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.[1] Group I consisted of five teams: Portugal, Denmark, Serbia, Armenia, and Albania,[2] where they played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format.[3]
The top two teams, Portugal and Albania, qualified directly for the finals. 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.
France were also partnered with the five-team Group I, which enabled the 2016 tournament hosts to play centralised friendlies against these countries on their 'spare' dates.[4] However, these friendlies did not count in the qualifying group standings.
Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | ![]() |
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1 | ![]() |
8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 5 | +6 | 21 | Qualify for final tournament | — | 0-1 | 1-0 | 2-1 | 1-0 | |
2 | ![]() |
8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 5 | +5 | 14 | 0-1 | — | 1-1 | 0-2 | 2-1 | ||
3 | ![]() |
8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 5 | +3 | 12 | Advance to play-offs | 0-1 | 0-0 | — | 2-0 | 2-1 | |
4 | ![]() |
8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 13 | −5 | 4 | 1-2 | 0-3[a] | 1-3 | — | 2-0 | ||
5 | ![]() |
8 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 14 | −9 | 2 | 2-3 | 0-3 | 0-0 | 1-1 | — |
The fixtures were released by UEFA the same day as the draw, which was held on 23 February 2014 in Nice.[5] Times are CET/CEST,[note 1] as listed by UEFA (local times are in parentheses).
Denmark ![]() | 2-1 | ![]() |
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Report |
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Armenia ![]() | 1-1 | ![]() |
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Report |
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Denmark ![]() | 2-0 | ![]() |
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Report |
There were 39 goals scored in 20 matches, for an average of 1.95 goals per match.[note 5]
5 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal
A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:[3]
The following suspensions were served during the qualifying matches:
Team | Player | Offence(s) | Suspended for match(es) |
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Ansi Agolli | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
vs Armenia (11 October 2015) |
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Hovhannes Hambardzumyan | ![]() ![]() |
vs Portugal (13 June 2015) |
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Tiago | ![]() ![]() |
vs Albania (7 September 2015) |
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.[24] The ban was temporarily suspended by the Court of Arbitration for Sport until the final appeal.[25] 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).[26]