2018 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification

2018 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying round: 22 September – 29 October 2017 Elite round: 8–31 March 2018
Teams	45 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	108
Goals scored	441 (4.08 per match)
Top scorer	Clàudia Pina (15 goals)
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The 2018 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualifying competition was a women's under-17 football competition that determined the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Lithuania in the 2018 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship final tournament.^[1]

Apart from Lithuania, 45 of the remaining 54 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition.^[2] Players born on or after 1 January 2001 are eligible to participate. Each match has a duration of 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes with a 15-minute half-time.

Format

The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:^[3]

Qualifying round: Apart from Germany, which receive a bye to the elite round as the team with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 44 teams are drawn into 11 groups of four teams. Each group is played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The 11 group winners, the 11 runners-up, and the five third-placed teams with the best record against the first and second-placed teams in their group advance to the elite round.
Elite round: The 28 teams are drawn into seven groups of four teams. Each group is played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The seven group winners qualify for the final tournament.

Initially the elite round would consist of 24 teams, drawn into six groups of four teams, with the six group winners and the runner-up with the best record against the first and third-placed teams in their group qualifying for the final tournament. After the qualifying round draw was held, UEFA decided to expand the elite round from 24 to 28 teams, allowing four more third-placed teams to advance to the elite round.

The schedule of each mini-tournament is as follows (Regulations Article 20.04):^[3]

Matchday	Matches
Matchday 1	1 v 4, 3 v 2
Rest days (2 days)	—
Matchday 2	1 v 3, 2 v 4
Rest days (2 days)	—
Matchday 3	2 v 1, 4 v 3

Tiebreakers

In the qualifying round and elite round, teams are 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 are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 14.01 and 14.02):^[3]

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 are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are 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 have the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and are tied after applying all criteria above (not used if more than two teams have the same number of points, or if their rankings are 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);
UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

To determine the five best third-placed teams from the qualifying round, the results against the teams in fourth place are discarded. The following criteria are applied (Regulations Article 15.01):^[3]

Points;
Goal difference;
Goals scored;
Disciplinary points;
UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

Qualifying round

Draw

The draw for the qualifying round was held on 11 November 2016, 09:10 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[4]^[5]^[6]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:^[7]

2014 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2015 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2016 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)

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, Russia and Ukraine would not be drawn in the same group.^[2]

Final tournament hosts
Team	Coeff	Rank
Lithuania	0.333	—

Bye to elite round
Team	Coeff	Rank
Germany	16.667	1

Teams entering qualifying round

Pot A
Team	Coeff	Rank
Spain	16.000	2
France	12.667	3
Norway	10.000	4
Italy	9.833	5
Austria	9.167	6
England	9.000	7
Republic of Ireland	8.500	8
Switzerland	8.167	9
Czech Republic	7.833	10
Sweden	7.667	11
Belgium	7.667	12

Pot B
Team	Coeff	Rank
Finland	7.333	13
Netherlands	7.167	14
Scotland	7.167	15
Denmark	7.000	16
Poland	6.500	17
Iceland	6.167	18
Serbia	5.833	19
Russia	5.667	20
Hungary	5.333	21
Greece	4.833	22
Portugal	4.833	23

Pot C
Team	Coeff	Rank
Belarus	4.000	24
Turkey	4.000	25
Northern Ireland	3.833	26
Slovenia	3.333	27
Slovakia	3.167	28
Wales	3.000	29
Bulgaria	3.000	30
Romania	2.833	31
Croatia	2.333	32
Ukraine	2.000	33
Azerbaijan	2.000	34

Pot D
Team	Coeff	Rank
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1.667	35
Macedonia	1.333	36
Montenegro	1.000	37
Latvia	1.000	38
Israel	1.000	39
Kazakhstan	0.333	40
Estonia	0.333	41
Moldova	0.333	42
Faroe Islands	0.000	43
Georgia	0.000	44
Malta	—	45

Notes

Teams marked in bold have qualified for the final tournament.

Did not enter
Albania
Andorra
Armenia
Cyprus
Gibraltar
Kosovo
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
San Marino

Groups

The qualifying round must be played between 1 August and 29 October 2017.^[3]^[7]

Times up to 28 October 2017 are CEST (UTC+2), thereafter times are CET (UTC+1).

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Poland (H)	3	3	0	10	2	+8	9	Elite round
2	Switzerland	3	2	1	10	2	+8	6	Elite round
3	Ukraine	3	1	2	7	9	−2	3
4	Faroe Islands	3	0	3	1	15	−14	0

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

10 October 2017 (2017-10-10)