2018 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship qualification

2018 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying round:; 8 September – 31 October 2017; Elite round:; 2 April – 11 June 2018
Teams	48 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	114
Goals scored	487 (4.27 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Fenna Kalma; (13 goals)
	← 2017 2019 →

The 2018 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship qualifying competition was a women's under-19 football competition that determined the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Switzerland in the 2018 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship final tournament.^[1]

Apart from Switzerland, 48 of the remaining 54 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition (including Kosovo who entered a competitive women's national team tournament for the first time).^[2] Players born on or after 1 January 1999 are eligible to participate.

Format

The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:^[3]

Qualifying round: The 48 teams are drawn into 12 groups of four teams. Each group is played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The 12 group winners, the 12 runners-up, and the four third-placed teams with the best record against the first and second-placed teams in their group advance to the elite round.
Elite round: The 28 teams are drawn into seven groups of four teams. Each group is played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The seven group winners qualify for the final tournament.

Initially the elite round would consist of 24 teams, drawn into six groups of four teams, with the six group winners and the runner-up with the best record against the first and third-placed teams in their group qualifying for the final tournament. After the qualifying round draw was held, UEFA decided to expand the elite round from 24 to 28 teams, allowing four more third-placed teams to advance to the elite round.

The schedule of each mini-tournament is as follows (Regulations Article 20.04):^[3]

Matchday	Matches
Matchday 1	1 v 4, 3 v 2
Rest days (2 days)	—
Matchday 2	1 v 3, 2 v 4
Rest days (2 days)	—
Matchday 3	2 v 1, 4 v 3

Tiebreakers

In the qualifying round and elite round, 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 Articles 14.01 and 14.02):^[3]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
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;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams have the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and are tied after applying all criteria above (not used if more than two teams have the same number of points, or if their rankings are not relevant for qualification for the next stage);
Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

To determine the four best third-placed teams from the qualifying round, the results against the teams in fourth place are discarded. The following criteria are applied (Regulations Article 15.01):^[3]

Points;
Goal difference;
Goals scored;
Disciplinary points;
UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

Qualifying round

Draw

The draw for the qualifying round was held on 11 November 2016, 10:00 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[4]^[5]^[6]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:^[7]

2014 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2015 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2016 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)

Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. For political reasons, Russia and Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Serbia and Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo would not be drawn in the same group.^[2]

Final tournament hosts
Team	Coeff	Rank
Switzerland	9.333	—

Teams entering qualifying round

Pot A
Team	Coeff	Rank
Spain	15.667	1
France	12.500	2
Germany	12.333	3
England	11.667	4
Sweden	10.833	5
Netherlands	10.667	6
Norway	10.333	7
Scotland	9.000	8
Belgium	8.667	9
Denmark	8.500	10
Russia	7.833	11
Finland	7.667	12

Pot B
Team	Coeff	Rank
Austria	7.333	13
Republic of Ireland	7.333	14
Italy	7.000	15
Czech Republic	6.500	16
Portugal	6.500	17
Iceland	4.667	18
Poland	4.500	19
Romania	4.333	20
Serbia	4.167	21
Ukraine	4.000	22
Turkey	4.000	23
Slovenia	3.833	24

Pot C
Team	Coeff	Rank
Croatia	3.833	25
Northern Ireland	3.667	26
Hungary	3.667	27
Azerbaijan	3.500	28
Greece	3.500	29
Belarus	3.333	30
Bosnia and Herzegovina	3.333	31
Moldova	2.667	32
Slovakia	2.333	33
Wales	1.667	34
Montenegro	1.333	35
Estonia	1.333	36

Pot D
Team	Coeff	Rank
Faroe Islands	1.333	37
Macedonia	1.333	38
Cyprus	0.667	39
Israel	0.333	40
Albania	0.000	41
Bulgaria	0.000	42
Kazakhstan	0.000	43
Lithuania	0.000	44
Latvia	0.000	45
Georgia	0.000	46
Armenia	—	47
Kosovo	—	48

Notes

Teams marked in bold have qualified for the final tournament.

Did not enter
Andorra
Gibraltar
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Malta
San Marino

Groups

The qualifying round must be played by 29 October 2017, and on the following FIFA International Match Calendar dates unless all four teams agree to play on another date:^[3]^[7]

11–19 September 2017
16–24 October 2017

Times up to 28 October 2017 are CEST (UTC+2), thereafter times are CET (UTC+1).

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Germany (H)	3	3	0	0	12	0	+12	9	Elite round
2	Iceland	3	2	0	1	9	1	+8	6	Elite round
3	Kosovo	3	0	1	2	1	6	−5	1
4	Montenegro	3	0	1	2	1	16	−15	1

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

Note: Iceland were originally to host.

12 September 2017