Portugal will take on France, Norway and Austria in Group A2 of Liga A of the first edition of the Women’s Football League of Nations, according to the draw held in Nyon, Switzerland on Tuesday.
The Portuguese team, who started from Pot 4, will face a France who were a semi-finalist at Euro 2022, a two-time European champion Norway, in 1987 and 1993, and an Austrian semi-finalist at Euro2017, who won the ‘ quarters of Euro2022.
France currently ranks fifth in the world rankings, while Norway ranks 12th and Austria ranks 18th, all ahead of the ‘quinas’ team, who are 21st and have recently achieved their first World Cup qualification, which will be held in 2023 will take place. .
Portugal’s aim is to remain in Liga A, which is only guaranteed for the top two teams in each of the four groups, with the third heading for a play-off and the fourth relegated to Liga B.
In the other League A groupings, England, Netherlands, Belgium and Scotland were in A1, Germany, Denmark, Iceland and Wales in A3 and Sweden, Spain, Italy and Switzerland in A4.
The group stage consists of three double rounds, from September 20-22 (first), September 23-26 (second), October 25-27 (third), October 28-31 (Wednesday), October 29 November 1 December (Thursday) and 2 to 5 December (Friday).
The first classified will advance to the final four, the second will remain in League A, the third will progress to the promotion/relegation play-offs, two legs, with a second classified from Liga B, while the fourth will be relegated to Liga B.
The decisive phase of the first edition will take place between February 21 and 28, 2024, with the League A finalists qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris – if one of them is France, already qualified as hosts – the best semi-finalist to follow.
Portugal are in Liga A for the inaugural edition of the competition facing 16th in the UEFA coefficient ranking – it comes in 15th out of 16, given the exclusion of Russia (14th), due to the invasion of Ukraine -, which includes qualification for the 2023 World Cup (40%), the final phase and qualification for the 2022 European Championship (40%) and the final phase and qualification for the 2019 World Cup (20%).
League B also has 16 teams and League C has 19, totaling 51 teams.
Source: DN
