Women's U17 EURO: Group A preview
Sunday, May 1, 2016
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Hosts Belarus and debutants Serbia take on former semi-finalists England and Norway in UEFA European Women's U17 Championship Group A. We profile the teams.
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Belarus (hosts)
Best performance: first final tournament
Preparation mini-tournament (September): Poland 1-1, France 1-5, Germany 0-3
Scorers: Karalina Zhytko (v Poland), Maryia Belabrovina (v France)
Aleksandra Sokol, finals ambassador and Belarus senior goalkeeper: "In the seven years since we played here in the Women's Under-19 finals, Belarusian women's football has developed a lot. Our team are in a decent group and have every chance of getting some positive results and those chances are doubled by the fact that they are playing at home."
England
Best performance: semi-finals 2008, 2014
Qualifying round: Croatia 13-0, Estonia 13-0, Poland 2-2 (Group 4 winners)
Elite round: Serbia 3-1, Iceland 5-0, Belgium 2-0 (Group 6 winners)
Top scorers: Alessia Russo, Georgia Stanway 9
John Griffiths, coach: "Hopefully we will be able to keep our form for the finals. All the group games will be tough and very different. We played Serbia in the elite round and they will be tough, Belarus are the hosts and they will be tough, but Norway are a good team as well. Those will be very different tests; these are the finals and every team here is good. Our aim is to go to the [FIFA U-17 Women's] World Cup and we want to finish in the top three [in the tournament]."
Norway
Best performance: semi-finals 2009
Qualifying round: Moldova 14-0, Bulgaria 8-0, Netherlands 1-1 (Group 10 winners)
Elite round: Scotland 6-0, Poland 4-0, Sweden 6-0 (Group 5 winners)
Top scorer: Andrea Norheim 8
Lena Tyriberget, coach: "We have good opponents in our group. I hope we'll manage to get to the semi-finals – that's our goal. I think it's possible, but we also know every team here is a hard opponent to beat. So we expect some difficult games, but that's how it should be in a tournament like this."
Serbia
Best performance: first final tournament
Qualifying round: Slovenia 3-0, Lithuania 5-1, Switzerland 0-3 (Group 9 runners-up)
Elite round: England 1-3, Belgium 2-0, Iceland 5-1 (Group 6 runners-up/best runners-up)
Top scorers: Allegra Poljak 8
Suzana Stanojević, coach: "We're a small country with no real reputation in women's football. But we have been 'building our new house' [the project to improve Serbian women's football] – we started in 2010 from the ground upwards, carefully assembling it brick by brick. In Belarus we will have the honour of playing with the best in Europe. The motivation that comes from that, and from playing for your country, cannot be measured."