UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying Group A

Group A of UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying was split into ten groups of national teams. Group A was played between 22 March and 17 November 2019 and featured five teams with the top two teams qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament.^[1] The group consisted of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, England, Kosovo and Montenegro.^[2] Teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format.^[3]

England finished as group winners, with a single loss to the Czech Republic and seven wins, whilst the Czech Republic finished second with five wins and three losses. Both teams qualified directly for the main draw of UEFA Euro 2020.^[4] Unlike previous editions, the participants of the play-offs were not decided based on results from the qualifying group stage, but instead based on their performance in the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the finals were delayed to take part in 2021, rather than in 2020.

Group summary

On 14 October 2019, during the Bulgaria v England match, there was racist behaviour from a group of Bulgarian fans. This included Nazi salutes, monkey chants and racist booing. The behaviour was widely condemned by the public and various groups, including the anti-racist football campaign Kick It Out. The next day, Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borisov called for Bulgarian Football Union president Borislav Mihaylov to resign following the racist incident. Mihaylov resigned a few hours later.^[5]

Standings

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	8	7	0	1	37	6	+31	21	Qualify for final tournament		—	5–0	5–3	4–0	7–0
2	Czech Republic	8	5	0	3	13	11	+2	15			2–1	—	2–1	2–1	3–0
3	Kosovo	8	3	2	3	13	16	−3	11	Advance to play-offs via Nations League		0–4	2–1	—	1–1	2–0
4	Bulgaria	8	1	3	4	6	17	−11	6			0–6	1–0	2–3	—	1–1
5	Montenegro	8	0	3	5	3	22	−19	3			1–5	0–3	1–1	0–0	—

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers

Matches

The fixtures were released by UEFA the same day as the draw, which was held on 2 December 2018 in Dublin.^[6][7] Times are CET/CEST,^{[note 1]} as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

22 March 2019 (2019-03-22)

18:00 (19:00 UTC+2)

Bulgaria	1–1	Montenegro
Nedelev 82' (pen.)	Report	Mugoša 50'

Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia

Attendance: 5,652^[8]

Referee: Ruddy Buquet (France)

22 March 2019 (2019-03-22)

20:45 (19:45 UTC+0)

England	5–0	Czech Republic
Sterling 24', 62', 68' Kane 45+2' (pen.) Kalas 84' (o.g.)	Report

Wembley Stadium, London

Attendance: 82,575^[8]

Referee: Artur Soares Dias (Portugal)

---

25 March 2019 (2019-03-25)

20:45

Kosovo	1–1	Bulgaria
Zeneli 61'	Report	Bozhikov 39'

Fadil Vokrri Stadium, Pristina

Attendance: 12,580^[8]

Referee: Gediminas Mažeika (Lithuania)

25 March 2019 (2019-03-25)

20:45

Montenegro	1–5	England
Vešović 17'	Report	Keane 30' Barkley 39', 59' Kane 71' Sterling 81'

City Stadium, Podgorica

Attendance: 8,329^[8]

Referee: Aleksei Kulbakov (Belarus)

---

7 June 2019 (2019-06-07)

20:45

Czech Republic	2–1	Bulgaria
Schick 19', 50'	Report	Isa 3'

Stadion Letná, Prague

Attendance: 13,482^[8]

Referee: Tamás Bognár (Hungary)

7 June 2019 (2019-06-07)

20:45

Montenegro	1–1	Kosovo
Mugoša 69'	Report	Rashica 24'

City Stadium, Podgorica

Attendance: 100^{[8][note 2]}

Referee: Daniele Orsato (Italy)

---

10 June 2019 (2019-06-10)

20:45 (21:45 UTC+3)

Bulgaria	2–3	Kosovo
I. Popov 43' Dimitrov 55'	Report	Rashica 14' Muriqi 64' Rashani 90+3'

Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia

Attendance: 4,994^[8]

Referee: Mads-Kristoffer Kristoffersen (Denmark)

10 June 2019 (2019-06-10)

20:45

Czech Republic	3–0	Montenegro
Jankto 18' Kopitović 49' (o.g.) Schick 82' (pen.)	Report

Andrův stadion, Olomouc

Attendance: 11,565^[8]

Referee: Vladislav Bezborodov (Russia)

---

7 September 2019 (2019-09-07)

15:00

Kosovo	2–1	Czech Republic
Muriqi 20' Vojvoda 67'	Report	Schick 16'

Fadil Vokrri Stadium, Pristina

Attendance: 12,678^[8]

Referee: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)

7 September 2019 (2019-09-07)

18:00 (17:00 UTC+1)

England	4–0	Bulgaria
Kane 24', 50' (pen.), 73' (pen.) Sterling 55'	Report

Wembley Stadium, London

Attendance: 82,605^[8]

Referee: Marco Guida (Italy)

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10 September 2019 (2019-09-10)

20:45 (19:45 UTC+1)

England	5–3	Kosovo
Sterling 8' Kane 19' Vojvoda 38' (o.g.) Sancho 44', 45+1'	Report	V. Berisha 1', 49' Muriqi 55' (pen.)

St Mary's Stadium, Southampton

Attendance: 30,155^[8]

Referee: Felix Zwayer (Germany)

10 September 2019 (2019-09-10)

20:45

Montenegro	0–3	Czech Republic
	Report	Souček 54' Masopust 58' Darida 90+4' (pen.)

City Stadium, Podgorica

Attendance: 5,951^[8]

Referee: Ali Palabıyık (Turkey)

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11 October 2019 (2019-10-11)

20:45

Czech Republic	2–1	England
Brabec 9' Ondrášek 85'	Report	Kane 5' (pen.)

Sinobo Stadium, Prague

Attendance: 18,651^[8]

Referee: Damir Skomina (Slovenia)

11 October 2019 (2019-10-11)

20:45

Montenegro	0–0	Bulgaria
	Report

City Stadium, Podgorica

Attendance: 2,743^[8]

Referee: Andreas Ekberg (Sweden)

---

14 October 2019 (2019-10-14)

20:45 (21:45 UTC+2)

Bulgaria	0–6	England
	Report	Rashford 7' Barkley 20', 32' Sterling 45+3', 69' Kane 85'

Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia

Attendance: 17,481^[8]

Referee: Ivan Bebek (Croatia)

14 October 2019 (2019-10-14)

20:45

Kosovo	2–0	Montenegro
Rrahmani 10' Muriqi 35'	Report

Fadil Vokrri Stadium, Pristina

Attendance: 12,600^[8]

Referee: Artur Soares Dias (Portugal)

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14 November 2019 (2019-11-14)

20:45

Czech Republic	2–1	Kosovo
Král 71' Čelůstka 79'	Report	Nuhiu 50'

Štruncovy sady Stadion, Plzeň

Attendance: 10,986^[8]

Referee: Gianluca Rocchi (Italy)

14 November 2019 (2019-11-14)

20:45 (19:45 UTC+0)

England	7–0	Montenegro
Oxlade-Chamberlain 11' Kane 19', 24', 37' Rashford 30' Šofranac 66' (o.g.) Abraham 84'	Report

Wembley Stadium, London

Attendance: 77,277^[8]

Referee: Antonio Mateu Lahoz (Spain)

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17 November 2019 (2019-11-17)

18:00 (19:00 UTC+2)

Bulgaria	1–0	Czech Republic
Bozhikov 56'	Report

Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia

Attendance: 0^{[8][note 3]}

Referee: Sergei Karasev (Russia)

17 November 2019 (2019-11-17)

18:00

Kosovo	0–4	England
	Report	Winks 32' Kane 79' Rashford 83' Mount 90+1'

Fadil Vokrri Stadium, Pristina

Attendance: 12,326^[8]

Referee: Paweł Gil (Poland)

Goalscorers

There were 72 goals scored in 20 matches, for an average of 3.6 goals per match.

12 goals

• Harry Kane

8 goals

• Raheem Sterling

4 goals

• Patrik Schick
• Ross Barkley
• Vedat Muriqi

3 goals

• Marcus Rashford

2 goals

• Vasil Bozhikov
• Jadon Sancho
• Valon Berisha
• Milot Rashica
• Stefan Mugoša

1 goal

• Kristian Dimitrov
• Ismail Isa
• Todor Nedelev
• Ivelin Popov
• Jakub Brabec
• Ondřej Čelůstka
• Vladimír Darida
• Jakub Jankto
• Alex Král
• Lukáš Masopust
• Zdeněk Ondrášek
• Tomáš Souček
• Tammy Abraham
• Michael Keane
• Mason Mount
• Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
• Harry Winks
• Atdhe Nuhiu
• Elba Rashani
• Amir Rrahmani
• Mërgim Vojvoda
• Arbër Zeneli
• Marko Vešović

1 own goal

• Tomáš Kalas (against England)
• Mërgim Vojvoda (against England)
• Boris Kopitović (against Czech Republic)
• Aleksandar Šofranac (against England)

Discipline

A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:^[3]

• 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 not carried forward to the play-offs, the finals or any other future international matches)

The following suspensions were served during the qualifying matches:

Team	Player	Offence(s)	Suspended for match(es)
England	Jordan Henderson	vs Montenegro (25 March 2019) vs Czech Republic (11 October 2019) vs Bulgaria (14 October 2019)	vs Montenegro (14 November 2019)
	Danny Rose	vs Montenegro (25 March 2019) vs Bulgaria (7 September 2019) vs Czech Republic (11 October 2019)	vs Bulgaria (14 October 2019)
Kosovo	Besar Halimi	vs Bulgaria (25 March 2019) vs Bulgaria (10 June 2019) vs England (10 September 2019)	vs Montenegro (14 October 2019)

Notes

1. CET (UTC+1) for matches in March and November 2019, and CEST (UTC+2) for all other matches.
2. Montenegro were sanctioned by UEFA to play one home match (against Kosovo on 7 June 2019) without spectators for racist behaviour in their home match against England.^[9]
3. The Bulgaria v Czech Republic match was played behind closed doors due to a UEFA punishment against Bulgaria for racist behaviour in their home match against England.^[10]