Following their comfortable 12-0 win over tournament hosts Belarus, the England Women u17s are close to making the semi-finals.

England are leading group A with six points while Norway and Serbia have both three points and hosts Belarus have no points. England will meet Serbia on final day and Norway will play Belarus.

Belarus have lost 5-1 and 12-0 their two previous games, so Norway will get the three points. Qualification will depend on the England v Serbia game. Should England win or draw, England will go through as group winners. 

Should England lose, we should have a look at the tournament regulations.

Article 17 Equality of points – final tournament

17.01
If two or more teams in the same group are equal on points on completion of the
group matches, the following criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine
the rankings:
a. higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the
teams in question;
b. superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in
question;
c. higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams
in question;
d. if, after having applied criteria a) to c), teams still have an equal ranking,
criteria a) to c) are reapplied exclusively to the group matches between the
teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not
lead to a decision, criteria e) to h) apply;
e. superior goal difference in all group matches;
f. higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
g. lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in
all group matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for
two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
h. drawing of lots

 

If England, Norway and Serbia finish all with six points. They are tied on criteria a), it goes then to criteria b). The games against Belarus are not taken into account, so the games result are:

England 3 Norway 2

Norway 1  Serbia 0

England v Serbia

Norway’s goal difference is 0, Serbia is -1 at the moment and England +1.

Should England lose by more than two goals they will be eliminated.

Should England lose by one goal all three teams will have a 0 goal difference on the head to head to head record and it goes to criteria c) with England qualifying in any case either as a group winner or runner-up.

In Group B, it is all to play for with Spain leading with four points, Germany and Italy tied with two points and the Czech Republic bottom with one point.

Spain will play Italy and the Czech Republic will play Germany. All four teams can qualify for the semi-finals.

The top three teams at the Euros qualify for the FIFA 2016 u17 World Cup in Jordan.