Azernews.Az

Laman Ismayilova

Read more

The Azerbaijan women's national team is gearing up for its third match in the UEFA Nations League on April 8, Azernews reports.

Competing in Group 4 of League C, the team will take on Montenegro in Niksic.

The match is scheduled to take place at the Niksic city stadium, starting at 20:00 (Baku time).

Officiating the match will be a group of referees from Andorra, led by main referee Marta San Juan, assisted by Carlos Gonçalves and Luis Acosta. Antoine Ciramonti will act as the fourth official.

The both teams currently sit at the top of the tournament table, tied with four points each.

The UEFA Women's Nations League is an international football tournament for senior women's national teams in Europe, organized by UEFA. It started in 2023 and happens every two years.

The tournament is divided into three leagues: A, B, and C. Teams can move up or down between these leagues based on their performance. The Nations League also helps determine which teams qualify for other important tournaments like the UEFA Women's Championship and the FIFA Women's World Cup.

On November 2, 2022, UEFA introduced this new competition system, which was announced the next day.

This decision was part of UEFA's strategy to improve women's football from 2019 to 2024, based on discussions with national associations and suggestions from the UEFA Women’s Football Committee. The Women's Nations League is the first part of a two-phase competition cycle, with the second phase being the European qualifiers for major championships.

The tournament starts with group matches in the league phase. Leagues A and B have 16 teams each, divided into four groups of four. League C has the remaining teams divided into groups of three or four. Each team plays against every other team in their group at home and away.

The top team from each of the four groups in League A moves on to the Nations League Finals, which include semi-finals, a third-place match, and a final. In Olympic years, the Finals also help decide which teams qualify for the Women's Olympic Football Tournament.

This competition includes promotion and relegation. The winners of Leagues B and C move up to the higher league, while the teams that finish last in Leagues A and B, as well as the lowest-ranked third teams in League B, move down.

There are also matches to decide promotion and relegation, held at the same time as the Finals. The third-place teams from League A play against the runners-up from League B, and the best third-place teams from League B play the best runners-up from League C, depending on how many teams enter.

The Women's Nations League is also connected to qualifying for the UEFA Women's Championship and the FIFA Women's World Cup.

The qualification rounds use the same league system, with teams placed into Leagues A, B, and C based on their performance in the previous Nations League. The results in these qualification matches show which teams qualify directly for the Women's Euro or World Cup and which teams have to go through play-offs.

The teams are promoted and relegated using the same rules as in the Women's Nations League, but with no extra matches for promotion or relegation. This will set the leagues for the next Women's Nations League.