2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification (UEFA)
Tournament details
Dates6 April 2017 – 13 November 2018
Teams46 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played169
Goals scored575 (3.4 per match)
Top scorer(s)Belgium Janice Cayman (10 goals)

The European qualifying competition for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was a women's football competition that determined the eight UEFA teams joining the automatically qualified hosts France in the final tournament.[1][2][3]

Apart from France, 46 of the remaining 54 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition,[4] with Andorra making their World Cup qualification debut and Kosovo making their competitive debut.

Format

The qualifying competition consisted of three rounds:[5]

  • Preliminary round: The 16 lowest-ranked teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams which were pre-selected as hosts. The four group winners and the best runners-up (not counting results against the fourth-placed team) advance to the qualifying group stage.
  • Qualifying group stage: The 35 teams (30 highest-ranked teams and five preliminary round qualifiers) were drawn into seven groups of five teams. Each group was played in home-and-away round-robin format. The seven group winners qualify directly for the final tournament, while the four best runners-up (not counting results against the fifth-placed team) advance to the play-offs.
  • Play-offs: The four teams play two knockout rounds of home-and-away two-legged matches to determine the last qualified team from UEFA.

Tiebreakers

In the preliminary round and qualifying group stage, teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 13.01, 13.02, and 15.01):[5]

  1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  4. (Qualifying group stage only) Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  5. If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams was still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
  6. Goal difference in all group matches;
  7. Goals scored in all group matches;
  8. (Qualifying group stage only) Away goals scored in all group matches;
  9. (Preliminary round only) Penalty shoot-out if only two teams have the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and were tied after applying all criteria above (not used if more than two teams have the same number of points, or if their rankings were not relevant for qualification for the next stage);
  10. Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
  11. UEFA coefficient for the preliminary round or qualifying group stage draw.

To determine the best runner-up from the preliminary round and the four best runners-up from the qualifying group stage, the results against the teams in last place (fourth place in preliminary round and fifth place in qualifying group stage) were discarded. The following criteria were applied (Regulations Articles 13.03 and 15.02):[5]

  1. Points;
  2. Goal difference;
  3. Goals scored;
  4. (Qualifying group stage only) Away goals scored;
  5. Disciplinary points;
  6. UEFA coefficient for the preliminary round or qualifying group stage draw.

In the play-offs, the team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs qualified for the final tournament. If the aggregate score was level, the away goals rule was applied, i.e., the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advances. If away goals were also equal, extra time was played. The away goals rule was again applied after extra time, i.e., if there were goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score was still level, the visiting team advances by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals were scored during extra time, the tie was decided by penalty shoot-out (Regulations Article 17.01).[5]

Schedule

The qualifying matches were played on dates that fell within the FIFA Women's International Match Calendar.[6][7][8]

Stage FIFA International Dates
Preliminary round 6–11 April 2017
Qualifying group stage 11–19 September 2017
16–24 October 2017
20–28 November 2017
15–23 January 2018
26 February – 6 March 2018
2–10 April 2018
4–12 June 2018
27 August – 4 September 2018
Play-offs 1–9 October 2018
5–13 November 2018

Entrants

The teams were ranked according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:[9][10]

The 30 highest-ranked teams entered the qualifying group stage, while the 16 lowest-ranked teams entered the preliminary round. The coefficient ranking was also used for seeding in the preliminary round and qualifying group stage draws.

Final tournament hosts
TeamCoeffRank[10]
 France42,3552
Teams entering qualifying group stage
TeamCoeffRank[10]
 Germany42,9571
 England39,8803
 Norway39,1614
 Sweden38,0365
 Spain37,6556
 Switzerland36,6297
 Italy34,7758
 Netherlands34,6429
 Iceland34,14110
 Scotland33,63211
 Denmark32,91512
 Austria31,88213
 Belgium31,21314
 Russia30,36715
 Finland29,81516
TeamCoeffRank[10]
 Ukraine28,57917
 Wales25,80718
 Romania25,60219
 Poland24,83220
 Czech Republic23,87421
 Republic of Ireland23,66922
 Portugal22,86023
 Serbia21,57924
 Hungary20,36225
 Bosnia and Herzegovina19,54626
 Belarus19,43427
 Slovakia18,10428
 Slovenia17,22429
 Northern Ireland17,05130
 Croatia16,26631
Teams entering preliminary round
TeamCoeffRank[10]
 Turkey15,65632
 Israel14,64133
 Greece13,96134
 Kazakhstan13,35035
 Estonia11,15136
 Albania9,12137
 Faroe Islands8,02038
 Moldova7,91039
 Malta7,20842
 Montenegro7,19144
 Georgia6,31645
 Lithuania4,81846
 Latvia4,58447
 Luxembourg4,10948
 Andorra1,79349
 Kosovo——
Notes
  • Teams marked in bold qualified for the World Cup.
Did not enter
TeamCoeffRank
 Bulgaria7,81740
 North Macedonia7,76841
 Armenia7,19443
 Azerbaijan——
 Cyprus——
 Gibraltar——
 Liechtenstein——
 San Marino——

Preliminary round

Draw

The draw for the preliminary round was held on 19 January 2017, 13:30 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[11][12]

The 16 teams were allocated into four seeding positions according to their coefficient ranking. They were drawn into four groups of four containing one team from each of the four seeding positions. First, the four teams which were pre-selected as hosts were drawn from their own designated pot and allocated to their respective group as per their seeding positions. Next, the remaining 12 teams were drawn from their respective pot which were allocated according to their seeding positions.[13]

Seeding position 1
TeamCoeffRank[10]
 Turkey15,65632
 Israel14,64133
 Greece13,96134
 Kazakhstan13,35035
Seeding position 2
TeamCoeffRank[10]
 Estonia11,15136
 Albania (H)9,12137
 Faroe Islands (H)8,02038
 Moldova7,91039
Seeding position 3
TeamCoeffRank[10]
 Malta7,20842
 Montenegro7,19144
 Georgia (H)6,31645
 Lithuania (H)4,81846
Seeding position 4
TeamCoeffRank[10]
 Latvia4,58447
 Luxembourg4,10948
 Andorra1,79349
 Kosovo——
Notes
  • Teams which were pre-selected as preliminary round hosts were denoted by (H).
  • Teams marked in bold advanced from preliminary round to qualifying group stage.

Groups

  The four group winners and the best runner-up (not counting results against the fourth-placed team) advance to the qualifying group stage to join the 30 direct entrants.

Group 1

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Kazakhstan 3 2 1 0 4 2 +2 7 Qualifying group stage — 2–2 1–0 —
2  Latvia 3 1 2 0 7 3 +4 5 — — 1–1 —
3  Georgia (H) 3 1 1 1 3 3 0 4 — — — 2–1
4  Estonia 3 0 0 3 1 7 −6 0 0–1 0–4 — —
Source: UEFA
(H) Hosts

Group 2

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Albania (H) 3 2 1 0 5 3 +2 7 Qualifying group stage — 2–1 — 3–2
2  Greece 3 2 0 1 8 2 +6 6 — — 1–0 6–0
3  Malta 3 1 1 1 3 2 +1 4 0–0 — — —
4  Kosovo 3 0 0 3 3 12 −9 0 — — 1–3 —
Source: UEFA
(H) Hosts

Group 3

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Israel 3 2 1 0 9 0 +9 7 Qualifying group stage — — 2–0 7–0
2  Moldova 3 2 1 0 6 0 +6 7 0–0 — — 4–0
3  Lithuania (H) 3 1 0 2 2 4 −2 3 — 0–2 — —
4  Andorra 3 0 0 3 0 13 −13 0 — — 0–2 —
Source: UEFA
(H) Hosts

Group 4

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Faroe Islands (H) 3 3 0 0 9 3 +6 9 Qualifying group stage — 2–1 — 5–1
2  Turkey 3 2 0 1 13 3 +10 6 — — 3–0 9–1
3  Montenegro 3 1 0 2 8 6 +2 3 1–2 — — —
4  Luxembourg 3 0 0 3 3 21 −18 0 — — 1–7 —
Source: UEFA
(H) Hosts

Ranking of second-placed teams

To determine the best second-placed teams from the preliminary round which advance to the qualifying group stage, only the results of the second-placed teams against the first and third-placed teams in their group were taken into account, while results against the fourth-placed team were not included. As a result, two matches played by each second-placed team were counted for the purposes of determining the ranking.

Pos Grp Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 3  Moldova 2 1 1 0 2 0 +2 4 Qualifying group stage
2 4  Turkey 2 1 0 1 4 2 +2 3
3 2  Greece 2 1 0 1 2 2 0 3
4 1  Latvia 2 0 2 0 3 3 0 2
Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) disciplinary points; 5) coefficient.

Qualifying group stage

Draw

The draw for the qualifying group stage was held on 25 April 2017, 13:30 CEST (UTC+2), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[14][15]

The 35 teams were allocated into five seeding pots according to their coefficient ranking, with the five preliminary round qualifiers placed in Pot E. They were drawn into seven groups of five containing one team from each of the five seeding pots. For political reasons, Russia and Ukraine would not be drawn in the same group.[16]

Pot A
TeamCoeffRank[10]
 Germany42,9571
 England39,8803
 Norway39,1614
 Sweden38,0365
 Spain37,6556
 Switzerland36,6297
 Italy34,7758
Pot B
TeamCoeffRank[10]
 Netherlands34,6429
 Iceland34,14110
 Scotland33,63211
 Denmark32,91512
 Austria31,88213
 Belgium31,21314
 Russia30,36715
Pot C
TeamCoeffRank[10]
 Finland29,81516
 Ukraine28,57917
 Wales25,80718
 Romania25,60219
 Poland24,83220
 Czech Republic23,87421
 Republic of Ireland23,66922
Pot D
TeamCoeffRank[10]
 Portugal22,86023
 Serbia21,57924
 Hungary20,36225
 Bosnia and Herzegovina19,54626
 Belarus19,43427
 Slovakia18,10428
 Slovenia17,22429
Pot E
TeamCoeffRank[10]
 Northern Ireland17,05130
 Croatia16,26631
 Israel (P)14,64133
 Kazakhstan (P)13,35035
 Albania (P)9,12137
 Faroe Islands (P)8,02038
 Moldova (P)7,91039
Notes
  • Teams marked in bold qualified for the final tournament as group winners.
  • Teams marked in italics advanced to the play-offs as four best runners-up.
  • Teams which advanced from preliminary round to qualifying group stage were denoted by (P).

Groups

  The seven group winners qualify directly for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.
  The four best group runners-up (not counting results against fifth-placed team) advance to the play-offs.

Group 1

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  England 8 7 1 0 29 1 +28 22 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup — 0–0 6–0 4–0 5–0
2  Wales 8 5 2 1 7 3 +4 17 0–3 — 3–0 1–0 1–0
3  Russia 8 4 1 3 16 13 +3 13 1–3 0–0 — 3–0 3–0
4  Bosnia and Herzegovina 8 1 0 7 3 19 −16 3[lower-alpha 1] 0–2 0–1 1–6 — 0–2
5  Kazakhstan 8 1 0 7 2 21 −19 3[lower-alpha 1] 0–6 0–1 0–3 0–2 —
Source: UEFA
Notes:
  1. 1 2 Head-to-head results: Kazakhstan 0–2 Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina 0–2 Kazakhstan (tied on head-to-head results, ranked on total goal difference).

Group 2

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Scotland 8 7 0 1 19 7 +12 21 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup — 2–1 3–0 5–0 2–1
2  Switzerland 8 6 1 1 21 5 +16 19 Play-offs 1–0 — 2–1 5–1 3–0
3  Poland 8 3 2 3 16 12 +4 11 2–3 0–0 — 1–1 4–1
4  Albania 8 1 1 6 6 22 −16 4 1–2 1–4 1–4 — 1–0
5  Belarus 8 1 0 7 5 21 −16 3 1–2 0–5 1–4 1–0 —
Source: UEFA

Group 3

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Norway 8 7 0 1 22 4 +18 21 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup — 2–1 1–0 4–1 6–1
2  Netherlands 8 6 1 1 22 2 +20 19 Play-offs 1–0 — 0–0 7–0 1–0
3  Republic of Ireland 8 4 1 3 10 6 +4 13 0–2 0–2 — 4–0 2–1
4  Northern Ireland 8 1 0 7 4 27 −23 3[lower-alpha 1] 0–3 0–5 0–2 — 0–1
5  Slovakia 8 1 0 7 4 23 −19 3[lower-alpha 1] 0–4 0–5 0–2 1–3 —
Source: UEFA
Notes:
  1. 1 2 Head-to-head results: Slovakia 1–3 Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland 0–1 Slovakia.

Group 4

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Sweden 8 7 0 1 22 2 +20 21 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup — 3–0[lower-alpha 1] 3–0 5–0 4–0
2  Denmark 8 5 1 2 22 8 +14 16 Play-offs 0–1 — 1–0 5–1 1–1
3  Ukraine 8 4 1 3 9 10 −1 13 1–0 1–5 — 2–0 1–1
4  Hungary 8 1 1 6 8 26 −18 4 1–4 1–6 0–1 — 2–2
5  Croatia 8 0 3 5 5 20 −15 3 0–2 0–4 0–3 1–3 —
Source: UEFA
Notes:
  1. ↑ The Sweden v Denmark match was scheduled for 20 October 2017, but was cancelled because of a disagreement between the Danish team and their federation.[17] On 16 November it was announced that the result was awarded 3–0 to Sweden.[18]

Group 5

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Germany 8 7 0 1 38 3 +35 21 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup — 2–3 4–0 6–0 11–0
2  Iceland 8 5 2 1 22 6 +16 17 0–2 — 1–1 2–0 8–0
3  Czech Republic 8 4 2 2 20 8 +12 14 0–1 1–1 — 2–0 4–1
4  Slovenia 8 2 0 6 9 20 −11 6 0–4 0–2 0–4 — 5–0
5  Faroe Islands 8 0 0 8 1 53 −52 0 0–8 0–5 0–8 0–4 —
Source: UEFA

Group 6

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Italy 8 7 0 1 19 4 +15 21 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup — 2–1 3–0 3–0 5–0
2  Belgium 8 6 1 1 28 6 +22 19 Play-offs 2–1 — 1–1 3–2 12–0
3  Portugal 8 3 2 3 22 8 +14 11 0–1 0–1 — 5–1 8–0
4  Romania 8 1 2 5 7 15 −8 5 0–1 0–1 1–1 — 3–1
5  Moldova 8 0 1 7 2 45 −43 1 1–3 0–7 0–7 0–0 —
Source: UEFA

Group 7

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Spain 8 8 0 0 25 2 +23 24 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup — 4–0 5–1 3–0 2–0
2  Austria 8 5 1 2 19 7 +12 16 0–1 — 4–1 1–1 2–0
3  Finland 8 3 1 4 9 13 −4 10 0–2 0–2 — 1–0 4–0
4  Serbia 8 2 1 5 5 13 −8 7 1–2 0–4 0–2 — 2–0
5  Israel 8 0 1 7 0 23 −23 1 0–6 0–6 0–0 0–1 —
Source: UEFA

Ranking of second-placed teams

To determine the four best second-placed teams from the qualifying group stage which advanced to the play-offs, only the results of the second-placed teams against the first, third and fourth-placed teams in their group were taken into account, while results against the fifth-placed team were not included. As a result, six matches played by each second-placed team were counted for the purposes of determining the ranking.

Pos Grp Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 3  Netherlands 6 4 1 1 16 2 +14 13 Play-offs
2 2  Switzerland 6 4 1 1 13 5 +8 13
3 6  Belgium 6 4 1 1 9 6 +3 13
4 4  Denmark 6 4 0 2 17 7 +10 12
5 5  Iceland 6 3 2 1 9 6 +3 11
6 1  Wales 6 3 2 1 5 3 +2 11
7 7  Austria 6 3 1 2 11 7 +4 10
Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) away goals scored; 5) disciplinary points; 6) coefficient.

Play-offs

Draw

The draw for the play-offs was held on 7 September 2018, 14:00 CEST (UTC+2), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[19] The four teams were drawn into two knockout rounds (semi-finals and final) of home-and-away two-legged format.

For the semi-finals, two teams were seeded and two teams were unseeded, based on their latest coefficient ranking after the completion of the qualifying group stage, calculated based on the following:[20]

Seeded
TeamCoeffRank
 Netherlands39,4304
 Switzerland37,0316
Unseeded
TeamCoeffRank
 Denmark34,18511
 Belgium32,73813

For each semi-final, a seeded team was drawn against an unseeded team, with the order of legs decided by draw. A draw was also held for the final between the two winners of the semi-finals to decide the order of legs.

Matches

Play-off semi-finals

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Netherlands  4–1  Denmark 2–0 2–1
Belgium  3–3 (a)  Switzerland 2–2 1–1

Play-off final

The winner Netherlands qualifies for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Netherlands  4–1  Switzerland 3–0 1–1

Qualified teams

The following nine teams from UEFA qualified for the final tournament, including France which qualified as hosts.[21]

Team Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances in FIFA Women's World Cup1
 FranceHosts19 March 2015[1]3 (2003, 2011, 2015)
 EnglandGroup 1 winners31 August 2018[22]4 (1995, 2007, 2011, 2015)
 ScotlandGroup 2 winners4 September 2018[23]0 (debut)
 NorwayGroup 3 winners4 September 2018[23]7 (1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015)
 SwedenGroup 4 winners4 September 2018[23]7 (1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015)
 GermanyGroup 5 winners4 September 2018[23]7 (1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015)
 ItalyGroup 6 winners8 June 2018[24]2 (1991, 1999)
 SpainGroup 7 winners8 June 2018[24]1 (2015)
 NetherlandsPlay-off winners13 November 2018[25]1 (2015)
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Top goalscorers

There were 575 goals scored in 169 matches, for an average of 3.4 goals per match.

10 goals

7 goals

6 goals

Source: UEFA.com[26]

For full lists of goalscorers, see sections in each group:

References

  1. 1 2 "France to host the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2019". FIFA.com. 19 March 2015. Archived from the original on 20 March 2015.
  2. ↑ "France to stage 2019 Women's World Cup". UEFA.com. 19 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "Circular #1565 – FIFA women's tournaments 2018–2019" (PDF). FIFA.com. 11 November 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 November 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
  4. ↑ "2019 Women's World Cup qualifying entries". UEFA.com. 9 January 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Regulations of the UEFA European qualifying competition for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup 2017–19" (PDF). UEFA.
  6. ↑ "2016/17 UEFA Women's calendar" (PDF). UEFA.com.
  7. ↑ "2017/18 UEFA Women's calendar" (PDF). UEFA.com.
  8. ↑ "2018/19 UEFA Women's calendar" (PDF). UEFA.com. UEFA.
  9. ↑ "Coefficient Ranking of the Teams Participating in the Qualifying Competition" (PDF). UEFA.com.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "UEFA Women's National Team Coefficient Ranking for FIFA Women's World Cup qualifying" (PDF). UEFA.
  11. ↑ "Women's World Cup preliminary round draw". UEFA.com. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
  12. ↑ "Women's World Cup preliminary round draw". UEFA.com. 19 January 2017.
  13. ↑ "World Cup preliminary round draw live on Thursday". UEFA.com. 16 January 2017.
  14. ↑ "Women's World Cup qualifying group stage draw". UEFA.com. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
  15. ↑ "Women's World Cup qualifying group stage draw". UEFA.com. 25 April 2017.
  16. ↑ "World Cup qualifying group stage draw seedings". UEFA.com. 12 April 2017.
  17. ↑ "Spillernes afbud fører til aflysning af VM-kvalkamp". dbu.dk. 20 October 2017.
  18. ↑ "UEFA-beslut i Danmarksfrågan". svenskfotboll.se (in Swedish). Swedish Football Association. 16 November 2017. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
  19. ↑ "Women's World Cup play-off draw". UEFA.com.
  20. ↑ "Women's national team coefficients: September 2018" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 5 September 2018. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  21. ↑ "2019 FIFA Women's World Cup finals: France". UEFA.com.
  22. ↑ "England book ticket to France 2019". FIFA.com. 31 August 2018.
  23. 1 2 3 4 "European quartet secure France 2019 berths". FIFA.com. 4 September 2018.
  24. 1 2 "Italy and Spain qualify for France 2019". FIFA.com. 8 June 2018.
  25. ↑ "Dutch claim last European ticket for France 2019". FIFA.com. 13 November 2018.
  26. ↑ "Statistics — Qualifying phase — Player statistics — Goals". UEFA.com. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
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