The event began with a round robin group stage. At its conclusion, the best teams progressed to the knockout stage, a series of single elimination games to determine the winners, starting with the Round of 16 and ending with the final. Consolation matches were also played to determine other final rankings.
Havana Shots Aargau of Switzerland were the defending champions,[3] but were knocked out in the quarter-finals by WFC Zvezda of Russia, ultimately finishing in 8th place. WFC Zvezda went on to win their first title, beating Portsmouth Ladies of the England in the final,[4] Pompey's second runners-up finish in a row.
Location of teams in the 2018 Euro Winners Cup main round. Groups key: A; B; C; D; E.
20 teams entered the tournament – all of whom entered straight into the group stage.[2][5]
12 different nations were represented.
Qualification
As per BSWW regulations, qualification for the 2018 WEWC is achieved as follows:[6]
The reigning champions qualify automatically (Havana Shots Aargau of Switzerland).
The winners of all European national women's beach soccer leagues/championships are entitled to automatic qualification. (Note that no league champion from Switzerland qualified as this was Havana Shots Aargau who had already qualified as current WEWC champions)
In countries where women's clubs exist but a national women's league or championship does not yet exist, one club can be nominated to represent that country.
If a national association wishes to enter more than one club, they can request for permission to do so from the organisers BSWW who will grant or reject the clubs a berth at the tournament depending on the total number of teams already registered.
Entrants
Key: H: Hosts \ TH: Title holders
Group stage
Sporting CP (H)
AIS Playas de San Javier
DTS Ede
WFC Zvezda
Havana Shots Aargau (TH)
Femenino Cáceres
Amnéville
Beachkick Ladies Berlin
Higicontrol Melilla
Lady Grembach EE Łódź
Grande Motte Pyramide
Nõmme Kalju
Roses Platja
KU AZS UAM Poznan
Lokrians
Portsmouth Ladies
Madrid
HTC Zwolle
Terracina Ladies
Vetlanda United
Venues
Praia de Nazaré (Nazaré Beach) is the host location of the competition for the second year running.
Matches took place at Praia de Nazaré (Nazaré Beach) on one of three pitches:
The Main pitch, otherwise known as the Estádio do Viveiro (Viveiro Stadium), with a capacity of 1,600.[8]
Host of 12 matches; all main bracket ties from the quarter-finals onwards and all host club (Sporting CP) matches.
Pitch 2, a purpose made pitch, located adjacent to the main stadium.
Host of 24 matches; all Round of 16 ties and all losers brackets ties from the quarter-finals onwards.
Pitch 3, a purpose made pitch, located adjacent to pitch 2.
Host of 26 matches; only used during the group stage.
Squads
Each club must submit a squad of a maximum of 12 players that includes a minimum of two goalkeepers. Players are to be assigned shirt numbers between 1 and 22 (the number 1 must be reserved for a goalkeeper). Three delegates must accompany the players, including at least one medical personnel. A maximum of three foreign players are allowed to be part of the squad.[6] This was later increased to four, however a maximum of three of these players are permitted to play in a match.[9]
Draw
The draw for the group stage took place on May 9 at 12:00 local time in Nazaré, Portugal at the Biblioteca Municipal de Nazaré (Nazaré Public Library),[10] conducted by the Mayor of Nazaré, Walter Chicharro, PFP Director Pedro Dias, BSWW Deputy Vice-President, Gabino Renales and BSWW Head of Competitions, Josep Ponset.[11]
The BSWW organising committee decided to split the 20 teams into five groups of four, conducting the draw as follows:[12]
The top four clubs in this order received the next top seeds and were automatically assigned to the groups, with the 2nd seed placed in position B1 through to the 5th seed allocated to E1.
Out of the remaining 15 clubs, again, from each country still represented, each club that finished highest in its country's national league were grouped together and ordered based upon the 2017 final ranking once more. These clubs in this order received the next top seeds available.
For the countries still represented by one or more clubs, this process repeated until every club was seeded.
The 15 teams were split into three pots, with the highest seeds placed into Pot 1 down to the lowest seeds placed in Pot 3 (along with one unseeded club, Nõmme Kalju, as there was no representative club of their association in the last edition to calculate a seed from).
Each pot consisted of five teams.
One team from each pot was drawn into each of the groups, A through E, chronologically. The teams from Pot 1 were assigned to position 2, those from Pot 2, assigned to position 3 and those from Pot 3, position 4.
Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.
Pots
Auto-assigned clubs
Pot 1
Pot 2
Pot 3
Sporting CP (assigned to A1)
Havana Shots Aargau (assigned to B1)
Portsmouth Ladies (assigned to C1)
AIS Playas de San Javier (assigned to D1)
WFC Zvezda (assigned to E1)
Roses Platja
Beachkick Ladies Berlin
Terracina Ladies
Lady Grembach EE Łódź
HTC Zwolle
Vetlanda United
Amnéville
Femenino Cáceres
Lokrians
KU AZS UAM Poznan
DTS Ede
Grande Motte Pyramide
Higicontrol Melilla
Madrid
Nõmme Kalju (unseeded)
Group stage
The group stage fixtures were announced on 16 May.[13]
The top three clubs from each group, plus the best fourth placed team advance to the Round of 16.
In the knockout stage, the clubs compete in single-elimination matches. Consolation matches are also played to determine the final rankings involving the clubs knocked out of each round of the knockout stage.
Round of 16 draw:
The Round of 16 draw was conducted on 30 May following the conclusion of the day's matches. The 16 clubs were placed into two pots of eight. The five group winners and the three best runners-up (Lady Grembach EE Łódź, Amnéville & Roses Platja) were placed in Pot 1. The remaining two runners-up, the five third-placed teams and the best fourth-placed club were assigned to Pot 2.[14]
For each Round of 16 tie, a club from Pot 1 was drawn to play against a club from Pot 2. However, clubs who finished 1st and 2nd in the same group could not be drawn against each other. As each tie was drawn, they were allocated chronologically from top to bottom in the bracket below. The draw was conducted by the Mayor of Nazaré, Walter Chicharro and Dario Ramacciotti of Viareggio.[14]
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