by The UEFA Women’s European Qualifiers league stage draw was held yesterday, which will initiate three rounds of fixtures to be played between this April and July. They will begin to shape the list of teams competing in Switzerland in summer 2025, while also setting up the next cycle of the UEFA Women’s Nations League.
The Targets
League Stage
Competitive football returns in the next international break for European nations as teams start the league phase of the qualifications for the upcoming EURO. Groups have now been drawn for each of the teams to be competing in League A, B and C. Nations will compete in the league format consisting of ties between April and July, with each team playing against each other in a home and away fixture.
At the end of the league phase in July, the top two teams in League A will automatically qualify for EURO 2025, along with hosts Switzerland (who are competing in League B but have automatic qualification as hosts). The remaining teams will go into the play-offs to be played between October and December.
Play-Off Stage
The first round of the play-offs is split into two paths. In one path, the teams finishing third and fourth in League A will play the five group winners and three best-ranked runners-up in League C. The eight winners progress to the second round.
In the other first round path, the four group winners and two best-ranked runners-up in League B will be drawn into six ties against the remaining two runners-up and four third-placed teams in League B. The six winners progress to the second round.
In the second round, the teams from both paths come together and will be drawn into seven ties, with seeding for the seven highest-ranked teams based on the European Qualifiers overall league rankings. The seven winners progress to the final EURO tournament to be held in the summer of 2025.
Promotion and relegation will also be at stake ahead of the next UEFA Women’s Nations League, beginning the 2025–27 competition cycle. The winners, runners-up and third-placed teams of League A will stay in League A. The winners of Leagues B and C will be promoted to the next league. The runners-up and three best-ranked third-placed teams in League B stay in League B. All fourth-placed teams in Leagues A and B, as well as the lowest-ranked third-placed team of League B, will be relegated to the next league. The runners-up, third-placed and fourth-placed teams in League C stay in League C.
League A
At the top of the pyramid are the teams competing in League A, split in the groups shown below. These groups feature completely new match-ups from the UEFA Women’s Nations League groups held last year.
Groups A1 and A2 feature plenty of balanced fixtures. Group A1 is spear-headed by 2017 EURO Winners and World Cup finalists Netherlands, who take on Italy, Norway and newly-promoted Finland. World champions and Nations League winners Spain will meet 2017’s EURO finalists Denmark, together with Belgium and newly-promoted Czech Republic.
Group A3 immediately catches the eye as a blood-bath of a competition between Olympics-bound France, EURO defending champions England, former champions Sweden and newly promoted Republic of Ireland, who will want to continue their positive run of form after making their debut in last Summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Finally in Group A4, EURO record-holders Germany will face neighbours Austria, together with Iceland who avoided the drop in the play-offs last February, and promoted nation Poland.
League B
Sandwiched in between League A and C, are League B teams. This league is expected to continue providing more excitement as teams chase promotion with the same vigour as that to avoid relegation.
Leading Group B1 will be the EURO host nation Switzerland. It will face Hungary who could not manage promotion into League A against Belgium in the February play-offs. Completing the group are Turkey and Azerbaijan who secured automatic promotion from League C in December by topping their groups.
Scotland will face Serbia and Slovakia who remain in League B following their play-offs in February, while welcoming Israel as the side promoted from League C. Serbia narrowly missed out on League A against Iceland (who won 3-2 on aggregate), while Slovakia dominated the ties against Latvia (agg. 9-0) to ensure they remain in League B.
Portugal are the heavy favourites in Group B3, having dropped from League A, despite impressing at last summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup. Bosnia & Herzegovina come from pot 2 and stay in League B. They finished second in their group in the last UEFA Women’s Nations League, following narrow victories against Belarus and Czech Republic, while also earning draws against Slovenia and the Czech Republic. However, they missed out on promotion to League A following their play-off tie against Sweden in February.
Northern Ireland made their debut in the last EURO finals. They retained their place in League B after winning their relegation play-off against Montenegro by a 3-1 aggregate in February. This after finishing third in their group, earning seven points by holding Hungary to a draw and winning their encounters against Albania. Malta completes the group as the side promoted from League C.
The final group in League B is spear-headed by Wales as the side relegated from League A. Croatia and Ukraine retain their places in League B. Croatia was unable to overcome Norway to snatch a place in League A in the play-offs, while Ukraine made short work of Bulgaria to retain a spot in League B. Kosovo completes the group as the promoted side from League C.
League C
Group C1 is headed by Belarus as the side which was relegated from League B, and completed by Lithuania, Cyprus and Georgia who remain in League C. Lithuania and Georgia will know each other well after having been in the same group in the previous round as well.
Similarly, Latvia and Moldova will meet again in Group C2, with Latvia having narrowly missed out on automatic promotion in the last cycle. They are joined by relegated nation Slovenia. North Macedonia completes the group as a country also remaining in League C.
Greece spearheads Group C3. Montenegro remain in League C after failing to beat the Northern Ireland to a place in League B. Andorra and the Faroe Islands complete the group.
Group C4, will feature Kazakhstan and Armenia who will rekindle their fight from the previous round of fixtures. Bulgaria remain in League C after failing to get the better of Ukraine in the play-off for promotion into League B. Romania were relegated from League B.
The full calendar of fixtures may be seen below:
Qualifying league stage matchdays 1 & 2: 3–9 April 2024
Qualifying league stage matchdays 3 & 4: 29 May – 4 June 2024
Qualifying league stage matchdays 5 & 6: 10–16 July 2024
Play-off draw: 19 July 2024
Play-off round 1 (2 legs): 23–29 October 2024
Play-off round 2 (2 legs): 27 November–3 December 2024
Lead Image: UEFA
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1 Response
[…] Each team will play each of the three opponents in the group twice (home and away), making up six matches until July. Following that, their ranking in the group will determine which League they will be playing in the next cycle of Nations League matches. Additionally, the position in the group will also determine their level of opponent in the EURO 2025 Qualification play-offs to be held between September and December of this year. A detailed explanation may be found here. […]