Portugal among four seeds for Euro 2012 playoff draw

(Reuters) - Portugal, Croatia, Ireland and the Czech Republic have been seeded for Thursday's draw for next month's Euro 2012 playoffs, UEFA said in a statement Wednesday. The decision means Euro 2004 runners-up Portugal, who missed out on automatic qualification for next June's finals in Ukraine and Poland after Tuesday's 2-1 defeat in Denmark, will face either unseeded Turkey, Bosnia, Estonia or Montenegro. The draw for the November 11/12 and 15 two-legged ties will take place at 1100 GMT in Krakow Thursday. Croatia were second in Group F behind Greece and could now face fellow former Yugoslavs Bosnia or Montenegro, the latter of whom are making their playoff debut along with Estonia. Spain, Germany, Russia, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Greece, England, Denmark and best runners-up Sweden have already joined the two host nations in the finals with the tournament draw taking place on December 2 in Kiev. (Writing by Mark Meadows)