Women's World Cup qualifiers, play-off contenders
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
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Scotland, Norway, Germany and Sweden have joined hosts France, England, Italy and Spain in the finals by winning their qualifying groups.
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Scotland, Norway, Germany and Sweden have joined hosts France, England, Italy and Spain in the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup finals after the seven groups ended; Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland are in the play-offs.
- Qualifying group results
- Play-off draw: Friday
- Final standings
- The seven group winners qualified to join France in the finals from 7 June–7 July 2019, with the draw in Paris on 8 December.
- The four runners-up with the best records against the sides first, third and fourth in their groups will advance to the play-offs, drawn at 14:00CET on Friday and consisting of two rounds of two-legged knockout ties on 1–9 October and 5–13 November 2018 to decide Europe's last qualifier.
- Ties are split in the first instance by head-to-head, and the away goals rule applies if needed.
AT A GLANCE (teams listed in group order)
- Qualified: England, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Spain
- Play-offs: Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium
- Qualified: England (Pts22)
- Missed out on play-offs: Wales (17)
England's 3-0 win in Wales on Friday took them to the finals at the expense of their hosts, and they celebrated with a 6-0 win in Kazakhstan on Tuesday. Wales needed both Belgium and Iceland lose on Tuesday to earn a play-off slot but neither did.
- Qualified: Scotland (21)
- Play-offs: Switzerland (19)
Scotland's 2-1 win against Switzerland on Thursday moved these teams level on point. The Swiss had a head-to-head away goals advantage but they were held 0-0 in Poland on Tuesday while Scotland won 2-1 in Albania to earn a debut World Cup berth.
- Qualified: Norway (21)
- Play-offs: Netherlands (19)
Norway beat the Netherlands 2-1 in Oslo on Tuesday to qualify and leave the European champions facing the play-offs.
- Qualified: Sweden (21)
- Play-offs: Denmark (16)
Sweden won 1-0 in Denmark on Tuesday to qualify and leave their hosts in the play-offs (they would have missed out if Iceland had won).
- Qualified: Germany (21)
- Missed out on play-offs: Iceland (17)
Germany avenged October's 3-2 loss at home to Iceland with a 2-0 win in Saturday's return to go top, and an 8-0 victory in the Faroe Islands kept up their record of appearing in every World Cup finals (and left them as qualifying top scorers with 38 goals to boot). Iceland, however, were held 1-1 by the Czech Republic, when a win would have given them a play-off.
- Qualified: Italy (21)
- Play-offs: Belgium (19)
Italy's 3-0 win against Portugal in June took them to their first World Cup since 1999. Belgium, who will finish second, beat Romania 1-0 with a late goal on Friday and then overcame Italy on Tuesday to make the play-offs.
- Qualified: Spain (24)
- Missed out on play-offs: Austria (16)
Spain beat Israel 2-0 then saw Austria win 2-0 in Finland to be the first European qualifiers (hours ahead of Italy) in June. Finland lost 5-1 in Spain on Friday and then 4-1 in Austria on Tuesday, giving their hosts second place, though neither were still in play-off contention. Spain ended with the only perfect record in the seven groups.