England's easy win over Greece in round one of the Women's World Cup qualifying play-offs has highlighted how inefficient the current structure is. Only one team from each league phase group received automatic qualification, which left strong sides such as the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland facing heavy-scoring mismatches against much weaker opposition from League C.
The Netherlands, 2017 European champions, finished second in their group behind France and went on to beat Hungary 11-0 on aggregate. Norway, World Cup winners in 1995, lost out to Germany in their group and then beat Romania 8-0. Sweden and the Republic of Ireland won their play-off ties 15-0 and 12-0 respectively.
England manager Sarina Wiegman said the focus was simply on progressing. "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," she said. Uefa will review the format, but Wiegman felt it was not her place to comment on that review.
England still face Ukraine over two legs, with the first on 1 December away from home and the return at Wembley Stadium on 5 December. England beat Ukraine twice in the league phase, by an aggregate 9-1, and the wider qualifying campaign has been demanding, with England winning seven of their last eight matches and collecting 15 points in the league phase. Wiegman said she was disappointed that such a record still left her side in the play-offs, adding: "The competition in Europe is really high."
Source: BBC Sport Football · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing