2022 EURO Qualifiers: Which futsal artists will travel to the Land of Tulips?

While we impatiently wait for the 2021 Futsal World Cup in Lithuania to start, 2022 EURO Qualification Groups are ahead of us! The group stage should finish by end of April, while playoffs will be held in November. The EURO itself is on schedule from 19 January 2022 to 6 February 2022 in Amsterdam and Groningen.

The winner of each group and the six best runners-up will qualify for the final tournament. Two remaining runner-ups will decide the last berth in the final tournament in a playoff duel.

Let's take a look together at all the groups, we're expecting some very interesting matches!

2022 UEFA Futsal EURO Qualifiers: Group Stage

Group 1

  • Denmark
  • Croatia
  • Albania
  • Ukraine

At first glance, it is clear that this group has two major favorites - Ukraine and Croatia. After failing to qualify for the World Cup in Lithuania, Croatia made changes at the selector position, so it will be interesting to see will their style of play also change. Zhovto-Blakytni ("the Yellow-Blues") also failed to qualify for the World Cup and will be fired up for this qualifying stage for the next major tournament. It will be very interesting to watch the direct duel between these two teams.

Besides these two, Albania and Denmark complete Group 1. Two nations where futsal still hasn't made that 'boom' that it deserves. These two teams start this qualification stage with opposite rosters: only five Albanians are under 30 years old, while only four Danes are over 30 years old! Besides, the only time that Olsen-Banden (The Olsen Gang) qualified for the major tournament was exactly in the Netherlands in 1989. Can they repeat that success? Let's see!

Group 2

  • Georgia
  • France
  • Armenia
  • Russia

There is one major favorite in this group - Sbornaya Rossii, Russia, one of the futsal superpowers.

Can Sergey Skorovich's team, led by experienced trio Eder Lima, Robinho, and Esquerdinha, justify this favorite status in these qualifiers? It is not possible that the upcoming EURO could be one of the last major tournaments for this trio.

French national team surely showed huge progress, even in global competition. The French are on a roll and they already made a few big upsets along the way! Surely, we're expecting a big fight and rivalry between Georgia and France, as both teams see a chance for themselves in this group. "On paper", Armenia is an outsider, but we all know what futsal is and one can always expect the unexpected!

Group 3

  • Greece
  • Azerbaijan
  • Slovakia
  • Moldavia

A group where one can suppose that Azerbaijan will authoritatively progress through. Always unpleasant for their rivals, Joze Alessio Da Silva's team will face Greece, Slovakia, and Moldavia.

From these three mentioned teams, Slovakia has a bit of advantage, but they'll have to prove their worth against their competitors. Greek strength flows from the fact that selector Stefanos Soilemes is on the helm since 2008 and knows every player in detail and knows how to prepare his team for challenges ahead. Moldavia sounds like an outsider, but don't be fooled, they showed good form on occasion.

Group 4

  • North Macedonia
  • Romania
  • Serbia
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Balkan Peninsula group, we're expecting some exceptional matches here! Serbia and Romania are two lead favorites in this group and it is expected for them to decide who qualifies from first and who from the second spot.

North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have a lot to offer, no doubt about that. But can they disrupt the plans of group favorites - remains to be seen. Neither team qualified for a major tournament yet and they surely have a big desire to do it in 2022.

Group 5

  • Kazakhstan
  • Belarus
  • Israel
  • Hungary

Kazakhs are firm favorites in this group - no explanation needed. Belarus and Hungary have the best chances for that second spot and their direct duel may be decisive. Israel will, of course, do their best to create an upset along the way.

Belarus has one participation on the EURO and that was in Hungary in 2010. Hungary also took part in the 2016 EURO in Serbia, but they got knocked out early with two defeats and they'll certainly be searching for their second chance. Israel is the 77th team on the Futsal World Ranking table and a team that has an outsider status in Group 5.

Group 6

  • Slovenia
  • Spain
  • Latvia
  • Switzerland

The absolute favorite in Group 6 is Spain, probably the team with the biggest pool of players in Europe. Spaniards have to be very excited about this EURO because in Slovenia (2018) Ricardinho's Portugal left them on the second step of the podium. They probably have their own agenda of repeating their success of winning four EUROs in a row.

Favorite for second place in this group is Slovenia led by some exceptional individuals such as Rok Mordej, Igor Osredkar, Alen Fetić, Kristijan Čujec, and others. Latvia and Switzerland are outsiders in this group, both teams never took part in any major tournament. Their players dream of making an upset against these two favorites and secure a berth in a major tournament. Are those dreams realistic? Let's see!

Group 7

  • Montenegro
  • Italy
  • Belgium
  • Finland

Very, very interesting group! Italians are favorites, on paper. But it was Finland who knocked them out from the latest qualifying cycle and Belgians are steadily getting back under the futsal spotlights.

Montenegro is also a serious national team, but they still have the least chances to qualify from this group! The last time Belgium played on EURO was in 2014 when they hosted the tournament. Montenegro never played in a major tournament and they will do their best to make 2022 their year!

Group 8

  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Norway
  • Czechia

Surely, Portugal is the favorite in this group, although Czechs seem like the team that will follow them through to the EURO. Poland and Norway, both respectable teams, will have a hard time finding a way around these two favorites. Will they have any chance for a potential upset? They sure believe so!


As an end note - let's all enjoy these proper futsal spectacles across Europe like we did so far and we genuinely hope that we will all see each other in the Netherlands in packed arenas, just like futsal deserves it!