These countries have secured their place in the World Championships – theoretically, one Finn still has a chance to reach the Games

The Finnish women’s national football team will not be seen at the World Cup this time either, but 27 countries have secured their place in next summer’s tournament so far.

From the European qualifiers, nine group winners received a direct ticket to the World Cup, and the runners-up in the group will continue to the World Cup further qualification tournament played at the beginning of October, where there are two more race tickets to be distributed.

– There were no big surprises from Europe. Urheilu’s expert will have all the countries in the Games that they were supposed to Mari Savolainen acknowledged.

In addition, one European country can get a race ticket through the worldwide further qualifying tournament. There are still three tickets for the tournament to be played in February 2023.

Scotland and Portugal, who Helmarit left behind in the EC qualifiers, are fighting for the WC ticket in the further qualifiers. Ireland, who defeated Finland twice in the World Cup qualifiers, advanced to the next round.

Tuesday’s most dramatic twists were seen in Group C, where the Netherlands just knocked out Iceland Esmee Brugts at the goal of extra time. With the win, the Netherlands rose to the top of the group and got a direct place in the competition, while Iceland is looking for a World Cup place in the further qualifiers.

Australia and New Zealand will see the biggest women’s World Cup final tournament in history, as there are 32 teams in the tournament. In France in 2019, only 24 teams participated.

According to expert Mari Savolainen, the expansion was especially important for Europe.

– Europe needed more places, because the level is so tough. The rest of the world then helps Europe score goals.

In the 2019 World Cup, three of the semi-final teams came from Europe. However, the gold was eventually won by the United States.

Morocco, the Philippines, Vietnam and Zambia will make their World Cup debuts in Australia and New Zealand.

Denmark, which played in the same European Championship group with Finland, is returning to the World Cup since 2007. Denmark won its group overwhelmingly, as the country won all eight of its matches with a goal difference of 40–2.

Finland has never played in the final tournament of the World Cup, but one Finn still has the opportunity to play next summer in Australia and New Zealand. Nigerian passport holder Pink Ariyo was with Nigeria in the training tournament in the summer of 2021. After that, the games in Spain did not go as expected, and now Ariyo is looking for a new direction for his career in the Belgian league.

Nigeria secured their place in the finals of the World Cup by being the fourth best team in the African Championship tournament.

Finland finished third in the World Cup qualifying group with ten points. Ireland still beat Slovakia 1-0 in their final match, so even if Helmarit had stretched to points in Dublin, a loss to Sweden would have meant losing the place in the World Cup qualifiers in this case.

But when can Helmarei be expected to make their World Cup debut?

– Finland still has a long way to go to group one. It’s very far, because others are moving forward at such a fast pace, Savolainen begins.

– Second place in the group is quite possible. There are really important years ahead. I don’t know if Finnish football understands how important the next five years are, concludes Savolainen.

The Women’s World Cup will be played in July–August 2023. The initial groups will be drawn on October 22. shows the races on its channels.