In the first round, there were two ties that had to go to extra time in the second game to decide who would move on but all of the League A versus League C matches saw the former win the tied handedly, and we wonder what changes to the playoff formats can be made in the future to further more competitive matches.
We also present the second round matchups and have a brief review of the nine teams set for Switzerland 2025 and some thoughts on the host nation, which is taking some heat as it will be a much smaller event than we saw in England in 2022. These criticisms are unfair and we predict that Switzerland will do a fine job as host and the tournament will be fondly remembered by those who attend games in the tournament next summer.
2025 Women’s EURO First Qualification Round Matches
Twenty-eight teams competed in the play-offs across two rounds for seven remaining 2025 Women’s EURO spots next summer in Switzerland: the eight worst-ranked teams in League A, the top 12 teams in League B (excluding hosts Switzerland), and the top eight teams in League C.
Path one saw the eight worst-ranked teams in League A seeded and drawn into ties against the eight best-ranked teams in League C. The eight winners progressed to the second round. Path two saw the six best-ranked teams in League B (except Switzerland) seeded and drawn into ties against the next six best-ranked teams in League B. The six winners progressed to the second round.
Path 1
Romania (League C) vs. Poland (League A) (1-2, 1-4—2-6 on aggregate)
In the first leg on October 25 in Bucharest, Romania jumped off to an early lead through Ioana Balaceanu’s (21) goal in the 18th minute, who joined Farul Constanta in Romania this season after winning three league titles at Olimpia Cluj. Romania later had a penalty kick saved which would have doubled the score ten minutes into the second half on an attempt by Florentina Olar-Spanu (39) of Poland—who has played in Denmark since the 2013-14 season with Fortuna Hjorring and Nordsjaelland, winning three league titles with Fortuna, her current team.
Poland fought back with two goals in the final 20 minutes of the match, through Natalia Padilla-Bidas’ (21) goal in the 73rd minute—who is in her second year as a Bayern Munich of Germany player but is on loan with Sevilla in Spain after a season on loan in Cologne in Germany; she spent the 2022-23 season with Servette in Switzerland where she scored 21 goals in 21 games—and iconic forward Ewa Pajor’s tally in the 89th minute from the penalty spot after she was pulled down in the box by Romania defender Maria Ficzay (32), who received a red card as a result. Ficzay has played the last four seasons with Fortuna Hjorring in Denmark and won five league titles in the past at home with Olimpia Cluj and one in Poland with Medvik Konin.
Pajor’s move to Barcelona after a decade at Wolfsburg was one of the major global transfers of this past summer and she already has nine goals in seven Liga F games, including two hat-tricks. On October 29, Poland coasted to a 4-1 win (6-2 on aggregate) over Romania in Gdansk, in front of a record crowd of 8,449, with Pajor scoring once in each half. Pajor now has 60 international goals.
Greece (League C) vs. Belgium (League A) (0-0, 0-5—0-5 on aggregate)
Greece held Belgium scoreless in the first leg in Heraklion on the island of Crete on October 25. Four days later, Belgium won 5-0 at home in Leuven to advance (5-0 on aggregate), with braces from Ella Van Kerkhoven (3) and Tessa Wullaert (31), the latter scoring both of her goals towards the end of the first half. Van Kerkhoven is in her second season with Feyenoord in the Netherlands and played one season with Inter Milan in Italy in 2019-20, with the rest of her career spent with clubs in Belgium. Wullaert is in her first year at Inter Milan and has three goals in six matches in Serie A, after time with Fortuna Sittard in the Netherlands, Manchester City in the WSL, Wolfsburg in Germany and Anderlecht and Standard Liege at home.
Montenegro (League C) vs. Finland (league A) (0-1, 0-5—0-6 on aggregate)
Finland scored in the third minute of the first leg match on October 25 against Montenegro via a goal by Linda Sallstrom (36)—who plays with the small village club and always competitive Vittsjo in Sweden and spent three seasons with Paris FC in France—but then the home side Montenegro did not allow any further goals in Podgorica, giving them hope in the return leg in Tampere, Finland. However, Finland came out firing goals on October 29 and had a 3-0 lead (4-0 on aggregate) by the 31st minute. Sallstrom again had a goal, this time in the second half, as Finland moved onto the final qualifying round with a 6-0 aggregate win.
Georgia (League C) vs. Republic of Ireland (League A) (0-6, 0-3—0-9 on aggregate)
Georgia was such a tremendously positive story at this summer’s men’s EUROs in France, making the knockout stage in their debut EURO Finals, where they lost to ultimate champions Spain 4-1; they had marvelous supporters who gave us memorable scenes of jubilation when they qualified from the playoffs in March of this year, defeating Greece on penalties at home in Tbilisi, when it seemed like the entire stadium stormed the field to celebrate afterwards. Their chance to do the same on the women’s side quickly went up in a puff of smoke as the Irish travelled to Tbilisi and came home for the second leg with a 6-0 victory and a strong lead, with five of their goals coming from the 59th minute on.
Captain Katie McCabe (29), who is her tenth season with Arsenal in the WSL, scored twice—including the ultimate winner—and added two assists in a stellar performance, scoring the ultimate winner in the 36th minute from the penalty spot. American-raised Kyra Carusa (28), who has two goals in 16 games primarily as a substitute this season (starting 6 of her 15 appearances) in her second campaign with the San Diego Wave, and Marissa Sheva (27), who has only played 80 minutes across six games for the Portland Thorns this season, also scored for the Irish.
In the second leg in Dublin, Katie McCabe scored again in the 55th minute but missed a penalty kick in the 35th minute in front of a record crowd of 8,745 for a women’s international at Tallaght Stadium. Carusa and Julie Russell (33)—who TribalFootball.com interviewed during the 2020-21 season, when she was with Western Sydney Wanderers in Australia and couldn’t leave the country for international camps and games because of COVID restrictions—also scored.
Russell plays at home with Galway United but, with the League of Ireland season over, uniquely explained her training plans ahead of the second round: “For me, I will train with the boys’ team at my local club, Salthill Devon, to stay fit and sharp for the next couple of weeks. It’s so important, training with boys who are fitter and faster and stronger than girls genetically.”
Russell has 60 caps with the Irish but had not played for the national team for four years before her recent recall, during which she also gave birth to a daughter, who is now 16 months old and watched her mother score in the match.
Russell and Athlone Town goalkeeper Katie Keane were the only League of Ireland players included in the squad. The FAI (Football Association of Ireland) used to have home-based national team camps but intends to use a U-23 team format in the future, but the team has not yet been started. One can assume that Russell would train with the U-23’s in the future ahead of full internationals. Irish head coach Eileen Gleeson explained: “The home-based sessions did a role for when it was on and then it started to lose its role, which was the purpose of developing players and engaging players which had potential to go to the senior A team. We believe we can do better in terms of talent management. We can be much more specific with our high potential players.”
Slovenia (League C) vs. Austria (League A) (0-3, 1-2—1-5 on aggregate)
In the first leg on October 25, Austria defeated Slovenia 3-0 in Koper with their three goals coming within a six minute spell with about 20 minutes left in the match. In the second leg in Reid on October 29, Austria won 2-1, with all the goals coming in the last half-hour, to advance to the second qualifying round 5-1 on aggregate. Interestingly, both Austrian goals came from Sarah Puntigam (32)—both from the penalty spot—to give her three tallies in the two legs, which is more than she has had in 28 games across two seasons with the Houston Dash (0 goals), which is not a reflection of her talent but of how much the Dash franchise continues to struggle to get out of its own way in its 11th season in the league.
We will discuss this further in our upcoming NWSL end of regular season review—though it seems that we are always talking about this organization, that does so well on the MLS side with the Dynamo but continues to careen around like a dysfunctional bumper car in the NWSL—and the Dash is now looking for another full-time head coach after bringing in Fran Alonso from Celtic of Scotland to start the campaign, but he disappeared mid-season, first with a reported leave of absence but the club recently released him. We haven’t received viable information about why this change happened, but that’s nothing new with this club. One of the few good things for the Dash this season is that Sarah Puntigam had a very good international break with her Austrian side.
Luxembourg (League C) vs. Sweden (League A) (0-4, 0-8—0-12 on aggregate)
Sweden used two goals in each half in Esch-sur-Alzette to dispatch Luxembourg 4-0 on October 25, with goals by the following four players:
Filippa Angeldahl (27), who joined Real Madrid of Spain this summer after three seasons with Manchester City in the WSL.
Johanna Rytting-Kaneryd (27), in her third season with Chelsea in England.
Stina Blackstenius (28), in her fourth season with Arsenal of the WSL.
Evely Ijeh (23), who is in her second season with AC Milan in Italy and has three goals in seven matches thus far this season—she has been a highly valued prospect for some time by followers of the game in Sweden and abroad; she could have played internationally for Nigeria through FIFA parentage rules.
In the second leg in Gothenburg on October 29, Filippa Angeldahl and Rebecka Blomqvist (27) of Wolfsburg of Germany each had a brace, with Angeldahl’s second goal coming from the penalty spot, as Sweden dismantled overmatched Luxembourg 8-0 for a 12-0 aggregate win.
Belarus (League C) vs. Czechia (League A) (1-8, 0-0—1-8 on aggregate)
Belarus’ hopes for a spot in the Switzerland finals next summer came apart at home in Velika Gorica as Czechia defeated them 8-1. Czechia built a 5-1 lead by half time as Katerina Svitkova (28)—who joined Slavia Prague over the summer from Chelsea, where she was a member of one WSL title winning side, and also won five league titles at home and led the league in scoring in 2016-17 and 2017-18—and Kamila Dubcova (25)—who has four goals this season in seven matches with St. Polten in Austria after five seasons in Italy (two with Milan and three with Sassuolo)—both had braces. Dubcova won a league title with Slavia Prague at home in 2018-19. In the second leg, the two sides ended in a goalless draw on October 29, with Czechia advancing to the second round next month with an 8-1 aggregate score.
Albania (League C) vs. Norway (League A) (0-5, 0-9; 0-14 on aggregate)
Norway took a 5-0 victory over Albania in the first leg in Shkoder to virtually guarantee advancement to the second round for the 2005 WWC Champions, 2010 Olympic Champions and EUROs winners (in 1987 and 1993, while finishing runners-up on four other occasions), while Albania has never qualified for a senior UEFA or FIFA Finals—they have only competed in the last three tournaments qualifiers of each tournament. Guro Bergsvand (30)—who is in her third season with Brighton and Hove Albion in England’s WSL—scored twice in the first half after Arsenal’s Frida Maanum (25)—in her fourth season with the Gunners—scored the ultimate winner in the 9th minute.
Ada Hegerberg (29)—in her 11th season with Olympique Lyonnais in France—and defender Mathilde Harviken (22)—who is in her third season at home with Rosenborg and won a first division title with Roa in 2020-21—each scored a goal. In the second leg, Norway built a 3-0 half-time lead before exploding for six more goals in the second half for a 9-0 win and a 14-0 aggregate victory to advance to the last stage of EURO qualifying. Arsenal’s Frida Maanum scored four times in the match.
Reflection on the Path 1 (League A vs League C) Format
The UEFA “experiment” (or so we hope it is) of League C teams playing League A sides in the first round of the UEFA qualifiers as the ties were clearly not competitive and didn’t seem to work at all, with aggregate scores ranging from a minimum of 4 goals (difference) to as many as 12 and 14 goals (difference). Only three of the eight matchups saw close first leg games, with one a deadlock and the other two saw teams take a one goal lead into the second leg, while the other five matches saw the League A side win by at least three goals.
We applaud the opportunities that UEFA gave to eight League C sides to qualify for the last seven 2025 EURO Final spots, but the Confederation needs to come up with a different approach—maybe a random draw of all 28 teams for round 1, or playoffs between League C and League B sides for round 1, rather than League B teams playing off against themselves (in Path 2), though some of those matchups did give us some wonderfully dramatic ties. League C teams who advance from the first round would have to play League A teams at some point, but this time unfortunately in the first round, it seemed very much like just “cleaning the decks of the minnow sides” and that format doesn’t help to advance the game in those League C countries. UEFA should modify this first round Path 1 format ahead of the next qualifiers for 2029.
Path 2
Note: All teams are from League B in Path 2—their UEFA ranking for the playoffs shown for each team.
#7 Türkiye vs. #5 Ukraine (1-1, 0-2—1-3 on aggregate)
In the first leg in Istanbul, Ukraine took the lead after half-an-hour through midfielder Dariia Apanashchenko (38) of FK Zhytlobud-1 Kharkiv but Turkey tied the match after an hour on a goal by midfielder Elif Keskin (22), who has played at home with Besiktas and moved to Fatih Karagumruk ahead of the 2022-23 league season. In the second leg on October 29, which was held in Chisinau, Moldova because of the war in Ukraine, Turkey’s Eda Karatas (29), who plays at Galatasaray, put the ball through her own net to give Ukraine a lead in the 14th minute and Lyubov Shmatko (31), with 1 Kharkiv, added an insurance goal in the 24th minute to send Ukraine onto the final round with a 3-1 aggregate victory.
#8 Croatia vs. #6 Northern Ireland (1-1, 0-1—1-2 on aggregate)
In the first leg in October 25 in Varadin, Croatia’s midfielder Izabela Lojna’s (32) penalty kick goal in the fourth minute held up for Croatia until the 92nd minute, when she put through her own goal to give Northern Ireland a share of the points and everything to play for in the second leg in Belfast. Lojna has spent her entire career with ZNK Osijek, where she has won 11 league titles (see more in our first qualifying round WCL review from earlier this fall: The Week in Women's Football: Examining Champions League Path Groups; 2024 Ballon d'Or nominees - TribalFootball.com).
The second leg was scoreless and went to overtime to decide which side moved onto the second round. Lauren Wade (30) scored the only goal six minutes before the end of the 30 minute overtime to put Northern Ireland into the next round over Croatia (1-0 and 2-1 on aggregate). Wade has three goals in ten matches for her new side Hearts in Scotland this season, after two seasons with Reading in England. Head coach Tanya Oxtoby (42), a native of Australia, now has Northern Ireland playing for a chance to qualify for their second ever EUROs and second tournament in a row.
#10 Bosnia & Herzegovina vs. #4 Serbia (2-2, 1-4—3-6 on aggregate)
On October 25 in the first leg in Zenica of this derby with so much dark history between the two neighbors, Emina Ekic (25) of the Spokane Zephyr of the new USL Super League scored for the home side in the 20th minute—her first goal in 12 internationals for Bosnia. Serbia tied it up eight minutes later through Nina Matejic (19) of Red Star Belgrade.
Bosnia-Herzegovina took the lead again in the 52nd minute through Milena Nikolic (32), who is in her second season at Basel in Switzerland and has seven goals in eight matches this season after scoring 10 goals in 17 matches last season in the league. Serbia rescued the draw three minutes from time with a goal by Vesna Milivojevic (22), who was raised in Australia and had 18 goals in 39 matches over the past two seasons with Canberra United before moving to Norkkoping of Sweden for the 2024 Damallsvenskan season.
In the second leg in Stara Pazova, Serbia used a brace from Nina Matejic, while Tijana Filipovic (25) would have had her own brace as well but she failed to score from the penalty spot in the 70th minute, for a 4-1 win as Serbia took the tie 6-3 on aggregate. Filipovic currently plays for Spartak Moscow in Russia and has scored five goals in nine games this season. She won eight consecutive league titles at home with ZFK Spartak Subotica.
The American-born and raised Ekic first was called into B&H’s national team in 2023 for a camp. She told TribalFootball.com last month in Spokane, that playing for Bosnia & Herzegovina, “...has been good. It’s fun playing for a nation. (There is) lots of joy and pride representing where my family is from. They’ve welcomed me with open arms. It’s been a fun experience. It’s different (from club ball) and refreshing. I want to built it up and grow it (the women’s game in Bosnia and Herzegovina) and qualify for our first ever EUROs, World Cup, Olympics and leave it (the WNT) better than I found it.”
See more on Ekic’s move to Spokane in: The Week in Women's Football: Spokane Zephyr in focus; how the USL Super League franchise exceeding expectations - TribalFootball.com.
#12 Azerbaijan vs. #12 Portugal (1-4, 0-4—1-8 on aggregate)
Portugal jumped to a 3-0 lead within the first half hour enroute to an important 4-1 win in Baku in the first leg on October 25. Portugal won the second leg 4-0 to advance to round 2 of the qualifiers (8-1 on aggregate), with Diana Silva (29) scoring twice in the second leg for three goals over the two games; she moved from Aston Villa to Sporting Lisbon this season.
#9 Hungary vs. #2 Scotland (0-1, 0-4—0-5 on aggregate)
Scotland came back home from the first leg in Budapest with a crucial 1-0 win from a Martha Thomas (28) goal in the 60th minute. Thomas is in her second season with London’s Tottenham Hotspur in the WSL and scored seven goals in 19 matches last season, leading the Spurs in scoring for the team that finished in sixth place in the 12-team league with a 8-7-7 (W-D-L) record for 31 points. For the return leg on October 29 in Edinburgh, Scotland won 4-0 with Thomas scoring once again.
#11 Slovakia vs. #3 Wales (2-1, 0-2; 2-3 on aggregate)
In the upset of the day on October 25, second half goals 10 minutes apart by Martina Surnovska (25)—who has won three consecutive titles in the Czech Republic with Slavia Prague (her current club) and two titles while at Slovan Bratslava at home—and Maria Mikolajova (25) of St. Polten in Austria—where she has won four league titles along with one in Czech Republic with Sparta Prague and has three goals in eight league matches this season—gave Slovakia a strong lead by the hour mark, while a late goal by Ffion Morgan (25) (from Jess Fishlock’s assist) helped Wales immensely after the first leg in Poprad as they returned to Cardiff under huge pressure for the second leg.
Morgan is in her fourth season with Bristol City and has two goals in five league games this season. Despite her relatively young age (42), veteran head coach Rhian Wilkinson—who has been an assistant coach for Canada, England, Great Britain in the 2020 Olympics and won a NWSL title in her one season in Portland in 2022 and spent time growing up in Wales—will help her squad settle their nerves and see the positives out of the first away leg.
Jess Fishlock (37) of Wales and the Seattle Reign tied up the aggregate scores at 2-2 just six minutes before half-time in a stirring match second leg on October 29. There were no more goals scored after 90 minutes so the game moved to overtime. Wales midfielder Ceri Holland (26), who is in her fifth season with Liverpool and won the second tier Championship title in 2021-22, scored the aggregate winning goal eight minutes from time.
Reflection on the Path 2 (League B Teams Playoffs) Format
The six first round matches in Path 2 involving 12 League B teams were much closer than the Path 1 matchups, with two ties decided with overtime goals after the second leg. The ties were fascinating overall, but the League B teams paired together resulted in Path 1’s lack of competitive balance. UEFA believes in seeding teams in their competitions, but perhaps for playoffs for finals such as these, a random draw might be a fairer approach to consider in the future.
Round 2 Women’s EURO Ties:
The fourteen winners above will play in the following two-leg ties played between November 27 and December 3 for the last seven spots in the 2025 Women’s EURO Finals:
Portugal (League B) vs. Czechia (League A)
Scotland (League B) vs. Finland (League A)
Ukraine (League B) vs. Belgium (League A)
Wales (League B) vs. Republic of Ireland (League A)
Poland (League A) vs. Austria (League A)
Northern Ireland (League B) vs. Norway (League A)
Serbia (League B) vs Sweden (League A)
The nine teams that have already qualified for next summer’s EURO Finals include:
Denmark—finished runner’s up in 2017 in the Netherlands and failed to move out of the Group Stage in 2022 in England.
England—won their one EURO title in the last tournament in 2022 at home and then finished as WWC runners-up in 2023.
France—made the semi-finals for the first time at the last tournament in England and then lost on penalty kicks in the Quarterfinals at the Women’s World Cup to co-host nation Australia in 2023 and to Brazil 1-0 in the Quarterfinals at the Summer Olympic Games this summer at home.
Germany—has won eight women’s EUROs in: 1989, 1991, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2013 and finished runners-up at the last tournament in England.
Iceland—made the quarterfinals in 2013 and fell in the group stage in 2022. They have qualified for five tournaments in a row.
Italy—finished runners-up in the 1993 and 1997 tournaments and failed to make the knockout stage in the 2022 finals.
Netherlands—won the tournament in 2017 at home and made the quarterfinals in the last tournament in 2022.
Spain—made the semifinals in 1997 and the quarterfinals in the last tournament in England. They won the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia/New Zealand and the 2023/24 initial Women’s Nations League; they finished in fourth at the 2024 Olympics this past summer in France.
Switzerland—qualified automatically as hosts; they have made the group stage at the last two tournaments.
Speaking of Switzerland, which won the 2025 hosting rights over France, Poland and a joint Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland bid—there have been recent reports that the country’s federal council has cut the budget for the tournament from 15 million Swiss Francs (US$16.6 million) to four million Swiss Francs (US$4.4 million).
The tournament has been criticized because of the size of the eight venues compared to the remarkable and groundbreaking success in 2022 in England, when 87,192 attended the final at Wembley Stadium. In Switzerland, three of the eight stadiums have capacities under 20,000 and the final is set to be hosted in the largest available venue, Basel’s 38,512 capacity stadium. To compare a Swiss tournament to England is not fair.
I’ve attended games in Switzerland and they will do a fine job on the organizational side and their local fans are passionate. There should be a strong demand for tickets from fans of the other qualifiers, with easy train travel to and around the nation, but among the other bidders—except for France—they were proposing smaller venues as well, with Poland planning for four out of ten venues and the Nordic bid for three of nine with stadium capacities below 20,000 fans.
All the bids did have a larger venue than Basel for the final but I think the Switzerland tournament will be remembered afterwards as fondly as the 2017 smaller tournament in Netherlands that really put women’s football on the map in Europe.
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football. Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey