 16th. 

Bosnia and Herzegovina were pooled in Group B in the qualifiers and came third in that group behind Belgium and Wales. The Republic of Ireland finished behind Germany and Poland in the highly competitive Group D, where 'D' did indeed stand for 'Death'.

The Bosnians enter these playoffs on a high. Although their group campaign got off to a diabolical start - losing at home to Cyprus and getting thrashed by the footballing powerhouse that is Israel - they've won their last three games and won five out of their last six. Their last game saw them rally to beat Cyprus 3-2 on foreign soil and in Edin Dzeko they have the highest scoring Bosnian player of all time and a player of immense potency. The Irish team is certainly one of a more mercurial bent. Having gleaned four points from a possible six in the qualifiers from World Champions Germany, they only managed to accrue two points from four games against Scotland and Poland, two draws, both occurring at home, and therein could be the key to any Irish success. We feel that playing the first leg away from home, albeit without the suspended John O'Shea and Jon Walters, ironically, offers the Irish a slight advantage. The Irish face two very challenging games but expect a defensive stratagem when they travel to Zeneca in an attempt to steal a point and a fit Shane Long could see them harvest the spoils in a raucous Dublin on the return trip. We don't expect a goal fest here but rather a disciplined, physical and tight defensive performance by the men in green.

Prediction; Republic of Ireland to advance.

Ukraine Vs Slovenia

Saturday November 14th will see Ukraine play the central European nation in Lviv with their second installment taking place in the picture-esque city of Maribor on Tuesday November 17th.

Ukraine earned their third place finish in Group C behind European champions Spain and Slovakia whilst Slovenia ended their campaign behind England and Switzerland in Group E.

The pages of history glower for Ukraine as they have played Slovenia four times and have never beaten them, losing twice and drawing twice. The Slovenians beat them 3-2 in a playoff for Euro 2000 and the tiny nation - with a population of less than 2 million people - is vying to reach its fourth major tournament in the past 16 years, having been in Euro 2000 and the World Cup in 2002 and 2010. In a bid to repeat these successes, the Slovenians have re-instated Srecko Katanec as manager, and given that he was responsible for getting them to the Euro 2000 and the World Cup two years later, his appointment is an intelligent one. However, the Slovenians rarely impressed during the qualifiers and never really threatened two very ordinary sides in England and Switzerland with both qualifying at a canter in the end. Ukraine made their EURO finals debuts as co-hosts of Euro 2012 and their greatest achievement at international level has been to progress to the 2006 World Cup quarter-finals where they lost to the eventual winners, Italy, 3-0. They've also offered their own dollops of mediocrity during the qualifiers and failed to register a single goal against either Spain or Slovakia, although in their final home game they played Spain off the field and had close to 30 shots on goal but eventually lost 1-0. Nevertheless, we think Ukraine will finally exact revenge for the Euro 2000 loss and in Andriy Yarmolenko they have a potential tie winner.

Prediction; Ukraine to advance. 

Sweden Vs Denmark

This all Scandinavian affair kicks off just north of Stockholm on Saturday November 14th leaving the Swedes to take a short trip to Copenhagen, for the second bout, on Tuesday November 17th.

Sweden finished third in Group G behind Austria and Russia whilst Denmark earned bronze in Group I behind Portugal and Albania.

Denmark are the only past European Champions in the playoffs, as memories of their legendary win at the Euro 1992 - which ironically took place in Sweden - will surely reignite Danish dreams, desires and determination to see off their very old and well acquainted neighbor and footballing rival. These two have met, according to the statistics moguls, 104 times resulting in Sweden winning 45 times and Denmark triumphing 40 and in fact, during Denmark's 1992 banner year, Sweden were the only team to beat the Danes in the tournament before they went on to win it. The ironic links between these two nations are, for the dramatics, quite sensational but in November there will no time for sentimentality. Coming into this playoff, the Swedes are certainly in better form and in their gang they have the player who, we think in all likelihood, will make the ultimate difference. Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored eight goals during the qualifying campaign, which made him the fourth highest goal scorer. This is the same tally as the whole Danish team was able to register and given that Denmark's offensive choreography centers around Nicklas Bendtner - oh dear - it's a simple statistic to accept. Additionally, the fact that Denmark haven't scored in their last three games only compounds this exasperation and it's a fact in football, that to win games, you must score goals. Christian Eriksen certainly has the ability to find the back of the net but with the Swedes are coming off of two consecutive 2-0 victories, we think, ultimately, the momentum will be in their favor.

Prediction; Sweden to advance    

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