The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying Group I was one of the nine groups to decide which teams would qualify for the UEFA Euro 2016 finals tournament.[1] Group I consisted of five teams: Portugal, Denmark, Serbia, Armenia, and Albania,[2] where they played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format.[3]
The top two teams, Portugal and Albania, qualified directly for the finals. As third-placed Denmark weren't the highest-ranked among all third-placed teams, they advanced to the play-offs, where they lost to Sweden and thus failed to qualify.
France were also partnered with the five-team Group I, which enabled the 2016 tournament hosts to play centralized friendlies against these countries on their 'spare' dates.[4] However, these friendlies did not count in the qualifying group standings.[5] [6] [7] [8]
The fixtures were released by UEFA the same day as the draw, which was held on 23 February 2014 in Nice.[9] Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times are in parentheses).
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See main article: Serbia v Albania (UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying). ----------------------------
A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:[3]
The following suspensions were served during the qualifying matches:
Team | Player | Offence(s) | Suspended for match(es) | |
---|---|---|---|---|
vs Serbia (14 October 2014) vs Denmark (4 September 2015) vs Serbia (8 October 2015) | vs Armenia (11 October 2015) | |||
vs Albania (29 March 2015) | vs Portugal (13 June 2015) | |||
vs Armenia (13 June 2015) | vs Albania (7 September 2015) |
Portugal coach Fernando Santos was to serve an eight-match touchline ban for unsporting conduct towards the match officials when he was in charge of Greece against Costa Rica in the 2014 FIFA World Cup round of 16 match.[10] The ban was temporarily suspended by the Court of Arbitration for Sport until the final appeal.[11] On 23 March 2015, the CAS ruled that his ban should be reduced to four games, with two suspended during a six-month probationary period, meaning he missed Portugal's matches against Serbia (29 March 2015) and Armenia (13 June 2015).[12]