2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification (UEFA)

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]

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification (UEFA)

Tournament details
Dates	6 April 2017 – 13 November 2018
Teams	46 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	169
Goals scored	575 (3.4 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Janice Cayman (10 goals)
← 2015 2023 →

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 the venues of 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]

• UEFA Women's Euro 2013 final tournament and qualifying competition (20%)
• 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup final tournament and qualifying competition (40%)
• UEFA Women's Euro 2017 qualifying competition (40%)

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

Team	Coeff	Rank[10]
France	42,355	2

Teams entering qualifying group stage Team Coeff Rank[10]  Germany 42,957 1  England 39,880 3  Norway 39,161 4  Sweden 38,036 5  Spain 37,655 6  Switzerland 36,629 7  Italy 34,775 8  Netherlands 34,642 9  Iceland 34,141 10  Scotland 33,632 11  Denmark 32,915 12  Austria 31,882 13  Belgium 31,213 14  Russia 30,367 15  Finland 29,815 16 Team Coeff Rank[10]  Ukraine 28,579 17  Wales 25,807 18  Romania 25,602 19  Poland 24,832 20  Czech Republic 23,874 21  Republic of Ireland 23,669 22  Portugal 22,860 23  Serbia 21,579 24  Hungary 20,362 25  Bosnia and Herzegovina 19,546 26  Belarus 19,434 27  Slovakia 18,104 28  Slovenia 17,224 29  Northern Ireland 17,051 30  Croatia 16,266 31

Teams entering preliminary round Team Coeff Rank[10]  Turkey 15,656 32  Israel 14,641 33  Greece 13,961 34  Kazakhstan 13,350 35  Estonia 11,151 36  Albania 9,121 37  Faroe Islands 8,020 38  Moldova 7,910 39  Malta 7,208 42  Montenegro 7,191 44  Georgia 6,316 45  Lithuania 4,818 46  Latvia 4,584 47  Luxembourg 4,109 48  Andorra 1,793 49  Kosovo — —

Notes

• Teams marked in bold qualified for the World Cup.

Did not enter

Team	Coeff	Rank
Bulgaria	7,817	40
North Macedonia	7,768	41
Armenia	7,194	43
Azerbaijan	—	—
Cyprus	—	—
Gibraltar	—	—
Liechtenstein	—	—
San Marino	—	—

Preliminary round

Main article: 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification – UEFA 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 Team Coeff Rank[10]  Turkey 15,656 32  Israel 14,641 33  Greece 13,961 34  Kazakhstan 13,350 35

Seeding position 2 Team Coeff Rank[10]  Estonia 11,151 36  Albania (H) 9,121 37  Faroe Islands (H) 8,020 38  Moldova 7,910 39

Seeding position 3 Team Coeff Rank[10]  Malta 7,208 42  Montenegro 7,191 44  Georgia (H) 6,316 45  Lithuania (H) 4,818 46

Seeding position 4 Team Coeff Rank[10]  Latvia 4,584 47  Luxembourg 4,109 48  Andorra 1,793 49  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 v t e	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 v t e	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 v t e	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 v t e	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 v t e	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 Team Coeff Rank[10]  Germany 42,957 1  England 39,880 3  Norway 39,161 4  Sweden 38,036 5  Spain 37,655 6  Switzerland 36,629 7  Italy 34,775 8	Pot B Team Coeff Rank[10]  Netherlands 34,642 9  Iceland 34,141 10  Scotland 33,632 11  Denmark 32,915 12  Austria 31,882 13  Belgium 31,213 14  Russia 30,367 15	Pot C Team Coeff Rank[10]  Finland 29,815 16  Ukraine 28,579 17  Wales 25,807 18  Romania 25,602 19  Poland 24,832 20  Czech Republic 23,874 21  Republic of Ireland 23,669 22
Pot D Team Coeff Rank[10]  Portugal 22,860 23  Serbia 21,579 24  Hungary 20,362 25  Bosnia and Herzegovina 19,546 26  Belarus 19,434 27  Slovakia 18,104 28  Slovenia 17,224 29	Pot E Team Coeff Rank[10]  Northern Ireland 17,051 30  Croatia 16,266 31  Israel (P) 14,641 33  Kazakhstan (P) 13,350 35  Albania (P) 9,121 37  Faroe Islands (P) 8,020 38  Moldova (P) 7,910 39

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

Main article: 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 1

Pos	Team v t e	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[a]			0–2	0–1	1–6	—	0–2
5	Kazakhstan	8	1	0	7	2	21	−19	3[a]			0–6	0–1	0–3	0–2	—

Source: UEFA
Notes:

1. 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

Main article: 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 2

Pos	Team v t e	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

Main article: 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 3

Pos	Team v t e	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[a]			0–3	0–5	0–2	—	0–1
5	Slovakia	8	1	0	7	4	23	−19	3[a]			0–4	0–5	0–2	1–3	—

Source: UEFA
Notes:

1. Head-to-head results: Slovakia 1–3 Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland 0–1 Slovakia.

Group 4

Main article: 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 4

Pos	Team v t e	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[a]	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

Main article: 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 5

Pos	Team v t e	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

Main article: 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 6

Pos	Team v t e	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

Main article: 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 7

Pos	Team v t e	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 v t e	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

Main article: 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification – UEFA 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]

• 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup final tournament and qualifying competition (20%)
• UEFA Women's Euro 2017 qualifying competition (40%)
• 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualifying competition (preliminary round and group stage) (40%)

Seeded Team Coeff Rank  Netherlands 39,430 4  Switzerland 37,031 6

Unseeded Team Coeff Rank  Denmark 34,185 11  Belgium 32,738 13

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
France	Hosts	19 March 2015[1]	3 (2003, 2011, 2015)
England	Group 1 winners	31 August 2018[22]	4 (1995, 2007, 2011, 2015)
Scotland	Group 2 winners	4 September 2018[23]	0 (debut)
Norway	Group 3 winners	4 September 2018[23]	7 (1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015)
Sweden	Group 4 winners	4 September 2018[23]	7 (1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015)
Germany	Group 5 winners	4 September 2018[23]	7 (1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015)
Italy	Group 6 winners	8 June 2018[24]	2 (1991, 1999)
Spain	Group 7 winners	8 June 2018[24]	1 (2015)
Netherlands	Play-off winners	13 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

• Janice Cayman

7 goals

• Nadia Nadim
• Cristiana Girelli
• Vivianne Miedema
• Lisa-Marie Karlseng Utland
• Jennifer Hermoso

6 goals

• Sanne Troelsgaard Nielsen
• Nikita Parris
• Alexandra Popp
• Lea Schüller
• Sherida Spitse
• Caroline Graham Hansen
• Elena Danilova
• Nadezhda Smirnova
• Lara Dickenmann

Source: UEFA.com^[26]

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

• Preliminary round
• Group 1
• Group 2
• Group 3
• Group 4
• Group 5
• Group 6
• Group 7
• Play-offs