The

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro 2 ...

Group D was one of the nine groups to decide which teams would qualify for the

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

finals tournament. Group D consisted of six teams:

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, and

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

, where they played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The top two teams, Germany and Poland, qualified directly for the finals. As third-placed Republic of Ireland weren't the highest-ranked among all third-placed teams, they advanced to the play-offs, where they won against

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

and thus qualified as well.

Background

The

German national football team The Germany national football team (german: link=no, Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft) represents Germany in men's international football and played its first match in 1908. The team is governed by the German Football Association (''Deuts ...

was looking to maintain its record of qualifying for every European Championship since 1972.

and the

both proposed the expansion of the European Championship and it was considered "ironic" by the Republic of Ireland manager,

Martin O'Neill Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, (born 1 March 1952) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Starting his career in Northern Ireland, O'Neill moved to England where he spent most of his playi ...

, that the two were drawn in the same group. The chairman of the

Polish Football Association The Polish Football Association ( pl, Polski Związek Piłki Nożnej; PZPN) is the governing body of association football in Poland. It organizes the Polish football leagues (without the Ekstraklasa), the Polish Cup and the Polish national footb ...

Zbigniew Boniek Zbigniew Boniek (; born 3 March 1956) is a Polish former footballer and manager as well as current UEFA vice-president. A former midfielder, who was also capable of playing mostly as a right winger and second striker, he is considered one of the ...

, stated that he was happy with the draw.

Georgia national football team The Georgia national football team ( ka, საქართველოს ეროვნული საფეხბურთო ნაკრები, tr) represents the country of Georgia in men's international football matches, and it is c ...

manager,

Temur Ketsbaia Temuri Ketsbaia ( ka, თემურ ქეცბაია; born 18 March 1968) is a Georgian former professional football player and current manager. He is the current manager of the Cyprus national team. Club career After beginning his prof ...

, said that the new system would give Georgia the chance to qualify and said that Georgia would aim for third place in the group. The

Gibraltar national football team The Gibraltar national football team represents Gibraltar in international football competitions, and is controlled by the Gibraltar Football Association. Gibraltar applied for full UEFA membership and was accepted by the UEFA Congress in May ...

competed in European Championship qualifying for the first time after becoming members of UEFA in May 2013. Gibraltar play their home matches at

Estádio Algarve The Estádio Algarve (Algarve Stadium), also known as ''Estádio Faro/Loulé'' (Faro/Loule Stadium), is an association football stadium located between Faro and Loulé municipalities, in the Algarve region of Portugal. The stadium has a capacit ...

in Faro,

Algarve The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has it ...

, Portugal, as their home ground, Victoria Stadium, has an artificial pitch and does not meet UEFA international standards. They were initially drawn in

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying Group C The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying Group C was one of the nine groups to decide which teams would qualify for the UEFA Euro 2016 finals tournament. Group C consisted of six teams: Spain, Ukraine, Slovakia, Belarus, Macedonia, and Luxembourg, where the ...

, but with

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

—who claims the territory—already in that group, UEFA moved Gibraltar to Group D.

Standings

Matches

The fixtures were released by UEFA the same day as the draw, which was held on 23 February 2014 in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

. Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times are in parentheses). ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Goalscorers

Discipline

A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences: * Receiving a red card (red card suspensions could be extended for serious offences) * Receiving three yellow cards in three different matches, as well as after fifth and any subsequent yellow card (yellow card suspensions were carried forward to the play-offs, but not the finals or any other future international matches) The following suspensions were served during the qualifying matches:

Notes

References

External links

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying round Group D
{{DEFAULTSORT:Euro 2016 Group D 2014 in Republic of Ireland association football 2015 in Republic of Ireland association football 2014–15 in Scottish football 2015–16 in Scottish football 2014–15 in German football Qual 2014–15 in Polish football Q 2014–15 in Gibraltar football 2015–16 in Gibraltar football Gibraltar in international football 2014–15 in Georgian football 2015–16 in Georgian football Qual