The 2015 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship qualifying competition was a women's under-19 football competition played in 2014 and 2015 to determine the seven teams joining Israel, who qualified automatically as hosts, in the 2015 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship final tournament. A total of 47 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition.

The final tournament also acted as the UEFA qualifier for the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Papua New Guinea, with the four semi-finalists qualifying.

Format The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round: Apart from Germany, England and France, which received byes to the elite round as the three teams with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 44 teams were drawn into 11 groups of four teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The 11 group winners and the 10 runners-up with the best record against the first and third-placed teams in their group advanced to the elite round. Elite round: The 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The six group winners and the runner-up with the best record against the first and third-placed teams in their group qualified for the final tournament.

Tiebreakers If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of a mini-tournament, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings: Higher number of points obtained in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question; Superior goal difference resulting from the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question; Higher number of goals scored in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question; If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 were reapplied exclusively to the mini-tournament matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 applied; Superior goal difference in all mini-tournament matches; Higher number of goals scored in all mini-tournament matches; If only two teams had the same number of points, and they were tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the mini-tournament, their rankings were determined by a penalty shoot-out (not used if more than two teams had the same number of points, or if their rankings were not relevant for qualification for the next stage). Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in the mini-tournament matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points); Drawing of lots.

To determine the ten best runners-up from the qualifying round and the best runner-up from the elite round, the results against the teams in fourth place were discarded. The following criteria were applied: Higher number of points; Superior goal difference; Higher number of goals scored; Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points); Drawing of lots.

Qualifying round

Draw The draw for the qualifying round was held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland on 20 November 2013 at 10:45 CET (UTC+1).

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following: 2011 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round) 2012 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round) 2013 UEFA Women's Under-19 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.

+Bye to elite round Team 13.667 1 12.667 2 12.000 3

+Pot A Team 10.500 4 10.333 5 10.167 6 10.000 7 8.667 8 8.500 9 8.333 10 8.233 11 7.000 12 7.000 13 7.000 14+Pot B Team 6.833 15 6.667 16 6.500 17 6.333 18 6.000 19 6.000 20 5.167 21 5.167 22 4.833 23 4.333 24 4.333 25+Pot C Team 4.167 26 4.000 27 3.833 28 3.500 29 3.333 30 2.000 31 2.000 32 1.333 33 1.333 34 1.333 35 1.333 36+Pot D Team 1.200 37 1.000 38 0.333 39 0.333 40 0.000 41 0.000 42 0.000 43 0.000 44 — 45 — 46 — 47 Notes Israel (Coeff: 1.000) qualified automatically for the final tournament as hosts. Andorra, Armenia, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and San Marino did not enter.

Groups All times were CEST (UTC+2).

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6

Group 7

Group 8

Group 9

Group 10

Group 11

Ranking of second-placed teams To determine the ten best second-placed teams from the qualifying round which advanced to the elite round, only the results of the second-placed teams against the first and third-placed teams in their group were taken into account.

Elite round

Draw The draw for the elite round was held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland on 19 November 2014 at 11:30 CET (UTC+1).

The teams were seeded according to their results in the qualifying round. Germany, England and France, which received byes to the elite round, were automatically seeded into Pot A. Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. Teams from the same qualifying round group could not be drawn in the same group.

Before the draw UEFA confirmed that, for political reasons, Ukraine and Russia could not be drawn in the same group due to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine.

Groups All times were CEST (UTC+2).

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

In the 4 April game between England and Norway, the referee Marija Kurtes disallowed a penalty for England in the 90+6th minute (Norway were leading 2–1 at that time) due to encroachment, but instead of the penalty being retaken, which should have happened under the laws of the game, a free kick to Norway was awarded. England appealed the decision after the match and UEFA ruled that the match was to be replayed starting from the penalty kick. The match was replayed on 9 April 2015, 22:45 CEST (after the third round of matches was completed earlier in the day), with the same players who were on the field at the time of the penalty but under a different referee, Kateryna Zora (as the original referee had been sent home due to the error). England converted the penalty to tie the match at 2–2, and this remained the final score.

Group 5

Group 6

Ranking of second-placed teams To determine the best second-placed team from the elite round which qualified for the final tournament, only the results of the second-placed teams against the first and third-placed teams in their group were taken into account.

Qualified teams The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances in tournament1only U-19 era (since 2002) Hosts 0 (debut) Elite round Group 1 winners 9 (2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014) Elite round Group 2 winners 8 (2002, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014) Elite round Group 3 winners (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013) Elite round Group 4 winners (2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014) Elite round Group 5 winners (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013) Elite round Group 6 winners 5 (2002, 2006, 2007, 2012, 2013) Elite round best runners-up 9 (2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014) 1 Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

Top goalscorers The following players scored four goals or more in the qualifying competition.

14 goals Stina Blackstenius

9 goals Jill Roord

8 goals Andrea Falcón

7 goals

Mariona Caldentey Nahikari García

6 goals

Valentina Bergamaschi Margarita Chernomyrdina Julia Glaser

5 goals

Amber Maximus Tanya Arngrimsen Heidi Kollanen Marie-Charlotte Léger Laura Freigang Manuela Giugliano Sippie Folkertsma Maria Hiim Vanessa Malho Nataša Petrov

4 goals

Katharina Aufhauser Leah Williamson Emma Heikkilä Lea Schüller Georgia Sakellari Moya Feehan Andreia Norton Anastasiya Berezina Elizabeth Arnot Pilar Garrote Ebru Topçu

References

External links