Austria and Poland progress at a canter

Austria and Poland made light work of the UEFA European Women's Under-17 Championship qualifying round, advancing from a section that also included Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

Having secured early progress to the next stage of the competition even before they met on the final day, Poland and Austria competed for top spot in Group 8 on Thursday evening in Brzeg. A tightly-contested match was settled by Julia Kofler, whose 36th-minute strike ensured Dominik Thalhammer's Austria side finished the group in first place.

"It was really great tournament," said the coach "We achieved our goal, which was to progress to the next round, but we did something more because we won all the games without conceding a single goal. We beat Poland, who are reigning European champions, but we would love to meet them again, hopefully in the final tournament in England."

Prior to the final day the duo had already hit 31 unanswered goals between them, both starting their campaigns with comfortable victories. Austria beat Azerbaijan 7-0 and Poland put nine past Kazakhstan with Paulina Dudek and Agnieszka Jędrzejewicz both netting hat-tricks. The goal glut continued in the second round of matches as Austria reached double figures in their meeting with Kazakhstan – Ivana Feric and Viktoria Pinther both with trebles in a 10-0 rout – before Poland scored five without reply against Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan restored some pride on the final day, Kader Alimova and Yasminne Gluic finding the target in a 2-0 win against Kazakhstan which ensured Siyasat Asgarov's charges did not finish bottom.