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Similar UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying, UEFA Euro 2016 Group F, UEFA Euro 2016 Group E, UEFA Euro 2016 Group B, UEFA Euro 2016 | ||
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. Group I consisted of five teams: Portugal, Denmark, Serbia, Armenia, and Albania, where they played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format.
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The top two teams would qualify directly for the finals. The third-placed team would qualify directly too if they had the best records among the third-placed teams of all qualifying groups, otherwise they would enter the play-offs for another chance to qualify.
Portugal and Albania qualified for the finals as the group winners and runners-up respectively. 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.
Matches
The fixtures were released by UEFA the same day as the draw, which was held on 23 February 2014 in Nice. Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times are in parentheses).
Centralised friendlies
France were partnered with the five-team Group I, which enabled the 2016 tournament hosts to play friendlies against these countries on their 'spare' dates. These friendlies did not count in the qualifying group standings.
Goalscorers
Note: Does not include centralised friendlies.
Discipline
A player is automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:
The following suspensions were (or will be) served during the qualifying matches:
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. The ban was temporarily suspended by the Court of Arbitration for Sport until the final appeal. 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).