The first group draw of the Women’s Nations League has been completed. Promotion to the A-league would give Finland, which starts in the B-league, an excellent starting position for the EC qualifiers.
The Finnish women’s national football team was drawn into the same group as Romania, Slovakia and Croatia in the Nations League group draw. In the ranking of the International Football Association (FIFA), Finland is in 29th place, Romania in 38th place, Slovakia in 46th place and Croatia in 58th place.
Helmarit has faced and defeated its future group opponents already earlier this year. Croatia fell 4–1 in February, Romania 4–0 and Slovakia 1–0 and 2–0 in April’s national matches.
– All in all, a pretty good draw result. Slovakia was probably the strongest team in the basket, and I would have liked to have gone around it. Our job is to win, no matter who the head coach is Marko Saloranta commented in Pallloiito’s press release.
– In a way, it would have been good if you had come against different countries. However, this was a reasonably good draw.
Promotion to the A-League would provide excellent starting positions
The Women’s Nations League is part of the European Championship qualifiers even more strongly than in the men’s national team football. Both the Nations League and the European Championship qualifiers are played as series-style competitions of three different levels, where the teams play a double series in groups of four teams.
In the League of Nations, the countries are divided based on their ranking positions into A, B and C leagues, of which there are 16 countries in the first two and 19 countries in the C league. Finland plays in the B-league.
Teams can be relegated and promoted between different stages. The winners of the first four groups of the B-League advance to the A-level of the Nations League. Promotion to the A-league would give Finland an excellent starting position for the European Championship qualifiers and would guarantee a place in the European Championship further qualifiers.
The eight best teams in the A-league qualify directly for the final tournament. The rest of the places will be distributed in the follow-up tournament, where seven places will be distributed. One place is reserved for the competition organizer Switzerland. The rest of the A-League teams, the B-League group winners, the second and third-placed teams in the group, as well as the C-League group winners and the three best second-placed teams qualify for the next tournament.
The first matches of the Nations League will be played in September, and matches will be played until the spring of 2024. The European Championship qualifiers will start after this.
Finland has participated in the Games four times: 2005, 2009, 2013 and most recently in 2022.