Looking forward to learn the pathway for all teams to Europe's showpiece very shortly. A quick reminder: My inaugural Top 50 Ranking for women's international teams will come out on 12 March. It will be posted on this board. I just await the conclusion of the Gold Cup. Then I can finalise my ranking. I have since 6 months or so a Top 150 Ranking for men's international teams in place which gets updated after each international break. https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/my-top-150-ranking.2127287/ The plan is to do the same with my women's ranking and provide an alternatve to the subpar FIFA Rankings. I used to be a very casual follower of women's football. Only when there was a World Cup, a EUROs or the Olympics underway it was relevant for me. I'll follow it now more regularly. My ranking is the first step to make myself a name as credible observer also in the women's game.
League C C1: Belarus, Lithuania, Cyprus, Georgia C2: Slovenia, Latvia, North Macedonia, Moldova C3: Greece, Montenegro, Andorra, Faroe Islands C4: Romania, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Armenia C5: Albania, Estonia, Luxembourg
League B B1: Switzerland, Hungary, Turkey, Azerbaijan B2: Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Israel B3: Portugal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, Malta B4: Wales, Croatia, Ukraine, Kosovo
League A A1: Netherlands, Italy, Norway, Finland A2: Spain, Denmark, Belgium, Czechia A3: France, England, Sweden, Republic of Ireland A4: Germany, Austria, Iceland, Poland
Wow, a smooth little group... For sure A3 is the toughest one, although it's quite difficult to believe that Norway is now a pot 3 team for group A1.
What a mess, i am disgusted i think, accordiing to what i saw in the 2 last very bad french games (vs Germany and Spain), that France might not see the Euro 2025 Even for the pot 4, Rep Ireland is the stronger of the 4 countries ...
A1, A2 and A3 realistically have 3 teams in each group fighting for 2 direct spots with group A3 having three heavy hitters instead of two. A4 is most competitive - all 4 teams can finish in top 2
Not likely because of play-offs. It's hard to believe that France will lose against division B/C team
Teams that met already in 2023/24 Nations League: League A: Germany vs Iceland (4:0,2:0) League C: Lithuania vs Georgia (0:0,3:0) League C. Latvia vs Moldova (5:0,3:3) League C. Montenegro vs Faroe Islands (9:0,1:0) League C. Kazakhstan vs Armenia (4:1,2:1)
Portugal is a sleeping giant. They are already a borderline top 20 team for sure and they are going to improve to become a top 10 team within the next 4-6 years. They invest a lot into their women's football. Portugal were a shot on the post away in the dying minutes to eliminate the USA from the World Cup in the group stage. So, they can battle with almost anyone.
I agree with this. Poland have out of all bottom seeds the best odds of clinching a top two finish. They were handed a very nice draw.
And fight for a spot at the Euro (16 teams) is not exactly the same than fighting for 2 places at the OG (Olympic Games which many people don't care about) PS : Portugal recently slaughtered South Korea 5-1. Ok one can say that South Koea is not very strong (anyway stronger than Portugal at Fifa ranking), yet Germany could have a more nuanced opinion ....
The composition of my Women's Top 50 Ranking has been finalised. Just compare how it differs from the composition of my upcoming men's ranking (yet to finalise/ publish) Break-down composition Top 50 (my rankings) by confederation Confederation____Men's______Women's UEFA ____________| 25x________24x CAF _____________| 9x__________6x CONMEBOL______| 8x__________6x AFC _____________| 5x__________5x CONCACAF ______| 3x__________8x OFC______________| 0x__________1x CONCACAF is a very interesting case.
For those who wonder how my ranking compares to FIFA in terms of 'spots' per confederation in the top 50 please wait for the next FIFA Rankings to be issued which will be on 15 March. But it's already obvious that CAF and CONCACAF are underranked by FIFA.....
Portugal's kinda all over the place though. They beat Norway 3-2 in September only to fall to them 4-0 in December. And Norway's not exactly a powerhouse these days.
They had a horrendous Euro 2 years ago but then had a more than decent World Cup and were unlucky to not get out of their group and to not beat the US in their last group game in which they were the better team. Either way, even if they finish first in their group, they will have to go through the playoffs where they might face Iceland, Poland, Ireland, Belgium, Finland.
If my memory serves well, their Euro was horrendous on paper, if you only read at their final scores, but they had actually managed to come back from 0-2 twice, vs Switzerland and vs Netherlands (they anyway ended the losers by 2-3 vs the latters), they had shown sparks of brilliance in those games and only in the last game vs Sweden they had crashed out with a square 0-5 loss. As horrendous as the final outcome of that tournament could have looked, they had already starting to shape some promising developments.
Quand le sélectionneur des Pays-Bas, Andries Jonker rigole du tirage au sort des qualifications à l'EURO 2025 de sa compatriote Sarina Wiegman avec l'Angleterre 😭😭A. J : "Félicitations" 🤣🤣 S. W : "Tout ira bien" 💪🏴📽️ @NOS pic.twitter.com/IciTECiSv8— Femmes Foot News 📰 (@femmesfootnews) March 5, 2024