England rout Greece 8-1 as lopsided results raise questions over Women's World Cup play-offs
England beat Greece 8-1 on aggregate in round one of the Women's World Cup qualifying play-offs on Tuesday, yet the Lionesses have lost just once this year and still have not qualified for the 2027 Women's World Cup.
The scale of England's victory — against a Greece side ranked 55 places lower in the world — has been cited as evidence that the current play-off structure is producing one-sided ties. Greece had performed well in their 3-1 home defeat, but the two-legged format left them little realistic chance against Sarina Wiegman's team, prompting calls for Uefa to review the set-up.
Several other high-profile European nations that dropped into the play-offs also recorded large aggregate wins. The Netherlands, 2017 European champions, finished second in their group behind France and beat Hungary 11-0 on aggregate; Norway, World Cup winners in 1995 and six-time European finalists, defeated Romania 8-0; Sweden and the Republic of Ireland won their ties 15-0 and 12-0 respectively.
England still face a two-legged tie against Ukraine after eliminating Greece. "Of course we wanted to qualify straight away, that's not the case," said England manager Wiegman. "For us now, the facts are that we are in the play-offs, we have played Greece, now we're through, and now we're going to play Ukraine. That's what my focus is on. Uefa will review how things are set up and see whether they think it works or it should be better, or different. I don't think it's my place now to review that."
Form and results from the qualifying phase underline England's consistency: they have won seven of their last eight qualifying matches, scoring 21 goals and conceding six, with their sole defeat coming away to world champions Spain. England finished as runners-up in League A3 only on head-to-head record with Spain and recorded a 1-0 victory over Spain at Wembley.
The composition of qualifying groups contributed to mismatches in the play-offs. England were seeded in League A alongside Iceland, ranked 13th, and world number one Spain, while Switzerland and Hungary amassed strong league-phase points from groups in League B and League C that did not include a single team from the world's top 45 ranked nations. Following England's 4-0 loss to Spain in June, Wiegman said: "The competition in Europe is really high. What I'm disappointed about is that we win five games, we have 15 points and we're in a group with the world champions and then you can't qualify. I'm happy with the performances but not the result of us having to go into the play-offs. That's just the way it is."
Past qualifying and tournament records cited in the discussion include England's large wins over Latvia in 2023, when they recorded 20-0 and 10-0 victories in qualification, and their experience at the 2023 finals where they beat debutants Haiti 1-0 in the group stage and faced Colombia in the quarter-final despite Colombia not qualifying for the previous tournament. England also failed to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games on behalf of Team GB after finishing second to the Netherlands in their Nations League group, drew with Portugal and lost to Belgium the following year, and required two penalty shootouts to progress in Euro 2025.
Fifa has announced the 2031 Women's World Cup will be expanded from 32 to 48 teams, and England's next confirmed fixtures in the current qualification process are a first leg away to Ukraine on 1 December and the return tie at Wembley Stadium on 5 December.