2023 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship qualification explained

Tourney Name:	UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship qualification
Year:	2023
Dates:	Round 1: Round 2: 1 – 11 April 2023
Num Teams:	52
Confederations:	1
Matches:	144
Goals:	572
Top Scorer:	Nina Matejić (10 goals)
Prevseason:	2022
Nextseason:	2024

The 2023 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 Belgium in the 2023 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship final tournament.^[1]

52 teams, including hosts Belgium, entered the qualifying competition.^[1] Players born on or after 1 January 2004 were eligible to participate.

Gibraltar entered a women's national team in any UEFA competition for the first time ever.

Format

Last season, UEFA implemented a new format for the women's U17 and U19 Euros, based on a league-style qualifying format.

The teams were divided in two leagues: League A (28 teams) and League B (24 teams).

Each league played two rounds:

Round 1: In each league, groups of four teams played mini-tournaments. The winners of each mini-tournament in league B and the best runner-up were promoted and the last-placed teams in league A mini-tournaments were relegated.
Round 2: The seven winners of League A qualified for the final tournament. The six winners of mini-tournaments in league B and the best runner-up were promoted and the last-placed teams in league A were relegated for Round 1 of the next edition of the tournament.

Tiebreakers

In Round 1 and Round 2, teams were 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 were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 19.01 and 19.02):^[2]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were 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 had the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and were tied after applying all criteria above (not used if more than two teams had the same number of points, or if their rankings were 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);
Position in the applicable ranking:
1. for teams in round 1, position in 2021–22 round 2 league rankings;
2. for teams in round 2, position in the round 1 league ranking.

To determine the five best third-placed teams from the qualifying round, the results against the teams in fourth place were discarded. The following criteria were applied (Regulations Article 15.01):^[2]

Points;
Goal difference;
Goals scored;
Disciplinary points;
Position in the applicable ranking:
1. for teams in round 1, position in the coefficient rankings;
2. for teams in round 2, position in the round 1 league ranking.

Round 1

Draw

The draw for the qualifying round was held on 31 May 2022, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[3]

The teams were seeded according to their final group standings of the 2021–22 competition (Regulations Article 13.01).^[2]

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, Armenia and Azerbaijan and Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo would not be drawn in the same group.^[3]

To determine the 2021–22 Round 2 league rankings, the following criteria was followed:

higher position in the following classification:
1. League A Round 2 group winners
2. League A Round 2 group runners-up
3. League A Round 2 third-placed teams
4. Teams promoted from League B
5. Teams relegated from League A
6. League B Round 2 runners-up
7. League B Round 2 third-placed teams
8. League B Round 2 fourth-placed teams
higher number of points in all mini-tournament matches;
superior goal difference in all mini-tournament matches;
higher number of goals scored in all mini-tournament matches;
lower disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
higher position in the 2021–22 round 1 league rankings.

Teams entering League A^[4]

Pot 1
width=150	Team !	width=35	!	width=8	!	width=8	!	width=8	!	width=10
		3	3	3	0
		3	3	3	1
		3	2	3
		3	2	2
		3	1	1
		1	0	2
		1	0	1

Pot 2
width=150	Team !	width=35	!	width=12	!	width=12	!	width=12	!	width=10
		1	0	2
		1	0	1
		0	–1	0
		0	–2	1
		0	–2	0
		0	–3	0	0
		0	–3	0	–2

Pot 3
width=190	Team !	width=35	!	width=12	!	width=12	!	width=12
		4	–2	2
		3	4	9
		3	0	9
		3	–2	3
		3	–6	3
		1	–6	0
		9	18	18

Pot 4
width=210	Team !	width=35	!	width=10	!	width=10	!	width=10
		9	10	13
		9	10	11
		9	10	10
		9	6	7
		7	6	7
		7	2	6
		6	8	13

Teams entering League B

Pot 1
width=250	Team !	width=35	!	width=35	!	width=35	!	width=35
		1	–10	0
		0	–4	1
		0	–8	2
		0	–12	0
		0	–15	1
		0	–16	1

Pot 2
width=150	Team !	width=35	!	width=35	!	width=35	!	width=35
		6	2	4
		6	1	6
		6	–3	4
		4	–1	1
		4	–3	1
		3	0	3
		3	–1	5

Pot 3
width=150	Team !	width=35	!	width=35	!	width=35	!	width=35	!	width=10
		3	–3	2	4
		3	–3	2	8
		3	–8	3
		0	–6	2
		0	–6	0
		0	–8	2	0
		0	–8	2	6
		0	–11	1
		0	–12	1

League A

All the matches were played between 4 October and 15 November 2022.^[5]

Group A1

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Group A2

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Group A3

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Group A4

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Group A5

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Group A6

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Group A7

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League B

All the matches were played between 4 October and 15 November 2022.^[5]

Group B1

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Group B2

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Group B3

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Group B4

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Group B5

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Group B6

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Group B7

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Round 2

28 teams advanced to this round League A: 21 transferred from Round 1 and seven promoted from Round 2. The teams were divided in seven four-group teams. The seven group champions joined Belgium in the 2023 finals.

League A

Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Group A1

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Group A2

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Group A3

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Group A4

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Group A5

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Group A6

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Group A7

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League B

Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Group B1

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Group B2

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Group B3

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Group B4

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Group B5

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Group B6

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Group B7

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Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament:

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	data-sort-type="number"	Previous appearances in Under-19 Euro¹ only U-19 era (since 2002)
			4 (2006, 2011, 2014, 2019)
			17 (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022)
			1 (2022)
			16 (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022)
			15 (2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022)
			2 (2007, 2009)
			1 (2016)
			9 (2003, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Goalscorers

In Round 1

In Round 2

In total

Notes and References

Web site: Belgium, Lithuania, Belarus to host WU19 EURO in 2023, 2024, 2025. UEFA.com. 19 April 2021.
Web site: Regulations of the UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship, 2022/23. UEFA. 24 May 2022.
Web site: 2022/23 Women's Under-19 EURO round 1 draw made. UEFA.com. 31 May 2022 . UEFA.
Web site: UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship 2021/22. UEFA.com. UEFA.
Web site: UEFA.com . 1 August 2022 . 2022/23 Women's Under-19 EURO round 1 starts 4 October . 8 August 2022 . UEFA.com . en.