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