2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification (UEFA)

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification (UEFA)

Tournament details
Dates	16 September 2021 – 11 October 2022
Teams	51 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	136
Goals scored	650 (4.78 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Signe Bruun (12 goals)
← 2019 2027 → All statistics correct as of 1 December 2021.

The European qualifying competition for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup is a women's football competition that determines the eleven UEFA teams which directly qualify for the final tournament in Australia and New Zealand, and the one team which advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.^[1][2]

Fifty-one of the 55 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition,^[3] with Cyprus making their World Cup qualifying debut and Luxembourg appearing in a group stage for the first time ever.

Format[]

The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:^[4]

• Group stage: The 51 teams are drawn into nine groups of five or six teams, where each group is played in a home-and-away round-robin format. The nine group winners qualify directly for the final tournament, while the nine runners-up advance to the play-offs.
• Play-offs: The nine teams play two knockout rounds of single-leg matches, with the best three runners-up entering in the second round, to determine the two additional qualified teams and one inter-continental play-offs entrant from UEFA, based on combined records in both the group stage and play-offs.

Tiebreakers[]

In the group stage, teams are 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 are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 13.01):^[4]

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 for the group stage draw.

To determine the best three runners-up, the group standings are used, not taking into account any matches against sixth-placed teams. If teams are tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied (Regulations Article 14.04):^[4]

1. Goal difference in all group matches;
2. Goals scored in all group matches;
3. Away goals scored in all group matches;
4. Wins in all group matches;
5. Away wins in all group matches;
6. Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
7. UEFA coefficient for the group stage draw.

In the play-offs, the team that scores more goals in the second round match qualifies for the final tournament. If the score is level, extra time is played. If the score is remains level after extra time, the tie is decided by penalty shoot-out (Regulations Article 15.01).^[4]

To determine the two best play-off winners, the results of the group stage as used for runner-up determination above (eight matches), and the second round of the play-offs (one match) are added. The following criteria are applied (Regulations Article 14.05):^[4]

1. Points;
2. Goal difference;
3. Goals scored;
4. Away goals scored;
5. Wins;
6. Away wins;
7. Disciplinary points;
8. UEFA coefficient for the group stage draw.

Schedule[]

The qualifying matches are played on dates that fall within the FIFA Women's International Match Calendar.^[5][6]

Since the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 tournament has been moved from summer 2021 to summer 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, for the first time the series of matches for UEFA's World Cup qualification will be interrupted by a continental championship. In July 2022 sixteen UEFA national teams will participate in the Women's Euro tournament in England.

Entrants[]

The teams were ranked according to their coefficient ranking,^[7] calculated based on the following (Regulations Annex B.1.2.a):^[4]

• UEFA Women's Euro 2017 final tournament and qualifying competition (20%)
• 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup final tournament and qualifying competition (40%)
• UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying competition (group stage only, excluding play-offs) (40%)

One entrant, Russia, was initially given a four-year ban from all major sporting events by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on 9 December 2019 after Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) was found non-compliant for handing over manipulated laboratory data to investigators.^[8] However, the Russian women's team could still enter qualification. The decision was appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS),^[9] which ruled in WADA's favour but reduced the ban to two years.^[10] The CAS ruling also allowed the name "Russia" to be displayed on uniforms if the words "Neutral Athlete" or "Neutral Team" have equal prominence.^[11] If Russia qualifies for the tournament, its female players will be able to use their country's name, flag or anthem at the Women's World Cup, unlike their male counterparts, as the ban will expire on 16 December 2022.^[11][12]

On 20 April 2021, it was announced 51 teams from the 55 eligible would enter the qualifying round.^[3]

Pot 1 Team Coeff Rank  Netherlands 43,961 1  Germany 41,924 2  England 41,443 3  France 40,898 4  Sweden 39,714 5  Spain 38,913 6  Norway 38,758 7  Italy 36,399 8  Denmark 35,265 9	Pot 2 Team Coeff Rank  Belgium 34,951 10   Switzerland 34,066 11  Austria 33,693 12  Iceland 33,458 13  Scotland 30,700 14  Russia 30,117 15  Finland 29,765 16  Portugal 28,937 17  Wales 28,677 18	Pot 3 Team Coeff Rank  Czech Republic 28,115 19  Ukraine 27,127 20  Republic of Ireland 25,414 21  Poland 25,302 22  Slovenia 22,582 23  Romania 22,156 24  Serbia 21,889 25  Bosnia and Herzegovina 20,479 26  Northern Ireland 19,526 27
Pot 4 Team Coeff Rank  Slovakia 17,951 28  Hungary 16,676 29  Belarus 16,540 30  Croatia 15,988 31  Greece 13,602 32  Albania 13,292 33  North Macedonia 12,730 34  Israel 12,518 35  Azerbaijan 11,688 36	Pot 5 Team Coeff Rank  Turkey 11,526 37  Malta 11,480 38  Kosovo 10,489 39  Kazakhstan 10,198 40  Moldova 9,510 41  Cyprus 7,688 42  Faroe Islands 7,478 43  Georgia 7,085 44  Latvia 6,977 45	Pot 6 Team Coeff Rank  Montenegro 6,772 46  Lithuania 6,359 47  Estonia 6,108 48  Luxembourg 2,779 49  Armenia 0 —  Bulgaria 0 — Did not enter Team Coeff Rank  Andorra 1,903 50  Gibraltar 0 —  Liechtenstein 0 —  San Marino 0 —

Group stage[]

Draw[]

The draw for the group stage was held on 30 April 2021 at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[3] The 51 teams were drawn into 9 groups:

• 3 groups (Groups A, B, C) of 5 teams (playing a total of 8 matches), containing one team each from Pots 1–5.
• 6 groups (Groups D, E, F, G, H, I) of 6 teams (playing a total of 10 matches), containing one team each from Pots 1–6.

Based on the UEFA Executive Committee decisions due to political conflicts, there were several combinations of teams that could not be drawn into the same group. One of these was Armenia, who were initially drawn into group E together with Azerbaijan. Armenia was moved into group F and Montenegro was then drawn into group E.

Groups[]

Group A[]

Pos	Team v t	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sweden	5	5	0	0	11	1	+10	15	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup		—	12 Apr	2–1	3–0	4–0
2	Republic of Ireland	4	2	1	1	14	3	+11	7	Play-offs		0–1	—	1 Sep	1–1	11–0
3	Finland	4	2	0	2	7	5	+2	6			6 Sep	1–2	—	2–1	12 Apr
4	Slovakia (Y)	5	1	1	3	4	7	−3	4			0–1	6 Sep	8 Apr	—	2–0
5	Georgia (Y)	4	0	0	4	0	20	−20	0			7 Apr	27 Jun	0–3	1 Sep	—

Group B[]

Pos	Team v t	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	5	5	0	0	43	0	+43	15	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup		—	8–0	2 Sep	6 Sep	12–0
2	Scotland	5	3	1	1	12	11	+1	10	Play-offs		12 Apr	—	2–1	1–1	7–1
3	Hungary	5	2	0	3	12	14	−2	6			0–7	0–2	—	4–2	8 Apr
4	Ukraine	4	1	1	2	7	11	−4	4			0–6	8 Apr	12 Apr	—	4–0
5	Faroe Islands (E)	5	0	0	5	2	40	−38	0			0–10	6 Sep	1–7	2 Sep	—

Group C[]

Pos	Team v t	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Netherlands	5	3	2	0	15	3	+12	11	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup		—	6 Sep	1–1	12 Apr	8 Apr
2	Iceland	4	3	0	1	13	2	+11	9	Play-offs		0–2	—	4–0	2 Sep	5–0
3	Czech Republic	4	1	2	1	11	7	+4	5			2–2	12 Apr	—	28 Jun	8–0
4	Belarus	3	1	1	1	5	4	+1	4			0–2	7 Apr	6 Sep	—	4–1
5	Cyprus (E)	6	0	1	5	2	30	−28	1			0–8	0–4	1 Sep	1–1	—

Group D[]

Pos	Team v t	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	6	6	0	0	53	0	+53	18	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup		—	1–0	4–0	6 Sep	8–0	20–0
2	Austria	6	4	1	1	29	4	+25	13	Play-offs		3 Sep	—	8 Apr	5–0	6 Sep	12 Apr
3	Northern Ireland	6	4	1	1	30	6	+24	13			12 Apr	2–2	—	4–0	9–0	4–0
4	Luxembourg	5	1	0	4	3	29	−26	3[a]			0–10	0–8	2 Sep	—	12 Apr	8 Apr
5	North Macedonia (Y)	6	1	0	5	6	38	−32	3[a]			8 Apr	0–6	0–11	2–3	—	1 Sep
6	Latvia (Y)	5	0	0	5	2	46	−44	0			0–10	1–8	6 Sep	24 Jun	1–4	—

Group E[]

Pos	Team v t	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Denmark	6	6	0	0	34	2	+32	18	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup		—	3–1	2 Sep	8–0	7–0	12 Apr
2	Russia	6	5	0	1	19	3	+16	15	Play-offs		6 Sep	—	5–0	2 Sep	3–0	2–0
3	Montenegro	6	3	0	3	8	13	−5	9			1–5	7 Apr	—	12 Apr	6 Sep	2–0
4	Bosnia and Herzegovina (Y)	6	1	1	4	5	20	−15	4[a]			0–3	0–4	2–3	—	1–0	7 Apr
5	Malta (Y)	6	1	1	4	4	16	−12	4[a]			8 Apr	12 Apr	0–2	2–2	—	2 Sep
6	Azerbaijan (E)	6	1	0	5	2	18	−16	3			0–8	0–4	1–0	6 Sep	1–2	—

Group F[]

Pos	Team v t	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Norway	6	5	1	0	34	0	+34	16	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup		—	4–0	12 Apr	6 Sep	7 Apr	10–0
2	Belgium	6	4	1	1	38	5	+33	13	Play-offs		2 Sep	—	4–0	7–0	7–0	19–0
3	Poland	6	3	2	1	6	6	0	11			0–0	1–1	—	2–0	6 Sep	7 Apr
4	Albania	6	2	1	3	9	18	−9	7			0–7	7 Apr	1 Sep	—	1–1	5–0
5	Kosovo	6	1	1	4	4	16	−12	4			0–3	12 Apr	1–2	1–3	—	1 Sep
6	Armenia (E)	6	0	0	6	0	46	−46	0			0–10	6 Sep	0–1	12 Apr	0–1	—

Group G[]

Pos	Team v t	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Switzerland	6	6	0	0	26	2	+24	18	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup		—	12 Apr	2–0	5–0	4–1	6 Sep
2	Italy	6	5	0	1	22	2	+20	15	Play-offs		1–2	—	6 Sep	3–0	8 Apr	3–0
3	Romania	5	3	0	2	8	7	+1	9			8 Apr	0–5	—	2–0	3–0	3–0
4	Croatia (Y)	6	1	1	4	4	15	−11	4			2 Sep	0–5	12 Apr	—	0–0	4–0
5	Lithuania (Y)	5	0	1	4	1	19	−18	1			0–7	0–5	2 Sep	6 Sep	—	28 Jun
6	Moldova	4	0	0	4	0	16	−16	0			0–6	2 Sep	24 Jun	8 Apr	12 Apr	—

Group H[]

Pos	Team v t	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Germany	6	6	0	0	31	2	+29	18	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup		—	9 Apr	5–1	8–0	7–0	7–0
2	Portugal	6	4	1	1	17	5	+12	13	Play-offs		1–3	—	2–1	6 Sep	4–0	12 Apr
3	Serbia	5	3	0	2	11	8	+3	9			12 Apr	2 Sep	—	2–0	7 Apr	25 Nov
4	Turkey	5	2	1	2	5	13	−8	7			3 Sep	1–1	23 Feb	—	3–2	1–0
5	Israel (Y)	5	0	0	5	2	19	−17	0			0–1	0–4	6 Sep	12 Apr	—	1 Sep
6	Bulgaria (Y)	5	0	0	5	1	20	−19	0			6 Sep	0–5	1–4	7 Apr	23 Jun	—

Group I[]

Pos	Team v t	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France	6	6	0	0	37	2	+35	18	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup		—	2–0	12 Apr	6 Sep	6–0	11–0
2	Wales	6	4	1	1	17	3	+14	13	Play-offs		8 Apr	—	6 Sep	5–0	6–0	4–0
3	Slovenia	6	3	2	1	17	5	+12	11			2–3	1–1	—	0–0	2 Sep	6–0
4	Greece	6	2	1	3	5	21	−16	7			0–10	2 Sep	1–4	—	3–2	12 Apr
5	Kazakhstan (Y)	5	0	0	5	2	21	−19	0			0–5	12 Apr	8 Apr	0–1	—	6 Sep
6	Estonia (Y)	5	0	0	5	0	26	−26	0			2 Sep	0–1	0–4	8 Apr	28 Jun	—

Ranking of second-placed teams[]

To determine the three best second-placed teams from the qualifying group stage which advance to the play-offs second round, only the results of the second-placed teams against the first, third, fourth and fifth-placed teams in their group are taken into account, while results against the sixth-placed team (for those groups with six teams) are discarded. As a result, eight matches played by each second-placed team are counted for the purposes of determining the ranking.

Pos	Grp	Team v t	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	G	Italy	5	4	0	1	19	2	+17	12	Play-offs second round
2	D	Austria	5	3	1	1	21	3	+18	10
3	F	Belgium	5	3	1	1	19	5	+14	10
4	H	Portugal	5	3	1	1	12	5	+7	10	Play-offs first round
5	B	Scotland	5	3	1	1	12	11	+1	10
6	C	Iceland	4	3	0	1	13	2	+11	9
7	E	Russia	4	3	0	1	13	3	+10	9
8	A	Republic of Ireland	4	2	1	1	14	3	+11	7
9	I	Wales	4	2	1	1	12	3	+9	7

Play-offs[]

Draw[]

The draw date and details will be confirmed by UEFA.

• First round: The worst six runners-up will enter in the first round and will be drawn into three ties.
• Second round: The best three runners-up will enter in the second round and, together with the three winners of the first round, will be drawn into three ties.

First round[]

The single-leg matches will be played between 3 and 11 October 2022.

Second round[]

The single-leg matches will be played between 3 and 11 October 2022.

Ranking of play-off winners[]

To rank the three play-off winners, their results in their respective groups and the second round of the play-offs are combined. Any group matches against sixth-placed teams (for those from the groups which had six teams) are discounted. As a result, 9 matches played by each team (8 in the group stage and 1 in the second round of the play-offs) are counted for the purposes of determining the ranking. The two highest-placed winners qualify for the Women's World Cup and the lowest-placed winner will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.^[3][4]

Qualified teams[]

The following eleven teams from UEFA will qualify for the final tournament, while one team will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.

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

Top goalscorers[]

There have been 650 goals scored in 136 matches, for an average of 4.78 goals per match (as of 1 December 2021).

12 goals

11 goals

9 goals

8 goals

7 goals

6 goals

Source: UEFA.com

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

References[]