The European
qualifying competition for the
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup
The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. It ...
was a women's
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
competition that determined the eight
UEFA
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...
teams joining the automatically qualified hosts
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
in the final tournament.
Apart from France, 46 of the remaining 54 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition,
with
Andorra
, image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg
, symbol_type = Coat of arms
, national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none (Latin)"United virtue is stro ...
making their World Cup qualification debut and
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
making their competitive debut.
Format
The qualifying competition consisted of three rounds:
*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):
#Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
#
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
#Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
#''(Qualifying group stage only)''
Away goals
The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...
scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
#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;
#Goal difference in all group matches;
#Goals scored in all group matches;
#''(Qualifying group stage only)'' Away goals scored in all group matches;
#''(Preliminary round only)''
Penalty shoot-out
The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
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);
#Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
#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):
#Points;
#Goal difference;
#Goals scored;
#''(Qualifying group stage only)'' Away goals scored;
#Disciplinary points;
#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
The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...
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
Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...
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
The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
(Regulations Article 17.01).
Schedule
The qualifying matches were played on dates that fell within the FIFA Women's International Match Calendar.
Entrants
The teams were ranked according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:
*
UEFA Women's Euro 2013
The 2013 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as Women's Euro 2013, was the 11th European Championship for women's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held in Sweden from 10 to 28 July 2013, became the mos ...
final tournament and
qualifying competition (20%)
*
2015 FIFA Women's World Cup
The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the ...
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.
;Notes
*Teams marked in bold qualified for the World Cup.
Preliminary round
Draw
The draw for the preliminary round was held on 19 January 2017, 13:30
CET
CET or cet may refer to:
Places
* Cet, Albania
* Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus
* Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Comcast En ...
(
UTC+1
UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in:
*Central European Time
*West Africa Time
*Western European Summer Time
** B ...
), at the UEFA headquarters in
Nyon
Nyon (; outdated German: or ; outdated Italian: , ) is a municipality in Nyon District in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometers north east of Geneva's city centre, and since the 1970s it has become part of the Ge ...
, Switzerland.
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.
;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
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
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.
Qualifying group stage
Draw
The draw for the qualifying group stage was held on 25 April 2017, 13:30
CEST CEST or cest may refer to:
* Central European Summer Time (UTC+2), daylight saving time observed in the central European time zone
* Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory
* Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer, a subset of Magnetization transfer in ...
(
UTC+2
UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. This time is used in:
As standard time (year-round)
''Principal cities: Cairo, Pretoria, Cape ...
), at the UEFA headquarters in
Nyon
Nyon (; outdated German: or ; outdated Italian: , ) is a municipality in Nyon District in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometers north east of Geneva's city centre, and since the 1970s it has become part of the Ge ...
, Switzerland.
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.
;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
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
Group 7
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.
Play-offs
Draw
Matches
Play-off semi-finals
Play-off final
Qualified teams
The following nine teams from UEFA qualified for the final tournament, including France which qualified as hosts.
:
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. ''Italic'' indicates hosts for that year.
Top goalscorers
''For full lists of goalscorers, see sections in each group:''
*
Preliminary round
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...
*
Group 1 Group 1 may refer to:
* Alkali metal, a chemical element classification for Alkali metal
* Group 1 (racing), a historic (until 1981) classification for Touring car racing, applied to standard touring cars. Comparable to modern FIA Group N
* Group On ...
*
Group 2 The term Group 2 may refer to:
* Alkaline earth metal, a chemical element classification
* Astronaut Group 2, also known as The New Nine, the second group of astronauts selected by NASA in 1962
* Group 2 (racing), an FIA classification for cars in ...
*
Group 3 Group 3 may refer to:
*Group 3 element, chemical element classification
*Group 3 (racing), FIA classification for auto racing
* Group 3, the third tier of races in worldwide Thoroughbred horse racing
* Group 3 image format, Group 3 & Group 4 are ...
*
Group 4 Group 4 may refer to:
*Group 4 element, chemical element classification
*Group 4 (racing), classification for cars in auto racing and rallying
* G4S, formerly Group 4 Securicor, a prominent British security company
*IB Group 4 subjects
The Group 4 ...
*
Group 5 Group 5 may refer to:
*Group 5 element, chemical element classification
*Group 5 (racing)
Group 5 was an FIA motor racing classification which was applied to four distinct categories during the years 1966 to 1982. Initially Group 5 regulations def ...
*
Group 6 Group 6 may refer to:
*Group 6 element, chemical element classification
*Group 6 (racing)
Group 6 was the official designation applied by the FIA to two motor racing classifications, the Prototype-Sports Car category from 1966 to 1971 and the Two ...
*
Group 7 Group 7 may refer to:
* G7, an international group of finance minister
*Group 7 element, chemical element classification
*Halogens (alternative name)
*Group 7 Rugby League, rugby league competition in New South Wales, Australia
*Group 7 (racing)
G ...
*
Play-offs
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
References
External links
FIFA Women's World Cup UEFA.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa, Fifa Women's World Cup qualification 2019
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
2019
2017 in women's association football
2018 in women's association football
Women's World Cup qualification
Women's World Cup qualification
Women's World Cup qualification
April 2017 sports events in Europe
September 2017 sports events in Europe
October 2017 sports events in Europe
November 2017 sports events in Europe
January 2018 sports events in Europe
April 2018 sports events in Europe
June 2018 sports events in Europe
August 2018 sports events in Europe
September 2018 sports events in Europe
October 2018 sports events in Europe
November 2018 sports events in Europe