Famous names and fresh faces

By Kevin Ashby

Three teams attempting to reach the latter stages of the UEFA European Women's Championship for the first time will come up against three seasoned campaigners in the play-offs to determine the final qualifiers for next year's tournament in England.

Group winners
Along with the hosts, Sweden, Denmark, France and Germany have already sealed their places in the 2003/05 final tournament having respectively won qualifying Groups 1-4. The four runners-up - Italy, Norway, Russia and the Czech Republic - progressed to the play-offs along with the two best third-placed teams, Finland and Iceland.

Home first leg
The pairings between the two best runners-up and two best third-placed teams pitted together Finland and Russia, and Iceland and Norway, with the third-placed teams playing the first legs at home. Italy were selected first in today's draw to determine the order of matches between the remaining two runners-ups, so they will be at home first against the Czech Republic.

Olympic champions
Norway are the most successful nation in the draw, having won gold at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and twice been the champions of this continent. The Scandinavians won the 1987 European Competition for Women's Football and the renamed UEFA European Women's Championship in 1993, beating Italy 1-0 in Cesena. Italy were also runners-up to Germany in 1997, while Russia reached the quarter-finals in 1995 and are regulars in the final round.

January draw
The play-off matches must, in principle, be played during the set matchdays - 14-18 October, 8-14 November and 6-12 December - although national associations are entitled to jointly agree to other dates provided the games conclude this year. The draw for the final tournament will be held in Manchester on 19 January 2005.