THE opening games of 2020 UEFA European Championship qualifying begin today, with the continent’s biggest nations ready to feature.

Few big teams need to sweat the qualifiers, but for Germany the pressure is already on.

After a terrible 2018, Joachim Loew’s new-look squad is aiming for revenge against the Netherlands, which helped relegate Germany in the inaugural Nations League last year.

Elsewhere in the opening two rounds of games, there’s a rematch from the 2016 European Championship as World Cup champion France hosts Iceland on Monday in Group H. England’s young squad faces two eastern European teams in the Czech Republic and Montenegro in Group A.

Qualifying for next year’s 24-team tournament is low-risk for many top teams, since two nations qualify from each of the 10 groups. The revamped playoff system means 16 countries have a safety net. In other matches, World Cup semifinalist Belgium hosts Russia in the pick of the opening day’s games today. Portugal faces on-form Ukraine on Friday and on Saturday Spain is against Norway and out-of-sorts Italy hosts Finland.

England manager Gareth Southgate is relying on young players even more than usual as qualifying begins.

His squad for the Czech Republic on Friday and Montenegro on Monday contains two players born in 2000 — Jadon Sancho and newcomer Callum Hudson-Odoi — and just one born in the 1980s, backup goalkeeper Tom Heaton.

Declan Rice, the 20-year-old West Ham midfielder, is available to make his England debut after switching allegiance from Ireland.

Of the older players from the England squad, which reached the World Cup semifinals, Jamie Vardy and Gary Cahill have retired from international soccer, while Ashley Young hasn’t been selected since the tournament in Russia.

The Czech squad is missing first-choice goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik, who has an abdominal muscle injury, and playmaker Borek Dockal is a doubtful starter because of a calf muscle problem.

Netherlands is on a high after winning its Nations League group over France and Germany. The Dutch are also celebrating Ajax’s Champions League win over Real Madrid.

(SD-Agencies)