Ireland third seeds in 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup Draw
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The Republic of Ireland will be third seeds in tomorrow’s draw for the European group stages of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Six groups of seven teams will contest the qualifying phase between September 21, 2013 and September 17, 2014 with the play-offs between October 25, 2014 and November 27, 2014 to determined the eight European qualifiers.
The co-efficients on which the seedings are based were calculated from each team’s results in qualifying and at the finals tournament for Euro 2009, World Cup 2011 and Euro 2013 and Ireland have been ranked 20th out of the 46 nations which will participate in tomorrow’s draw.
The top 35 teams will fill Pots A to E with the sixth Pot made up of the next three ranked countries plus the four qualifiers from the Preliminary Round which was contested last week between the teams ranked 39th to 46th and saw Albania, Faroe Islands, Malta and Montenegro qualify.
Ireland Senior Women’s Team manager Sue Ronan will attend the draw at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, hoping for some good fortune that will allow her side challenge for a play-off and get the type of results that will improve the seeding for the 2017 European Championship draw.
“Looking at the pots I’d like to avoid Germany, France and Sweden from the top seeds and get England. Although England are an excellent side there is a different dynamic to Ireland-England games and that could work to our advantage.
“In Pot Two I wouldn’t mind Finland as we should have beaten them in Cyprus Cup but I’d like to avoid the likes of Russia, Netherlands, Spain and Scotland who are all very good teams. In Pot Four there are some very good sides like Serbia, Portugal and Wales but we had a good win over Northern Ireland in Cyprus so that might be a good draw. In Pot Five I’d like to avoid Israel because of the logistics and the same applies to Kazakhstan in Pot Six.
“Ideally we want a group that will allow us to give our young players good competitive experience and a taste of winning as well,” said Ronan
Ireland are currently ranked 32nd the FIFA World Rankings haven risen two places in the latest rankings following their excellent performance at the Cyprus Cup where they finished eighth having won a group that contained World No16 ranked side South Korea.
The seedings are:
Pot A: Germany, Sweden, France, England, Norway, Italy, Denmark,
Pot B: Iceland, Finland, Russia, Netherlands, Spain, Scotland, Ukraine
Pot C: Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Belgium, Republic of Ireland, Belarus
Pot D: Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Portugal, Wales, Slovakia, Northern Ireland
Pot E: Slovenia, Greece, Turkey, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Israel, Estonia
Pot F: Kazakhstan, Croatia, Macedonia Albania, Faroe Islands, Malta, Montenegro
