^The Montenegro v Russia match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Russia after being abandoned at 0–0 due to crowd violence and a scuffle between players.
Matches
The fixtures were released by UEFA the same day as the draw, which was held on 23 February 2014 in Nice.[4] Times are CET/CEST,[note 1] as listed by UEFA (local times are in parentheses).
A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:[3]
Receiving a red card (red card suspensions could be extended for serious offences)
Receiving three yellow cards in three different matches, as well as after fifth and any subsequent yellow card (yellow card suspensions were carried forward to the play-offs, but not the finals or any other future international matches)
The following suspensions were served during the qualifying matches:
vs Austria (8 September 2014) vs Montenegro (15 November 2014) vs Montenegro (14 June 2015)
vs Russia (5 September 2015)
Montenegro coach Branko Brnović served a one-match touchline ban and missed Montenegro's match against Russia (12 October 2015) after being sent off against Austria (9 October 2015).[21]
Notes
^CET (UTC+1) for matches on 15 November 2014 and 27 March 2015, and CEST (UTC+2) for all other matches.
^The Montenegro v Russia match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Russia[7] after it was abandoned in the 67th minute at 0–0 due to crowd violence and a scuffle between players. This was the second delay of the match as in the first minute Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev was hit by a flare thrown from the crowd and stretchered off, causing a 33-minute delay.[8] Montenegro also had to play their next home qualifying game behind closed doors, and the Montenegrin and Russian FAs were fined €50,000 and €25,000 respectively.[9]
