UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying

The UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying competition was a women's football competition that determined the 15 teams joining the automatically qualified hosts England in the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 final tournament.^[1]

UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying

Tournament details
Dates	29 August 2019 – 13 April 2021
Teams	47 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	198
Goals scored	826 (4.17 per match)
Attendance	246,448 (1,245 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Tine De Caigny (12 goals)
← 2017 2025 → All statistics correct as of 24 February 2021.

Apart from England, 47 of the remaining 54 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition, including Cyprus which entered for the first time at senior women's level, and Kosovo which entered their first Women's Euro.^[2]

Format

Different from previous qualifying competitions, the preliminary round was abolished and all entrants started from the qualifying group stage. The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds:^[3]

• Qualifying group stage: The 47 teams were drawn into nine groups: two groups of six teams and seven groups of five teams. Each group was played in home-and-away round-robin format. The nine group winners and the three best runners-up (not counting results against the sixth-placed team) qualified directly for the final tournament, while the remaining six runners-up advanced to the play-offs.
• Play-offs: The six teams were drawn into three ties to play home-and-away two-legged matches to determine the last three qualified teams.

Tiebreakers

In the 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 Article 14.01):^[3]

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. Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
5. If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
6. Goal difference in all group matches;
7. Goals scored in all group matches;
8. Away goals scored in all group matches;
9. Wins in all group matches;
10. Away wins in all group matches;
11. Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
12. UEFA coefficient ranking for the qualifying group stage draw.

To determine the three best runners-up from the qualifying group stage, the results against the teams in sixth place were discarded. The following criteria were applied (Regulations Article 14.02):^[3]

1. Points;
2. Goal difference;
3. Goals scored;
4. Away goals scored;
5. Wins;
6. Away wins;
7. Disciplinary points;
8. UEFA coefficient ranking for the 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 advanced. 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 advancesd 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 19.01).^[3]

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, the UEFA Executive Committee approved on 28 August 2020 the following principles for the qualifying phase of UEFA Women's Euro 2022:^[4]

• If a team cannot field the minimum required number of players (at least 13 players including at least one goalkeeper) due to positive SARS-2 coronavirus tests and the match cannot be rescheduled, the team responsible for the match not taking place are considered to have forfeited the match and lost 0–3.
• If UEFA comes to the conclusion that both or none of the teams are responsible for the match not taking place, the outcome of the match will be decided by drawing of lots, either home win 1–0, home loss 0–1 or draw 0–0, carried out by the UEFA administration.

On 24 September 2020, UEFA announced that five substitutions would be permitted for the remainder of the Women's Euro 2022 qualifying competition, with a sixth allowed in extra time during the play-offs. However, each team is only given three opportunities to make substitutions during matches, with a fourth opportunity in extra time, excluding substitutions made at half-time, before the start of extra time and at half-time in extra time.^[5]

Schedule

The qualifying matches are played on dates that fall within the FIFA Women's International Match Calendar.^[6][7][8] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the final tournament was postponed from the summer of 2021 to 2022,^[9] and the qualifying round and play-offs were also postponed.^[10]

Stage	Draw date	FIFA international dates
Qualifying group stage	21 February 2019	26 August – 3 September 2019
		30 September – 8 October 2019
		4–12 November 2019
		2–11 March 2020
		6–14 April 2020 (matches not played due to COVID-19 pandemic)^[11]
		1–9 June 2020 (matches not played due to COVID-19 pandemic)^[12]
		14–22 September 2020
		19–27 October 2020 (new dates due to COVID-19 pandemic)
		23 November – 1 December 2020 (new dates due to COVID-19 pandemic)
		15–24 February 2021 (new dates due to COVID-19 pandemic)
Play-offs	5 March 2021 (originally 25 September 2020)	5–13 April 2021 (postponed from 19–27 October 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic)

Entrants

Draw

The draw for the qualifying group stage was held on 21 February 2019, 13:30 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[2][13]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:^[14][15]

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

Each group contained one team from each of Pots 1–5 (two teams from Pot 5 for six-team group). Based on the decisions taken by the UEFA Emergency Panel, Kosovo would not be drawn in the same group as Bosnia and Herzegovina or Serbia.

Final tournament hosts

Team	Coeff.^[14]	Rank
England	41,819	1

Teams entering qualifying group stage

Pot 1 Team Coeff.^[14] Rank   France 40,775 2   Germany 40,405 3   Netherlands 40,003 4   Spain 39,181 5   Sweden 36,608 6   Norway 36,060 7   Switzerland 35,481 8   Scotland 35,237 9   Italy 34,741 10	Pot 2 Team Coeff.^[14] Rank   Austria 33,503 11   Denmark 32,935 12   Iceland 32,012 13   Belgium 32,007 14   Russia 28,187 15   Wales 28,042 16   Ukraine 27,260 17   Finland 25,907 18   Czech Republic 25,007 19	Pot 3 Team Coeff.^[14] Rank   Portugal 25,002 20   Republic of Ireland 24,617 21   Poland 23,712 22   Romania 22,432 23   Serbia 19,846 24   Slovenia 18,207 25   Hungary 17,601 26   Bosnia and Herzegovina 17,056 27   Belarus 16,361 28
Pot 4 Team Coeff.^[14] Rank   Turkey 16,142 29   Slovakia 16,046 30   Croatia 15,921 31   Northern Ireland 14,966 32   Greece 14,868 33   Israel 12,771 34   Kazakhstan 12,453 35   Albania 10,899 36   Moldova 8,237 37	Pot 5 Team Coeff.^[14] Rank   Faroe Islands 7,777 39   Malta 7,556 40   North Macedonia 7,242 41   Estonia 7,225 42   Montenegro 7,106 43   Georgia 6,500 44   Latvia 5,702 45   Lithuania 4,973 46   Azerbaijan 0 —   Cyprus 0 —   Kosovo 0 —

Notes

• Teams marked in bold qualified for the final tournament.

Did not enter

Team	Coeff.^[14]	Rank
Bulgaria	8,050	38
Luxembourg	4,237	47
Andorra	1,793	48
Armenia	0	—
Gibraltar	0	—
Liechtenstein	0	—
San Marino	0	—

Qualifying group stage

Group A

Main article: UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying Group A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Netherlands	10	10	0	0	48	3	+45	30	Final tournament		—	2–0	4–1	6–0	3–0	7–0
2	Russia	10	8	0	2	23	6	+17	24	Play-offs		0–1	—	1–0	3–0	4–2	4–0
3	Slovenia	10	6	0	4	31	12	+19	18			2–4	0–1	—	5–0	3–1	2–0
4	Kosovo	10	3	1	6	6	29	−23	10			0–6	0–5	0–3	—	2–0	2–0
5	Turkey	10	1	2	7	9	28	−19	5			0–8	1–2	1–6	0–0	—	0–0
6	Estonia	10	0	1	9	1	40	−39	1			0–7	0–3	0–9	1–2	0–4	—

Source: UEFA

Group B

Main article: UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Denmark	10	9	1	0	48	1	+47	28	Final tournament		—	0–0	2–0	8–0	4–0	14–0
2	Italy	10	8	1	1	37	5	+32	25			1–3	—	2–0	5–0	12–0	6–0
3	Bosnia and Herzegovina	10	6	0	4	19	17	+2	18			0–4	0–5	—	2–0	1–0	7–1
4	Malta	10	3	1	6	11	30	−19	10			0–8	0–2	2–3	—	1–1	2–1
5	Israel	10	2	1	7	10	30	−20	7			0–3	2–3	1–3	0–2	—	4–0
6	Georgia	10	0	0	10	3	45	−42	0			0–2	0–1	0–3	0–4	1–2	—

Source: UEFA

Group C

Main article: UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying Group C

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Norway	6	6	0	0	34	1	+33	18	Final tournament		—	6–0	1–0	Canc.	Canc.
2	Northern Ireland	8	4	2	2	17	17	0	14^[a]	Play-offs		0–6	—	0–0	3–2	5–1
3	Wales	8	4	2	2	16	4	+12	14^[a]			0–1	2–2	—	3–0	4–0
4	Belarus	7	2	0	5	11	15	−4	6			1–7	0–1	0–1	—	6–0
5	Faroe Islands	7	0	0	7	1	42	−41	0			0–13	0–6	0–6	0–2	—

Source: UEFA
Notes:

1. Ranked on head-to-head away goals: Northern Ireland 2; Wales 0.

Group D

Main article: UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying Group D

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	8	7	1	0	48	1	+47	22	Final tournament		—	4–0	3–0	10–0	4–0
2	Czech Republic	8	5	1	2	24	9	+15	16	Play-offs		1–5	—	0–0	7–0	3–0
3	Poland	8	4	2	2	16	5	+11	14			0–0	0–2	—	5–0	3–0
4	Moldova	8	1	0	7	3	43	−40	3^[a]			0–9	0–7	0–3	—	3–1
5	Azerbaijan	8	1	0	7	2	35	−33	3^[a]			0–13	0–4	0–5	1–0	—

Source: UEFA
Notes:

1. Ranked on head-to-head goal difference: Moldova +1, Azerbaijan -1.

Group E

Main article: UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying Group E

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Finland	8	7	1	0	24	2	+22	22	Final tournament		—	1–0	1–0	8–1	4–0
2	Portugal	8	6	1	1	10	2	+8	19	Play-offs		1–1	—	1–0	1–0	1–0
3	Scotland	8	4	0	4	26	5	+21	12			0–1	0–2	—	3–0	8–0
4	Albania	8	2	0	6	7	21	−14	6			0–3	0–1	0–5	—	4–0
5	Cyprus	8	0	0	8	0	37	−37	0			0–5	0–3	0–10	0–2	—

Source: UEFA

Group F

Main article: UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying Group F

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sweden	8	7	1	0	40	2	+38	22	Final tournament		—	2–0	7–0	8–0	7–0
2	Iceland	8	6	1	1	25	5	+20	19			1–1	—	1–0	4–1	9–0
3	Slovakia	8	3	1	4	7	19	−12	10			0–6	1–3	—	0–0	2–0
4	Hungary	8	2	1	5	11	20	−9	7			0–5	0–1	1–2	—	4–0
5	Latvia	8	0	0	8	2	39	−37	0			1–4	0–6	1–2	0–5	—

Source: UEFA

Group G

Main article: UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying Group G

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France	8	7	1	0	44	0	+44	22	Final tournament		—	3–0	6–0	11–0	12–0
2	Austria	8	6	1	1	22	3	+19	19			0–0	—	1–0	3–0	9–0
3	Serbia	8	4	0	4	21	12	+9	12			0–2	0–1	—	8–1	4–1
4	North Macedonia	8	2	0	6	8	39	−31	6			0–7	0–3	0–6	—	4–1
5	Kazakhstan	8	0	0	8	2	43	−41	0			0–3	0–5	0–3	0–3	—

Source: UEFA

Group H

Main article: UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying Group H

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Belgium	8	7	0	1	37	5	+32	21	Final tournament		—	4–0	6–1	6–1	6–0
2	Switzerland	8	6	1	1	20	6	+14	19	Play-offs		2–1	—	6–0	2–0	4–0
3	Romania	8	4	0	4	13	16	−3	12			0–1	0–2	—	4–1	3–0
4	Croatia	8	2	1	5	7	19	−12	7			1–4	1–1	0–1	—	1–0
5	Lithuania	8	0	0	8	1	32	−31	0			0–9	0–3	0–4	1–2	—

Source: UEFA

Group I

Main article: UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying Group I

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Germany	8	8	0	0	46	1	+45	24	Final tournament		—	8–0	3–0	6–0	10–0
2	Ukraine	8	5	0	3	16	21	−5	15	Play-offs		0–8	—	1–0	4–0	2–1
3	Republic of Ireland	8	4	1	3	11	10	+1	13			1–3	3–2	—	1–0	2–0
4	Greece	8	2	1	5	6	21	−15	7			0–5	0–4	1–1	—	1–0
5	Montenegro	8	0	0	8	2	28	−26	0			0–3	1–3	0–3	0–4	—

Source: UEFA

Ranking of second-placed teams

As groups A and B had six teams while the others had five, in order to determine the three best second-placed teams from the qualifying group stage which advance directly to the final tournament, only the results of the second-placed teams against the first, third, fourth and fifth-placed teams in their group are taken into account. As a result, eight matches played by each second-placed team are counted for the purposes of determining the ranking.

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	B	Italy	8	6	1	1	30	5	+25	19	Final tournament
2	F	Iceland	8	6	1	1	25	5	+20	19
3	G	Austria	8	6	1	1	22	3	+19	19
4	H	Switzerland	8	6	1	1	20	6	+14	19	Play-offs
5	E	Portugal	8	6	1	1	10	2	+8	19
6	A	Russia	8	6	0	2	16	6	+10	18
7	D	Czech Republic	8	5	1	2	24	9	+15	16
8	I	Ukraine	8	5	0	3	16	21	−5	15
9	C	Northern Ireland	8	4	2	2	17	17	0	14

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) away goals scored; 5) wins; 6) away wins; 7) disciplinary points; 8) coefficient ranking.

Play-offs

Main article: UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying play-offs

Draw

The draw for the play-offs was held on 5 March 2021 (originally 25 September 2020, but had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic), 12:00 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[16] The six teams were drawn into three ties without any seeding, with the first team drawn in each tie to be the home team of the first leg. Based on political restrictions, Russia and Ukraine could not be drawn against each other.

Matches

The first legs were played on 9 April, and the second legs were held on 13 April 2021. Originally, the three play-off winners qualified for the final tournament.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Ukraine	1–4	Northern Ireland	1–2	0–2
Portugal	0–1^[a]	Russia	0–1	0–0
Czech Republic	2–2 (2–3 p)	Switzerland	1–1	1–1 (a.e.t.)

Notes

1. Russia were banned from the final tournament due to their country's invasion of Ukraine, and Portugal qualified instead.^[17]

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in Women's Euro^1
England	Hosts	3 December 2018^[1]	8 (1984, 1987, 1995, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017)
Netherlands	Group A winners	23 October 2020	3 (2009, 2013, 2017)
Denmark	Group B winners	27 October 2020	9 (1984, 1991, 1993, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017)
Norway	Group C winners	27 October 2020	11 (1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017)
Spain	Group D winners	18 February 2021	3 (1997, 2013, 2017)
Finland	Group E winners	19 February 2021	3 (2005, 2009, 2013)
Sweden	Group F winners	27 October 2020	10 (1984, 1987, 1989, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017)
France	Group G winners	27 November 2020	6 (1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017)
Belgium	Group H winners	1 December 2020	1 (2017)
Germany	Group I winners	23 October 2020	10 (1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017)
Italy	1st best runners-up	24 February 2021	11 (1984, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017)
Iceland	2nd best runner-up	1 December 2020	3 (2009, 2013, 2017)
Austria	3rd best runner-up	23 February 2021	1 (2017)
Switzerland	Play-off winners	13 April 2021	1 (2017)
Northern Ireland	Play-off winners	13 April 2021	0 (debut)
Portugal^[!]	Play-off losers	2 May 2022	1 (2017)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

1. Russia originally qualified as a play-off winner, but was removed and banned from FIFA and UEFA International matches after invading Ukraine (28 February 2022). On 2 May, UEFA announced that Russian teams were banned from every European competition, disqualifying Russia from the tournament. Portugal, the playoff loser, took the place from Russia.

Top goalscorers

There have been 826 goals scored in 198 matches, for an average of 4.17 goals per match (as of 24 February 2021).

12 goals

•   Tine De Caigny

10 goals

•   Linda Sällström
•   Sherida Spitse
•   Caroline Graham Hansen
•   Jennifer Hermoso

9 goals

•   Tessa Wullaert
•   Nadia Nadim
•   Cristiana Girelli
•   Vivianne Miedema

8 goals

•   Pernille Harder
•   Marie-Antoinette Katoto
•   Daniëlle van de Donk
•   Lara Prašnikar
•   Esther González

7 goals

•   Nicole Billa
•   Sofija Krajšumović
•   Eugénie Le Sommer
•   Katja Snoeijs
•   Mateja Zver

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

• Group A
• Group B
• Group C
• Group D
• Group E
• Group F
• Group G
• Group H
• Group I

Source: UEFA^[18]

References

1. "England to host UEFA Women's EURO 2021". UEFA. 3 December 2018.
2. "Seedings for the Women's EURO 2021 qualifying draw". UEFA.com. 20 December 2018.
3. "Regulations of the UEFA European Women's Championship, 2019–21". UEFA.com.
4. "UEFA Executive Committee approves new principles for upcoming national team matches". UEFA.com. 31 August 2020.
5. "Two triple-headers approved for 2021 March and September national team windows". UEFA. 24 September 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
6. "2018/19 UEFA Women's calendar" (PDF). UEFA.
7. "2019/20 UEFA Women's calendar" (PDF). UEFA.
8. "2020/21 UEFA Women's calendar" (PDF). UEFA.
9. "UEFA Women's EURO moved to July 2022". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 23 April 2020. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
10. "COVID-19 impact on UEFA competitions calendar: latest updates". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 29 April 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
11. "COVID-19: latest updates on UEFA competitions". UEFA.com. 17 March 2020.
12. "UEFA postpones all June national team matches". UEFA.com. 1 April 2020.
13. "Women's EURO 2021 qualifying draw". UEFA.com.
14. "Women's National Team Coefficients Overview" (PDF). UEFA.com.
15. "Coefficient Ranking of the Teams Participating in the group stage" (PDF). UEFA.com.
16. "UEFA Women's EURO play-off draw". UEFA.com. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
17. "UEFA decisions for upcoming competitions relating to the ongoing suspension of Russian national teams and clubs". UEFA. 2 May 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
18. "UEFA Women's EURO — Statistics". UEFA.com. Retrieved 5 March 2020.

External links

• Official website
• Women's Euro Matches: 2022 Qualifying, UEFA.com