Izuchukwu OkosiThe draws for the Euro 2024 tournament qualifiers was held in Frankfurt, Germany on Sunday afternoon with interesting matchups on the horizon reports Prime Business Africa.
The coaches or representatives of all the countries involved in the qualifiers for the tournament were in attendance at the draw ceremony held at the Frankfurt’s Festhalle Exhibition Centre on Sunday.
A total of 53 European nations will battle for the 24 places in the tournament proper whose qualifiers will begin on the weekend of March 23 – 25, 2023.
Some old rivalries will be rekindled when the qualification campaign begins with Group C having old foes, Italy who are the seeded team paired with England who they defeated to win the Euro 2020 – Ukraine, North Macedonia – who eliminated the Azurris from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and Malta.
Aside the Group C pairings where scores will be settled, Group B also looks difficult to predict who will make it to Euro 2024 in Germany as either group winners or as runners up.
The Netherlands are the seeded side but will face the might of world champions France, Republic of Ireland, Greece and minnows, Gibraltar.
In Group D, Luka Modric will captain his team Croatia in search of qualification to the tournament which could be his last of a very successful career.
Croatia were the seeded team in the draws on Sunday and will have Wales and Turkey as the most difficult opponents to overcome in Group D. Armenia and Latvia complete the five teams in the group.
The Croatia versus Wales is a reunion of some sorts for Real Madrid superstar Modric and former star Gareth Bale who now plays for LA Galaxy in the MLS.
Two teams will qualify automatically from each of the ten groups while three best losers will join the other 20 for the tournament.
Germany have qualified already as the hosts of the tournament which will hold in 10 German cities between Friday, 14 June to Sunday 14 July, 2024.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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