Who has qualified for Women's EURO, who can join them?
Tuesday 1 December 2020
Article summary
Nine qualifiers and three play-off contenders are set: see the latest from the groups ahead of the last games in February.
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Article body
UEFA Women's EURO qualifying is in progress with a record 47 teams competing for 15 places alongside hosts England in the finals from 6 to 31 July 2022.
How qualifying works
- The group winners and the three runners-up with the best record against the sides first, third, fourth and fifth in their sections will join hosts England in the final tournament.
- The other six runners-up will play off in April for the remaining three berths in the 16-team finals.
State of play
- Qualified: Belgium, Denmark, England (hosts), France, Germany, Iceland*, Netherlands (holders), Norway, Sweden
- Confirmed in play-offs: Northern Ireland, Russia, Ukraine
- Can still qualify as group winners: Finland, Poland, Portugal, Spain
- Group runners-up, can still qualify direct: Austria, Italy, Switzerland
- Can still reach play-offs: Czech Republic
- Games remain in Groups A, B, D, E and H.
*One of three best runners-up
Group A
Netherlands (30 points, qualified), Russia (24, play-offs), Slovenia (15), Kosovo (10), Turkey (5), Estonia (1)
23 February: Estonia vs Slovenia
- Netherlands, with ten wins out of ten, have qualified as group winners.
- Russia will go into the play-offs.
Group B
Denmark (28, qualified), Italy (22), Bosnia and Herzegovina (18), Malta (10), Israel (7), Georgia (0)
24 February: Italy vs Israel
- Denmark won 3-1 last month in Italy, who had not lost at home in five years, to ensure qualification and clinched the group with a 0-0 draw in Tuesday's return.
- Italy will finish second; they will qualify as a best runner-up if they beat Israel by six goals or more. They will definitely go into the play-offs if they do not beat Israel or only win by a 1-0 scoreline. In the case of any other victory of below a six-goal margin, whether Italy are a best runner-up will depend on the outcome of Group E.
Group C
Norway (18, qualified), Northern Ireland (14, play-offs), Wales (14), Belarus (6), Faroe Islands (0)
Cancelled: Norway vs Faroe Islands, Norway vs Belarus
- Norway, who did not drop a point, have qualified as group winners.
- Northern Ireland beat Belarus and the Faroe Islands in their final two games to pip Wales to the play-offs on head-to-head away goals.
Group D
Spain (16), Czech Republic (16), Poland (14), Moldova (3), Azerbaijan (0)
18 February: Azerbaijan vs Spain
23 February: Spain vs Poland, Azerbaijan vs Moldova
- Spain beat Moldova 10-0 on Friday to ensure a top-two finish and will qualify if they beat Azerbaijan or avoid defeat against Poland.
- Czech Republic, who signed off on Tuesday with victory against Moldova, will reach the play-offs if Poland do not beat Spain (Czech Republic have a superior head-to-head record with Poland but an inferior one with Spain).
- Poland must beat Spain to remain in contention. If Spain beat Azerbaijan, a Poland win would take them to the play-offs rather than the finals.
Group E
Finland (16), Portugal (16), Scotland (9), Albania (6), Cyprus (0)
19 February: Finland vs Portugal, Cyprus vs Scotland
23 February: Cyprus vs Finland, Scotland vs Portugal
- Portugal and Finland will be the top two after both beat Scotland 1-0 to end their hopes. Whoever wins their direct encounter in February will finish first while a draw would take things to the final games.
- If they draw, and then both win their last game, the runners-up would qualify anyway as the best runners-up on 20 points. If they draw and either do not win their last game, the runners-up would go into the play-offs.
- If either lose their direct game, then do not win their other game, the runners-up go into the play-offs. If they then win their other game, they would have 19 points and could be a best runner-up depending on their goal difference.
Group F
Sweden (22, qualified), Iceland (19, qualified), Slovakia (10), Hungary (7), Latvia (0)
- Sweden qualified as group winners after an away draw and home win against Iceland.
- Iceland sealed second place with a 3-1 comeback away win that finished off the hopes of opponents Slovakia, and then won in Hungary on 1 December, a result that confirmed qualification as one of the three best runners-up.
Group G
France (22, qualified), Austria (19), Serbia (12), North Macedonia (6), Kazakhstan (0)
- France beat Austria 3-0 in November to qualify as group winners.
- Austria have finished second but will not be a best runner-up and would instead enter the play-offs if both a) Italy beat Israel by six goals and b) the Group E runners-up end up with a better record.
Group H
Belgium (21, qualified), Switzerland (19), Romania (9), Croatia (7), Lithuania (0)
22 February: Croatia vs Romania
- Belgium qualified as group winners with their 4-0 defeat of Switzerland.
- Switzerland have finished second. They will go into the play-offs rather then qualifying as a best runner-up if either a) Italy beat Israel by any score apart from 1-0 or b) the Group E runners-up end up with a better record.
Group I
Germany (24, qualified), Ukraine (15, play-offs), Republic of Ireland (13), Greece (7), Montenegro (0)
- Germany qualified as group winners with a 100% record.
- Ukraine overtook Ireland on the final day to clinch a play-off.
Calendar
Remaining scheduled qualifying group games: 18–24 February 2021
Play-off draw: 5 March 2021
Play-offs: April 2021
Finals draw: tbc, England
Finals: 6–31 July 2022, England
The lowdown
- The Netherlands are defending champions and reached their first Women's World Cup final in 2019.
- World Cup semi-finalists Sweden and England (as Great Britain) will join the Netherlands at the Olympic tournament in Japan in 2021.
- France, Germany, Italy and Norway reached the last World Cup quarter-finals, Spain went out in the last 16 and Scotland, on debut, fell in the group stage.
- Denmark were EURO 2017 runners-up while Austria and England also made the semis.
- Germany won every EURO from 1995 until 2017, when they succumbed to Denmark in the last eight, a run of six straight tournament victories.
- Germany have won eight titles and Norway two, while Sweden and the Netherlands have one each.
- Cyprus are making their senior competitive debut while Kosovo are also in their first Women's EURO.
- France and Austria were in the same group at UEFA Women's EURO 2017 and both made it through.
- Finland coach Anna Signeul was in charge of Scotland when they marked their finals debut in 2017.
- Norway qualified ahead of Wales for the 2017 finals.
- Portugal pipped Finland to the 2017 play-offs on their way to a debut finals. Switzerland beat Belgium on away goals in the 2019 Women's World Cup play-offs before losing to the Netherlands.
