Euro 2024 field complete as Ukraine, Georgia get emotional playoff wins

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The 24-team field for this summer's European Championship is now set after Georgia, Ukraine, and Poland secured the last three available berths via the qualification playoffs. Here's how Tuesday's all-or-nothing playoff finals unfolded, and what the completed tournament groups look like.

Path A

Wales 0-0 Poland (Poland wins 5-4 on penalties)

Poland will compete at its fifth straight European Championship after overcoming Wales - and an impassioned Cardiff crowd - in a high-quality penalty shootout.

Despite over half of its starting lineup playing below England's top flight, Wales worried Poland with a succession of dead-ball deliveries and Kieffer Moore's height and brawn regularly causing problems. Ben Davies had a goal disallowed for being offside after a setup from a Moore header. However, Polish corner-kicks almost resulted in goals for Robert Lewandowski and Jakub Kiwior, and Jakub Piotrowski's curling effort in extra time whistled past the post. It was a hard-fought 120 minutes packed with intrigue.

After a string of impeccable penalties, Wojciech Szczesny saved Wales' fifth spot-kick by Daniel James to send Poland into Group D at Euro 2024 with France, the Netherlands, and Austria. Wales, meanwhile, should be optimistic about the future once the pain has subsided; after the group-stage elimination at the 2022 World Cup appeared to mark the end of an era, an exciting one seems to be emerging with several youngsters impressing for Rob Page's side in recent outings.

Path B

Ukraine 2-1 Iceland

Ukraine showed incredible determination to secure its place at Euro 2024. After staging an epic late comeback in their playoff semifinal win over Bosnia and Herzegovina last week, the Ukrainians showcased their fighting spirit once more on Tuesday, overturning a halftime deficit to defeat Iceland 2-1 and reach this summer's tournament.

Albert Gudmundsson, Iceland's most dangerous player, opened the scoring with a sensational solo goal in the 30th minute, maneuvering around multiple defenders before unleashing an unstoppable shot from outside the area. But Ukraine took control after the break, equalizing nine minutes into the second half courtesy of a similarly splendid effort from Viktor Tsyhankov. Chelsea winger Mykhailo Mudryk delivered the winner with a low strike into the bottom corner in the 84th minute, sending the predominantly Ukrainian crowd inside Poland's Wroclaw Stadium into a frenzy; Ukraine continues to play its "home" matches elsewhere due to the ongoing Russian invasion. Both second-half tallies were set up by Georgiy Sudakov, the ascendant 21-year-old Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder who's catching the eye of Europe's top clubs.

Sergiy Rebrov's team will now slot into Group E at Euro 2024, a favorable quartet that features Belgium, Slovakia, and Romania.

Path C

Georgia 0-0 Greece (Georgia wins 4-2 on penalties)

Georgia qualified for a major tournament for the first time as an independent nation after beating Greece in a penalty shootout in Tbilisi. The first of three playoff finals was high on energy and low on quality for the majority of the contest, with just a single shot on target between the teams after 90 minutes.

Georgia, which separated from the Soviet Union in 1991, survived a scare in the 102nd minute when Konstantinos Mavropanos smacked the crossbar with a leaping header off a corner kick. It then withstood the injury-forced departure of star player Khvicha Kvaratskhelia before going to penalties. Giorgi Mamardashvili saved the first of Greece's spot-kicks, and Nika Kvekveskiri dispatched the decisive goal into the bottom left corner to send the 55,000 in attendance into rapture.

Georgia will face Turkey, Portugal, and Czechia in Group F, while Greece must wait to make a first major tournament appearance since 2014.

Completed Euro 2024 groups

With the Euro 2024 draw being conducted months before the completion of the playoff matches, Tuesday's victors already knew their assigned groups and opponents were they to reach the tournament.

Group A
Germany 🇩🇪
Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Hungary 🇭🇺
Switzerland 🇨🇭