Such an idiocy, there should be a way for teams who played each other in League B to avoid facing each other again in the play-offs. We could literally have a Serbia-Slovakia, Portugal-Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia-Wales again in the play-offs.
⏰ One hour to go ⏰Here is all you need to know ahead of the Women's European Qualifiers play-off draw 👇#WEURO2025— UEFA Women's EURO 2025 (@WEURO2025) July 19, 2024
And except for Scotland, they should all be rather easy. But Scotland-Finland will be tight and history has taught me to never discount Finns in tight situations, and since the last match should be in Finland in early December I think Finland have the best chance (51% chance or so).
Can anyone advise me what stadium/location the Croatia v NI qualifier on 23 October will be staged in, or when or where it will become known? (I appreciate it's far in advance, but I tried consulting the Croatia FA website and it's hopelessly out-of-date)
I speak the language, I can let you know when they announce it but I probably won't be before mid-September or so. The women's team plays all over Croatia so the game could be held anywhere including in smaller towns like Sibenik, Varazdin or Velika Gorica.
Thank you for that. I don't expect the venue to be announced too far in advance either. I'm asking because I hope to be able to attend, but there aren't too many flight options from the UK to some of the possible locations and the later you book, the more expensive airfares become. Ironically for Nations League Mens games, UEFA requires the home Association to select the venue 120 days in advance. In part this must be to facilitate travelling fans from the visiting team. Whereas with this Womens' game being a Play-Off, the match date is only 96 days after the draw and besides, I doubt the travelling fanbase will make double figures! Oh well.
Venues are announced super late sometimes. I went to see Bosnia-Herzegovina play in the Czech Republic last year (I was the only traveling fan) and the venue was announced 13 days before the game. Ideally, if the Croatian FA are smart, they will pick Opus Arena in Osijek for the Northern Ireland game. It's a brand new stadium and when Croatia played there for the first time against Norway earlier this year about 3100 people showed up which was a record attendance for a women's football game. Overall, it's hard to guess where they are likely to play. Their last 2 home games were in Karlovac, before that in Zapresic, before that in Osijek (the Norway game) and last year all their home games were in different towns (Velika Gorica, Sibenik, Varazdin) so it's anyone's guess at this point.
Thank you for that. Agree Osijek looks good, but being where it is, it's not easy to get to from abroad - the local airport is small and doesn't have frequent connections. I'm hoping that the game will be in Zagreb, or in some of the venues near by in the region, with the venue announced reasonably soon
Yeah getting to Osijek is a bit of a nightmare and the local "airport" is a joke. The nearest airport is 290 kilometres away in Zagreb or 180 kilometres away in Belgrade and it's not exactly a region that's booming with public transit. Even Tuzla (which has a decent airport) is at least 170 kilometres away.
The venue has been announced for the Croatia-Northern Ireland, it will be played at the Gradski Stadion Varteks in Varazdin.