Republic of Ireland goalkeeper and winger Emma Byrne and Katie McCabe are eliminated from the 2017 Euro.

The Arsenal Ladies duo will not visit the Netherlands next year following the ROI defeat away to Finland by four goals to one on Friday night.

Spain leads Group 2 with 18 points from six games while Finland are in the runner-up position with 12 points from five games. Republic Of Ireland have six points from six games and can no longer catch Finland up.

This is due to article 15.01 of the regulations of the UEFA European Women’s Championship 2015-17 that says:

“If two or more teams in the same group are equal on points on completion of the
qualifying group stage, 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;”.
Finland took six points off Republic Of Ireland, so if both side finish with 12 points, Finland will be ranked above Republic Of Ireland in second place.

The eight group winners and the six best runners-up advance to the final tournament, while the other two runners-up go to a play-off from 17–25 October 2016.