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 | | Sunday, 20 January, 2002, 15:11 GMT Auld Enemies kept apart  Scotland and England are among the second seeds Click here for seedings England and Scotland will avoid an Auld Enemy clash in the qualifying group stages when the draw for Euro 2004 is made on Friday. But either could find themselves in the same group as the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Republic are among the top 10 seeds, the English and Scots in the second-top tier and Northern Ireland and Wales are down among the fourth grouping. Teams are seeded according to their performances in qualifying for the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2000. The calculation involves dividing the total number of points gained in both competitions by the number of games played.
Both England and Scotland finished second in their qualifying groups for Euro 2000, and played each other for the right to play at Euro 2000. And while Scotland failed to qualify for this year's World Cup, England had the lowest points total of all the teams who finished top of their group. England will nonetheless be disappointed to miss out on being among the top 10 for the tournament to be held in Portugal. It means that, in addition to a possible Anglo-Irish clash, they and the Scots could face particularly tough opposition in the shape of holders France, Sweden, Spain, Germany, and Italy. The Czech Republic, Romania, Belgium and Turkey can be more unpredictable, but on their day they too can justify their top-tier status. Dangerous A 20th-ranking means that prospective new Scotland coach Berti Vogts will not only avoid the English but also Croatia, Holland, Russia, Denmark, Poland, Yugoslavia, Ukraine and Slovenia. Slovakia, Norway, Switzerland and Finland are potentially dangerous opponents among the third seeds. There will be 10 groups of five teams in Friday's draw. The winners of each will qualify for the tournament automatically. The 10 runners-up will play off for the final five places, the 15 qualifiers joining hosts Portugal for the finals in June 2004. In a poll of vistors to Uefa's own website, Turkey were on Sunday the top tips as winners among the top 10 seeds. They had so far received 23% of the vote, ahead of Italy (21%), Portugal (17%) and France (13%). | |
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