The England u17 team recently qualified for the Euro finals to be played in Belarus from 4th to 16th of May and the draw has been made.

This tournament is important for the u17 side as it acts as a qualifier for the FIFA  2016 u17 World Cup to be played in Jordan from the 30th September to 21st of October.

Those are the teams that have already qualified for the World Cup:

AFC: Japan, North Korea
CAF: Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon
CONCACAF: Mexico, USA, Canada
CONMEBOL: Brazil, Venezuela, Paraguay
OFC: New Zealand
UEFA: 3 slots
Host: 1 slot (Jordan)

England will be placed in Group A and will play hosts Belarus, Serbia and Norway. This is a very good draw for the England team, as the top two teams in the Group will qualify for the semi-finals.

Belarus are not expected to be one of the strongest team in the competition although they have played friendlies against France and Germany to test themselves.

England beat Serbia in the recent qualifiers with a 3-1 scoreline and therefore will know what to expect. Those two games are definitely winnable.

The game against Norway should be the toughest one as they beat Scotland 6-0, Poland 4-0 and Sweden 6-0 in the Elite. This will be the hardest test in the group stage.

Group B is really strong with Italy, Czech Republic, Germany and Spain. Germany and Spain have won all but one edition of the tournament since it started in 2007/08.

There are five or six Arsenal Ladies who have a very good chance of making John Griffiths’ finals squad.