First criteria was head-to-head. That's why Chilean players celebrate when they hear that Colombia vs Paraguay had ended in a draw. If there had been a winner between Colombia and Paraguay the two best teams from Argentina, Chile and Venezuela had qualified Venezuela - Chile 2:2 Argentina - Venezuela 0:0 Chile - Argentina 1:2 Argentina 4 2-1 Venezuela 2 2-2 Chile 1 3-4
AFC (4): China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea CAF (Host+4): Morocco CONCACAF (4): Mexico, Canada, USA, Costa Rica CONMEBOL (4) OFC (2): New Zealand, Samoa UEFA (5) Netherlands, Norway, Italy, France, Spain
We now have the full line-up : AFC (4): China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea CAF (Host+4): Morocco, Zambia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast CONCACAF (4): Mexico, Canada, USA, Costa Rica CONMEBOL (4): Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Paraguay OFC (2): New Zealand, Samoa UEFA (5) Netherlands, Norway, Italy, France, Spain
The draw for the 24-team showpiece tournament is set to take place in Rabat at 19:00 local time (20:00 CET) on Wednesday, 4 June 2025 and will be live-streamed. The 24 qualified teams have been allocated to four pots of six teams each. Hosts Morocco are in pot 1 and all remaining teams were allocated to pots according to the FIFA ranking system. The system is based on the total number of points obtained across the last five editions of the U-17 Women’s World Cup, namely the instalments held in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2024. In terms of the points awarded, teams received three points for a win, a point for a draw and no points for a defeat. The greatest importance was given to the results in last year’s edition of the tournament, with the points earned in each instalment progressively attributed less weight. Pot allocation for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2025™ Pot 1: Morocco, Spain, Japan, Korea DPR, USA, Nigeria Pot 2: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Canada, New Zealand, Ecuador Pot 3: China PR, Cameroon, Korea Republic, Italy, France, Zambia Pot 4: Paraguay, Costa Rica, Netherlands, Norway, Côte d’Ivoire, Samoa
For Japan any draw is good, they aim to the final win. For Italy, I hope something like: Morocco, New Zealand, Italy, Paraguay (because I assume Samoa won't be in the same group as New Zealand). Netherlands and Norway in pot 4 will give some headaches to other teams.
Well, Italy have got Morocco, as I was wishing, but New Zealand and Paraguay, my other choices, ended up on Japan's group! I sure don't complain about either of my team's groups: Japan's one looks fairly easy, maybe even too much, although Zambia, judging from their Senior Team, could anyway pose a threat. Italy gets arguably the weakest pot 1 team in Marocco, and a probably very beatable pot 4 team in Costa Rica, but I expect Brazil to be quite strong at youth level. Anyway, looks like Italy have good chances at least to advance from group stage. If Italy get second place in the group, they could even happen to meet Norway in the knock-out stage, who have just beaten them in the semifinal of the Euro Championship! But Norway could as easily outright win their group, despite having been drawn from pot 4, and in that case Italy would likely meet Usa or China!
We have group D and two interesting opponents in Nigeria and Canada plus the Samoa. We should definitely make it out of the group.