They have benefit from Russia`s suspension but I think they are also weaker than all teams that finished third in the other groups.
I just found out these play-offs are one-legged! We are guaranteed tears and drama (and probably penalty shoot-outs). I can't think of a worse possible stage to lose a shoot-out than this. I would prefer losing in the actual World Cup. At least you've been there and performed.
With 51 goals scored (in 70 matches), Ewa Pajor rises to No. 1 in the classification of top scorers of the Poland WNT. 1st - Ewa Pajor (2013 - ) 51 goals / 70 caps 2nd - Marta Otrębska (1988 - 2007) 48 goals / 101 caps 3rd - Agnieszka Winczo (2004 - 2020) 38 goals / 105 caps
I disagree, on a good day we can beat Finland, Ukraine, Romania and Slovenia. Obviously this qualifying campaign was largely a fluke where we got lucky like never before.
I'm not sure how that works, obviously I would be thrilled if we were in pot 2 for the Euro 2025 campaign on the sole basis of having qualified for the playoffs but I think first and foremost it depends on results (wins) against stronger sides. For the previous Euros, we were in a group with Denmark and Italy and won all our games except the 4 fixtures against them. This time, points were dropped against Malta, Montenegro and Azerbaijan, not a single goal scored against Denmark in two fixtures...
Small bit of trivia: In the 2019 qualifying campaign, there was a preliminary round for low-ranked teams. In that preliminary round there were 3 games with score differences of 6+, followed by 15 such games in the main qualifying round. In this 2023 qualifying campaign, there was no preliminary round, and a total of 60(!) games with score differences of 6+ I see it as a near guarantee that the preliminary round comes back next cycle.
The preliminary round is a must, I have no idea what UEFA was thinking when they got rid of it. Knowing them, I wouldn't be surprised if they introduced a Women's Nations League instead.
Doesn't matter for UEFA. For most other confeds, their WC berths are decided by a regional championship tournament that features 8-12 teams. Adding two WC berths and/or two playoffs berths for those confederations matters a lot. UEFA instead has their qualifying cycle, when 40-50 teams compete for roughly 10 spots. There are *so* many teams that have no chance at all, so changing UEFA's distribution wouldn't change anything for those teams, even if the total number of spots UEFA got were to double. Adding two WC berths and one playoff berth in no way justifies adding 16 teams (going from the 35 teams in the 2019 cycle to 51 teams this cycle) that are well below bubble consideration either way when there are roughly 20 teams above them still missing out.
If it is the same for the men in Uefa, it should be same for the women as we also see double digit scorelines in men's qualifying. 13 vs 11+1 world cup spots is not much difference now, and in the men's there are also a lot of dead rubber games. I still believe home and away games spread over time is far better than using a quick tournament to decide everything, and there needs to be less friendly matches in women's international football. I also like what concacaf has planned here for after the women's world cup with nations league type qualifying https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_CONCACAF_W_Gold_Cup_qualification
Better check your numbers, big time... In the 2022 MWC qualifying cycle, there were a grand total of 13 games with a scoreline difference of 6+, even with over 20 more games played than in the respective women's qualification. The top-to-bottom differences are far greater for the women than for the men; there's a big difference between a lopsided game and non-competitive blowouts. Well you're conflating two issues here. I'm not disagreeing that UEFA's format is better than double-counting the confederation championships. (I will entirely disagree about the friendly matches, though - we absolutely need those friendly matches to provide inter-confederation matches that would disappear if the calendar becomes dominated by official continental competitions.) Still, you have remember that the teams we're arguing about here are not going to factor into "deciding things" at all. These low-ranking teams need actually competitive games to develop - not functioning as target practice for 2/3 of their opponents. Also, the W Gold Cup means nothing for WWC qualification. Not that the W Gold Cup is a bad idea - far from it, as it's probably the best WoSo competition out there in terms of giving low-ranking teams proper competitive matches. UEFA - as well as AFC and CAF - would benefit greatly if they did similar. But importantly, it would work very well if the Nations-League-type competitions functioned as "preliminary" qualification for the confederations that used it. For example, if UEFA split their WNTs into a four-level Nations League like they have with the men, it would make sense if the official WWC qualification only took the top 2.5 levels of the Nations League.
But a nations league type of competition needs to have incentives for it like a guaranteed place in a playoff for a major tournament like in the men's game. Maybe the second half of 2023 would have the new uefa women's nations league, but what happens after that is a big question.
In the men's game in Uefa it's constantly official matches all the time with hardly any time for friendly matches and I think the federation and fans prefer that especially if you are a minnow. But right now tournament qualification and the nations league is quite different in Uefa, unlike concacaf which uses the nations league as gold qualifying.
It... really doesn't, and that's not even accurate. The UEFA men's NL didn't in its first iteration and doesn't in the current iteration; its second season did, and the fourth season will, but it's not an always-happening thing. Remember, the Nations League is supposed to mirror the club-based domestic pyramids, so it's intended to function as a multi-level competition with a top-level prize in its own right, and the promise of promotion to higher levels is intended as incentive enough. That's anecdotal at best... I certainly haven't heard that preference anywhere.
Well hopefully at least uefa will create an additional trophy out of a potential women's nations league, (nations league finals each summer in even years)
UEFA needs to do all that it can to avoid unbalanced blowouts on a regular basis. The Nations League would give minnows too much of a chance at qualifying (if the same rules as with the men's are applied) while the current format clearly leads to regular blowouts by eight goal margins and more. I would compare the current situation at the European level to where men's football was in qualifying 15-20 years ago and a lot of minnows have improved massively since.
I think they will do the League A and B format with promotion / relegation, but only teams in League A can qualify for the tournament finals. This is the way it is done at u17/u19 level for a few seasons now. Minnows therefore would need to climb to League A after a one or two years cycle to get a chance to qualify for a final. That's my guess for the format.
The question is, do we really want another Nations League? The men's Nations League is vastly unpopular with fans and players, numerous of them have complained about it.
The current format is not very good on the women side, so they need to change something. And yes they could bring back pre-qualification too, but for a lot more teams than in the previous format and it would be similar to a nations league.
No, just have preliminary rounds like in the Euro 2017 qualifiers or the World Cup 2019 qualifiers and problem solved. A lot of the teams that lost several games by 8 goal margins and more did not compete in the proper qualifiers before because they were knocked out in the preliminary round which help limit the number of blowouts.