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]
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]
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]
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).
To determine the four best third-placed teams from the qualifying round which advance to the elite round, only the results of the third-placed teams against the first and second-placed teams in their group are taken into account.
The teams were seeded according to their results in the qualifying round.[12] Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. Winners and runners-up from the same qualifying round group could not be drawn in the same group, but the best third-placed teams could be drawn in the same group as winners or runners-up from the same qualifying round group.[13]
Source: UEFA Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) disciplinary points; 5) coefficient; 6) drawing of lots. (Y)Third-placed teams from qualifying round (may be drawn with teams from same qualifying round group) Notes:
^ abTied on disciplinary points (1 pt), ranked by coefficient (ranking for qualifying round draw: Sweden: 5th; Portugal: 17th).
