UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifying


The UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifying competition was a women's football competition that determined the 15 teams joining the automatically qualified host Switzerland in the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 final tournament.

Format

The European Qualifiers started on 5 April 2024, following the conclusion of the 2023–24 Women's Nations League. The qualifiers were composed of a league stage and final tournament [|play-offs].
The league stage was played in the same format as the UEFA Women's Nations League, with teams split into three leagues: League A with 16 teams, League B with 16 teams and League C with 19 teams. Each team's starting league position was determined based on the results of the preceding Women's Nations League. In February 2024, promotion/relegation matches were played to determine the final composition of each league.
Again, teams competed in groups of four and four or three teams and over six matchdays, with each team playing one home match and one away match against all the other teams in their group.
The goals for this competition were: to qualify for the UEFA Women's Euro 2025; and to be positioned as high as possible for the upcoming 2025 UEFA Women's Nations League.
The European Qualifiers ranking at the end of the league stage determined three main outcomes:
  • Who qualified directly for Euro 2025;
  • Who went into the play-offs for Euro 2025;
  • The composition of the leagues for the upcoming Nations League.
For Euro 2025 qualification:
  • the top two teams in each League A group qualified directly for the finals alongside hosts Switzerland;
  • the remaining seven spots were decided by two rounds of play-offs in October to December 2024.
Promotion and relegation took place prior to the upcoming 2025 UEFA Women's Nations League but had no effect on qualification for the play-offs for Euro 2025:
  • The four group winners in League B were promoted to League A;
  • The four fourth-placed teams in League A were relegated to League B;
  • The five group winners in League C were promoted to League B;
  • The four fourth-placed teams, plus the lowest-ranked third-placed team in League B, were relegated to League C;
  • All other teams stayed in the same league.
Qualification for the 2027 Women's World Cup will work in the same way, except that only the group winners of League A will qualify directly.

Tiebreakers

Tiebreakers for group ranking

If two or more teams in the same group were equal on points on completion of the league phase, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied:
  1. Higher number of points obtained in the matches played among the teams in question;
  2. Higher goal difference in matches played among the teams in question;
  3. Higher number of goals scored in the matches played among the teams in question;
  4. If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria [|1] to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 11 apply;
  5. Higher goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
  7. Higher number of away goals scored in all group matches;
  8. Higher number of wins in all group matches;
  9. Higher number of away wins in all group matches;
  10. Lower disciplinary points total in all group matches.
  11. Position in the [|2024–25 Women's European Qualifiers access list].
'''Notes'''

Criteria for league ranking

Individual [|league rankings] were established according to the following criteria:
  1. Position in the group;
  2. Higher number of points;
  3. Higher goal difference;
  4. Higher number of goals scored;
  5. Higher number of goals scored away from home;
  6. Higher number of wins;
  7. Higher number of wins away from home;
  8. Lower disciplinary points total.
  9. Position in the 2024–25 Women's European Qualifiers access list
In order to rank teams in League C, which was composed of different sized groups, the results against the fourth-placed teams were not taken into account when comparing teams placed first, second, and third in their respective groups.

Criteria for overall ranking

The overall UEFA Nations League rankings were established as follows:
  1. The 16 League A teams were ranked 1st to 16th according to their league rankings.
  2. The 16 League B teams were ranked 17th to 32nd according to their league rankings.
  3. The League C teams were ranked 33rd onwards according to their league rankings.

    Teams

All 55 UEFA national teams were able to submit an entry for the competition by 23 March 2023 at the latest. This involved participation in the qualifying competition for Euro 2025 as well as the preceding 2023–24 UEFA Women's Nations League.
In total, 51 teams entered the qualifying competition. Russia were not permitted to enter the competition due to them being suspended because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In addition, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein and San Marino did not submit an entry.
Teams were split into leagues based on the overall ranking and on the promotion/relegation matches from the 2023–24 Women's Nations League competition.
Teams were divided into four pots of four in Leagues A and B, and three pots of five and one pot of four in League C. The seedings, pots, and draw procedure were confirmed by UEFA on 1 March 2024.
Promoted after 2023–24 Women's Nations League
Relegated after 2023–24 Women's Nations League
*Participated in promotion/relegation play-offs

Draw

The draw for the UEFA Women's European Qualifiers took place in Nyon, Switzerland on 5 March 2024 at 13:00 CET. For political reasons, Kosovo could not be drawn into the same group as either Bosnia and Herzegovina or Serbia. In addition, the teams in League C that previously played in three-team groups in the 2023–24 Women's Nations League, were drawn into four-team groups for this competition.

Schedule

Below is the schedule of the UEFA Women's European Qualifiers 2025 campaign.
StageDraw dateMatchdayDates
Qualifying group stage5 March 2024Matchday 1 & 25–9 April 2024
Qualifying group stage5 March 2024Matchday 3 & 431 May – 4 June 2024
Qualifying group stage5 March 2024Matchday 5 & 612–16 July 2024
Play-offs19 July 2024Round 125–29 October 2024
Play-offs19 July 2024Round 227 November–3 December 2024

League A

Group A1

Group A2

Group A3

Group A4

League B

Group B1

Group B2

Group B3

Group B4

Qualification for play-offs

Ranking of third-placed teams

League C

Group C1

Group C2

Group C3

Group C4

Group C5

Ranking of second-placed teams

Due to unequal group sizes in League C, results against fourth-placed teams were not considered when comparing teams finishing first, second, or third in their groups.

Play-offs

The play-offs determined the final seven teams that qualified for the final tournament and were played over two rounds.
28 teams competed in the play-offs: the 8 worst-ranked teams in League A, the top 12 teams in League B, and the top 8 teams in League C.
In the first round, the eight worst-ranked teams in League A were seeded and drawn into ties against the eight best-ranked teams in League C. The eight winners progressed to the second round. In addition, the six best-ranked teams in League B were seeded and drawn into ties against the next six best-ranked teams in League B. The six winners progressed to the second round.
In the second round, the teams from both paths came together and were drawn into seven ties. The winners of those ties progressed to the final tournament.

Teams

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament alongside the hosts Switzerland.
TeamQualified asQualified onPrevious appearances in Women's Euro1
04.04.2023
2
12
4
0
11
2
0

Overall ranking

The results of each team's league rankings were used to calculate the overall ranking of the competition, using the [|ranking criteria], and were used for seeding in the Euro 2025 final tournament draw and the upcoming 2025 Women's Nations League. Teams were promoted or relegated for the next Nations League as indicated.
Promotion to higher league for 2025 Women's Nations League
Relegation to lower league for 2025 Women's Nations League

Top goalscorers

RankPlayerGoals
1 Lara Prašnikar9
2 Frida Maanum7
2 Martha Thomas7
4 Lea Schüller6
4 Slađana Bulatović6
4 Armisa Kuč6
4 Diana Silva6
4 Jess Fishlock6
9 Eileen Campbell5
9 Sarah Puntigam5
9 Tessa Wullaert5
9 Milena Nikolić5
9 Kateřina Svitková5
9 Klara Bühl5
9 Sophia Koggouli5
9 Natalia Padilla5