The Malta U-21 team will face Denmark, Romania, Ukraine, Finland and Northern Ireland in Group 8 of the 2021 UEFA U-21 Championship qualifying round.

The qualifying draw, held at UEFA’s Nyon headquarters on Tuesday morning, comprised 53 teams that were split into eight groups of six teams and one of five.

The qualifiers will run from March 2019 to September 2020.

Malta were in Pot F for the draw along with Luxembourg, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Andorra, San Marino and Liechtenstein.

The pots were based on the UEFA coefficient ranking system.

The nine group winners qualify automatically for the finals. Runners-up with the best records against the teams first, third, fourth and fifth in their group will go into a play-off to determine the last finals berth.

Tournament co-hosts Hungary and Slovenia have both been given a bye to the finals.

Malta U-21 coach Silvio Vella, Ivan Vella, the Director of the National Teams, and Jason Vella, the Malta U-21 Team Manager, represented the Malta FA in Tuesday’s draw.

THE DRAW

Group 1
Italy, Sweden, Iceland, Republic of Ireland, Armenia, Luxembourg.

Group 2
France, Slovakia, Switzerland, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein.

Group 3
England, Austria, Turkey, Kosovo, Albania, Andorra.

Group 4
Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Scotland, Lithuania, San Marino.

Group 5
Serbia, Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia.

Group 6
Spain, Israel, Montenegro, FYR Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Faroe Islands.

Group 7
Portugal, Netherlands, Norway, Belarus, Cyprus, Gibraltar.

Group 8
Denmark, Romania, Ukraine, Finland, Northern Ireland, Malta.

Group 9
Germany, Belgium, Wales, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova.

QUALIFIERS
- 18–20 March 2019.
- 3–11 June 2019.
- 2–10 September 2019.
- 7–15 October 2019.
- 11–19 November 2019.
- 23–31 March 2020.
- 31 August–8 September 2020.
- 5–13 October 2020.

Play-offs: 9–17 November.