[1][2] A total of 53 national teams participated in this qualifying process, with Gibraltar taking part for the first time.

[6][7][8] Sides were seeded according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings, which were announced along with the draw procedure and final tournament match schedule after the 23–24 January Executive Committee meeting in Nyon.

The following criteria were applied: For each play-off tie, the team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs qualified for the final tournament.

If away goals were also equal, then thirty minutes of extra time was played, divided into two fifteen-minutes halves.

For television rights reasons, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands were drawn into groups of six teams.

[19][20] The highest ranked third-placed team from the groups directly qualified for the tournament, while the remainder entered the play-offs.

As a result, a total of eight matches played by each team count toward the purpose of the third-placed ranking table.

Turkey became the best third-placed team, after winning against Iceland in its last match, while at the same time Kazakhstan beat Latvia to finish fifth in Group A.

The four play-off winners (Ukraine, Sweden, Republic of Ireland and Hungary) qualified for the final tournament.