If they lose against Norway, the DFB women would have to go into the playoffs. A detour that European champions England and world champions Spain also have to take.
When Christian Wück was recently asked whether the national coach was already looking for accommodation for the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil, he firmly said no. As a former footballer, he is a bit superstitious. As long as there is no problem with qualifying for the World Cup, he doesn’t want to know anything about it. Now the home game against Norway in Cologne (Friday, from 8:35 p.m. in the live stream, in the audio live stream and in the live ticker) will be the key game for the DFB team.
28,000 tickets have been sold for the classic in the cathedral city, where the preliminary decision for direct qualification will be made. After the unnecessary slip-up in Austria (0-0), the two-time world champion is not allowed to lose because then the group win would probably be lost. With success all doubts would be dispelled. Then Germany would qualify for the finals. “Everyone knows what it’s about and we know that the team is ready to get their ticket to the World Cup”said Wück.
Every game should be important
That be “Pure motivation”assured defender Sophia Kleinherne from VfL Wolfsburg. Failure is not in your mind, “The only priority is to win the game and not have to go the extra mile.” This refers to the playoffs, which hang like the sword of Damocles over many major women’s football nations.
UEFA, Europe’s umbrella organization in football, had already changed the qualification mode before the 2025 European Championship and used the newly introduced Women’s Nations League as a basis. The link with qualification for the European Championship or World Cup is intended to ensure that practically every game has an impact on promotion and relegation, tournament qualification or placement in the league system.
UEFA wants more competition
UEFA women’s football director Nadine Keßler was particularly behind the project, as the former world footballer had personally experienced, as a German national player, how one-sided the qualifying games often were due to the large differences in performance. Their guiding principle: More competitive games and more chances for all teams to qualify for major tournaments. The balancing act was to create bigger hurdles for the big nations, but not to block their path to the finals.
| Group A1 | Group A2 | Group A3 | Group A4 |
|---|---|---|---|
1. Denmark | 1. Netherlands | 1.England | 1. Germany |
2. Sweden | 2. France | 2. Spain | 2. Norway |
3. Italy | 3. Ireland | 3. Ireland | 3. Slovenia |
4. Serbia | 4. Poland | 4.Ukraine | 4. Austria |
Lots of celebrities in second places
Even now, the qualification mode for the eleven fixed European World Cup starting places is similar. Spicy: The current European and world champions, England and Spain, meet in Group A3. After a 1-0 win at Wembley on April 18th, the “Lionesses” celebrated just as they had after winning the European Championship final in Basel on penalties. Coach Sarina Wiegman spoke of one “big step”. The decision will now be made in the second leg on the holiday island of Mallorca (Friday 9 p.m.).
It is not unreasonable that the strongest national team with its world stars Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putellas has to go to the playoffs. As of now, France, seventh in the world rankings (second in Group A2 behind the Netherlands) and eighth in the world rankings, Sweden (second in Group A1 behind Denmark) are also threatened with the same thing. It is possible that four teams from the top eight of the FIFA world rankings will have to take the bottleneck.
The pressure is there for the Germans
Playmaker Linda Dallmann from FC Bayern also finds it surprising that competitors of this caliber don’t get a direct ticket: “But that’s what makes qualifying for the World Cup. Maybe it’s a good thing for us as a young team to have to play under pressure.” What would the hot autumn look like for the two-time world champion?
Then the Wück team with 32 teams would have to duel for the last seven or eight European starting places from October and would not be able to play any friendly games. Two paths are initially formed in the playoffs. The second and third teams in League A play against the group winners and the two best runners-up in League C. This could affect Germany. A lightweight would definitely be waiting from category C.
There were only three playoffs for the 2023 World Cup
In the second path, the fourth-place teams in League A and the group winners in League B compete against the runners-up and third-place teams in League B. The 16 winners of the first round will then be drawn into eight duels. Whoever wins the two-legged tie in November will take part in the 2027 World Cup. Small restriction: This affects the seven best-placed teams (according to the overall ranking of the European Qualifiers), the eighth team receives the European place in the intercontinental playoffs.
All the top teams from Europe made it to the most recent World Cup in 2023 in Australia and New Zealand. At that time, however, the game was still played in nine groups of six, in which the favorites always prevailed. At that time, only Switzerland, Portugal and Ireland got the World Cup ticket through the playoffs. It was quite dramatic for Switzerland, who only scored the winning goal in injury time of extra time against Wales. At the time, captain Lia Wälti spoke of one of the most emotional moments of her career.