The Ireland Women’s National Team have been drawn into Group A3 in League A for the 2025 UEFA Women’s European Championship qualifiers.
Getting to the elite level means there are going to be no easy games but the flip side is that it presents a platform for fans to get genuinely excited about every game.
Each of the teams won their groups at the World Cup last summer, England going all the way to the Final, Sweden going down to eventual champions Spain in the semi final and France losing to hosts Australia in an emotional sudden death penalty shoot out in the Quarter-Finals.
The three are ranked 2,3 and 4 in the European rankings, behind Spain. It could hardly have been a tougher combination.
Eileen Gleeson’s squad will start their qualifying campaign in April before competing in further qualifiers in May, June and July.
The top two teams from the group will qualify automatically for the EURO 2025 finals tournament in Switzerland, while the third and fourth-placed teams will enter into a Play-Off series to be played in October and November / December.
The side will play England for the first time since 1987. They met Sweden in the World Cup Qualifiers drawing away and only losing at home to an unfortunate own goal.
The full fixture list for the qualifiers is due to be released by UEFA on Wednesday. The potential for having certainly the England game and potentially one or both of the other home fixtures at the Aviva Stadium has to be a live possibility.
If you can’t get excited for this draw, as well as just a little terrified, then sport might not be your thing.
Northern Ireland’s senior women’s team will take on Portugal, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Malta in their league phase of qualifiers.
The first round of the play-offs is split into two paths.
In one path the teams finishing third and fourth in League A will play the five group winners and three best-ranked runners-up in League C. The eight winners progress to the second round.
In the other first round path the four group winners and two best-ranked runners-up in League B will be drawn into six ties against the remaining two runners-up and four third-placed teams in League B. The six winners progress to the second round.
In the second round the teams from both paths come together and will be drawn into seven ties, with seeding for the seven highest-ranked teams based on the European Qualifiers overall league rankings. The seven winners progress to the final tournament.
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