UEFA Euro 2012 in October 2011, the nine group winners qualified automatically, along with the highest ranked second placed team. The remaining eight-second placed teams contested two-legged play-offs, and the four winners qualified for the finals. Twelve of the sixteen finalists participated at the previous tournament in 2008. England and Denmark made their return to the Euro, having last participated in 2004, while Republic of Ireland returned after a twenty-four-year absence to make their second appearance at a European Championship. One of the co-hosts, Ukraine, made their debut as an independent nation (before 1992 Ukraine participated as part of the Soviet Union). With
UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying play-offs from the outset that the draw for the play-offs would be seeded. The four runners-up with the best positions in the UEFA team coefficient ranking system were therefore seeded. Each nation's coefficient was generated by calculating: <section begin=Seeding /> The seedings were as follows: <section end=Seeding /> <section begin=Matches /> "Croatia won 3–0 on aggregate and qualified for UEFA Euro 2012." "Republic of Ireland won 5–1 on aggregate and qualified for UEFA Euro 2012." "Czech Republic won 3–0 on aggregate and qualified for UEFA Euro 2012." "Portugal won 6–2 on aggregate and qualified for UEFA Euro 2012." UEFA Euro 2012