UEFA has drawn the play-off ties that will decide the last European routes to the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup, setting 32 teams on two rounds of home-and-away matches for seven direct berths and one place in the inter-confederation play-offs. The draw fixes who plays whom, when the chase for the finals in Brazil begins, and which sides must survive two different rounds to stay alive.
That matters now because the bracket is no longer abstract. England, Republic of Ireland, Wales and Scotland are among the teams whose paths are set, and the draw leaves no doubt about the scale of the task: two rounds, eight ties in round 2, and only the seven best-ranked winners going straight to the World Cup. The eighth round 2 winner does not go to Brazil at this stage and instead drops into the inter-confederation play-offs, where Europe will have one more chance in February 2027.
The finals will be held in Brazil from 24 June to 25 July 2027, and UEFA has 11 places in the tournament plus one place in the inter-confederation play-offs. Denmark, France, Germany and Spain already secured four of those direct spots as the League A group winners, which leaves the play-offs to sort out the rest of Europe’s route. The women’s qualifying system now runs through October and November and, for the teams that survive, into the winter round that will decide whether they are in the World Cup or still waiting on another draw.
Path 1 has Lithuania against Sweden, Romania against Norway, Greece against England, Croatia against Iceland, Kazakhstan against Republic of Ireland, Kosovo against Austria, Hungary against Netherlands and Belarus against Italy. Path 2 pairs Albania with Wales, Türkiye with Slovenia, Slovakia with Ukraine, Israel with Switzerland, Belgium with Poland, Czechia with Scotland, Northern Ireland with Portugal and Finland with Serbia. The winners from each path move into round 2, where the eight teams are drawn into eight ties and the ranking after that round determines who qualifies directly and who is pushed on.
That ranking is the catch. The play-off winners are not all treated the same, even though every team has to win two-legged ties to get there. The eight round 2 winners are sorted by the overall league standings, and only the seven best-ranked sides take the direct World Cup places. The one that finishes eighth still has a route left, but it is the longer one.
The first round of two-legged ties will be played between 7 and 13 October 2026, with match dates to be confirmed. The second round follows between 26 November and 5 December 2026, again with the exact dates still to be set. From there, the seven direct qualifiers join the finals field, while the remaining European contender goes into the inter-confederation play-offs with the other regional survivors. For the teams involved, the draw has already turned the margin for error into the story.
