Northern Ireland’s Women’s Under-19 and Women’s Under-17 teams face tough assignments in stage one of the qualifiers for the 2022-23 editions of their respective European competitions.
Both teams will be competing in League A in the first round of Euro qualifiers this autumn.
At the draw at UEFA HQ in Switzerland this week the WU19s were drawn in Group A5 alongside France, Republic of Ireland and Poland. The group mini tournament will be hosted by Poland from 4-10 October.
The WU17 team are also set to face the Republic, as well as Finland and Austria, in Group A3. And Northern Ireland will host the matches from 21-27 October.
In the WU19 competition the team finishing fourth in each of the seven League A groups will be relegated to League B for round two. The teams remaining in League A, and seven teams promoted from League B, will compete next spring for places at next summer’s UEFA WU19 Euro tournament in Belgium.
In the WU17 competition the team finishing fourth in each of the seven League A groups will be relegated to League B for round two. The teams remaining in League A, and seven teams promoted from League B, will compete next spring for places at next summer’s UEFA WU17 Euro tournament in Estonia.
Northern Ireland’s WU19s were promoted to League A for round one of the 2022-23 edition of the WU19 European Championship from a League B mini tournament within the current competition which was hosted in Northern Ireland last month.
They drew 1-1 with Malta in their League B Group 1 opener before going on to defeat Faroe Islands 5-0 and Azerbaijan 1-0. All three matches were staged at Inver Park in Larne.
And the WU17s were promoted to League A for 2022-23 stage one when they won all of their matches at a mini tournament within the current competition in Israel last month. In League B Group 1 they defeated Luxembourg 2-1, Faroe Islands 3-0 and Israel 2-0.
