Sarina Wiegman says it’s a case of “here we go again” when it comes to the Lionesses’ potential path to the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Rio.
England have been drawn in a group that includes Ukraine, Iceland – and Spain, the team the Lionesses beat in the final of the 2025 Women’s Euros after losing to them in the final of the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
“We seem to meet up all the time, either in tournaments or in draws such as the Nations League now and you can see both teams are very, very competitive and close and so here we go again,” Wiegman said to englandfootball.com.
“I think it’s also nice to play Iceland and Ukraine. We haven’t played them for a long time.
“Of course, they [Ukraine] got promoted to League A, which was very good for them and it’s a team that we don’t know very well at the moment but I find it nice to play a team that we don’t know yet, to have that challenge.
“Iceland, of course, had to play against Northern Ireland in the play-offs which was was a tough team to play. I haven’t played them with England, but they have some very good players in their squad too.
“I think it’s an exciting group and when we were drawn with Spain, you could tell in the room at the draw that it gave some excitement.”
How does Women’s World Cup qualification work?
The qualifying process for the 2027 Women’s World Cup is split into three “leagues”. England and Spain are in League A, and that requires teams in a group to play each other home and away, but only the team that finishes top will progress directly to the finals in Brazil.
The teams finishing second and third in League A will then go into the first round of play-offs, where they will face the six group winners and two best-ranked runners-up in League C. The teams from League A will be seeded and play the second legs at home, with the eight winners of those ties progressing. This is referred to as Path 1.
The four fourth-placed League A teams and four League B group winners will go into eight ties against the teams finishing second and third in the League B groups. The teams from League A and the League B group winners will be seeded and play the second legs at home, with the eight winners progressing. This is referred to as Path 2.
In the second round of play-offs, the 16 teams who have progressed will be drawn into eight ties, with seeding for the Path 1 winners, who will be drawn at home in the second leg.
After that, the seven best-ranked round two play-off winners according to the 2026 Women’s European Qualifiers overall league rankings will then qualify directly for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The one remaining round two play-off winner qualifies for the World Cup inter-confederation play-offs second phase in February 2027.
