The final three places in next year's final tournament will be contested in three pathways by the 12 teams that failed to qualify from the group stages. Assignment to the different pathways was based on the results achieved in last year's UEFA Nations League.
Poland lost their chance for automatic qualification on Friday following an uninspiring 1:1 draw with the Czech Republic. Although fortune has favored the Poles because defending champions Italy and last year's third-placed Croatia qualified directly, thus vacating the playoff places for the weaker teams.
Poland were the highest-ranked team in the Nations League to fail to get automatic qualification and were therefore the highest-ranked team in the A group and will also subsequently be afforded home advantage.
Thanks to the final round of results, Poland has not only avoided strong nations in the form of Croatia and Italy but will also face one of the worst-performing teams in all European group qualifiers. Estonia earned only one point from a group involving Belgium, Austria, Sweden, and Azerbaijan, scoring just twice and conceding 22 goals in the process.
Poland has a good track record against the Estonians, with seven victories, one draw, and a defeat. Although their most recent encounter was the aforementioned loss back in August 2012, where the Poles lost 0:1 in Tallinn.
Poland will need to regain some form in March after a hugely disappointing qualification campaign that saw them sack previous coach Fernando Santos,
appoint Michał Probierz for the final three games. They eventually finished four points behind Albania and the Czech Republic, rarely showing much team cohesion.
Former Polish under-21s coach Probierz has put his faith in youth, promoting numerous relatively lesser-known players to the senior squad, a strategy that tends to pay dividends in the medium to long term.
Although his first three matches at the helm have been underwhelming, it would be very unfair to judge him on that, particularly as he is undertaking a revolution in playing personnel.
The draw for the six groups of the finals will take place on December 2 in Hamburg, so Poland will know who they will face in next summer’s tournament if they can claim victories in the two playoff matches in March.
