Northern Ireland’s Women’s Under-19 team will face highly rated Spain in stage one of the qualifiers for the 2024-25 edition of the UEFA Women’s U19 European Championship.
The Spanish are among the favourites to win this year’s WU19 Euros, which are being staged in Lithuania next month.
In the 2024-25 competition draw made today the WU19s were also drawn against Belgium and Iceland in League A Group 6.
The games in Northern Ireland’s group will be hosted by Spain between 25 November and 4 December this year.
League A consists of 28 teams. The teams finishing fourth in seven groups will be relegated to League B for 2024-25 Round 2, with the other positions deciding seeding for League A in that round.
League A R2, drawn on 6 December and played between either 17 and 26 February or 31 March and 8 April next year, will decide the seven teams joining hosts Poland in the finals from 15 to 27 June 2025.
Northern Ireland’s WU19s were promoted to League A after winning League B Group 5 in stage two of the qualifiers for Women’s U19 Euro 2024. In those group matches, played in April, they defeated Estonia (2-0) and Georgia (5-0) and drew 0-0 with Kazakhstan.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s Women's Under-17s will also be competing in League A in the first stage of WU17 Euro 2025 qualifiers this autumn.
The draw for that phase was also staged today and the WU17s will face Poland, Scotland and Iceland in League A Group 4. And Scotland will host the A4 mini tournament from 1-7 October.
The WU17s earned promotion to League A after winning a three-team mini tournament (Group B5) in February. In the qualifying second round for WU17 Euro 2024 they defeated Malta by five goals to one and Luxembourg 4-1.
League A consists of 28 teams. The teams finishing fourth in seven groups will be relegated to League B for 2024-25 Round 2.
League A R2, drawn on 6 December this year and to be completed by 23 March next year, will decide the seven teams joining hosts Faroe Islands in the WU17 finals from 4 to 17 May 2025.
Gail Redmond (pictured), who is manager of the Northern Ireland WU19 and WU17 teams, said: “I am very excited about both groups.
“To face a quality opponent like Spain is fabulous for our Under-19s. We know it’s going to be a tough group, but this is where we want to be. The players will be facing the type of opposition you want to measure yourself against.
“Poland have strong teams coming through at all age levels and the WU17s’ game against them is one I will be looking forward to. It’s also nice that the games in the WU17 group will be played pretty close to home in Scotland. All three games in the group will provide different challenges.”
