England's 2027 Women's World Cup qualifying path confirmed! Lionesses learn first play-off opponent and potential second round ties after failing to pip Spain to automatic berth

After being drawn in a qualifying group with Spain, where only the group winners would be granted direct entry to next year's World Cup in Brazil, England always knew that the play-offs was a possibility. After beating La Roja 1-0 at Wembley in April though, meaning that they headed to Mallorca in June only needing a point to secure top spot, to end up in the play-offs will have been disappointing. That's especially the case because of the way Spain beat them, in a 4-0 drubbing.

Still, the chances of England successfully navigating this path are very high, as the Lionesses are the top-ranked team involved in this process and they are also seeded, allowing for a favourable draw. Unsurprisingly, head coach Sarina Wiegman showed confidence when asked about the new route earlier this month. "We have a team that is very good, I think," she said. "We know what we have to do, so I'm very positive that we're going to qualify anyway."

The favourable draw was mapped out on Thursday. England knew the eight potential opponents for the first play-offs, and that they would be heavily favoured to beat all of them. The draw then confirmed that it will be Greece that they face first in this path, with the away leg to come first for the Lionesses before the second leg at home.

Greece won all four games in their World Cup qualifying group in League C, beating the Faroe Islands and Georgia home and away, scoring 11 goals and conceding just four. Ranked 59th in the world, though, and having only ever played at one major tournament, qualifying for the 2004 Summer Olympics as the host nation, they will massive underdogs against England.

It will be the first meeting between the two nations in the international women's game.

If England can come through that tie, as would be expected, then either Slovakia or Ukraine will await them in the second round, with the winner of that tie to then progress to the World Cup in Brazil.

Ukraine were in the same group as the Lionesses in the first stage of this World Cup qualifying campaign, with Wiegman's side winning both games very comfortably. The first match, played in Turkey amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, finished 6-1 to the reigning European champions, with the second, played just last week, was a 3-0 victory for England.

Ukraine would be favoured to win their first round tie with Slovakia, too, as they are ranked 20 places higher and just competed in League A in the qualifying phase, whereas Slovakia were in League B. Grouped with Portugal, Finland and Latvia, Slovakia finished third and will be relegated to League C after winning only two of their six games, both against bottom side Latvia.

This second round tie, between the winners of England vs Greece and Ukraine vs Slovakia, will also be played across two legs in the final international break of 2026, which begins in November.

England are not the only big European side involved in these play-offs. With only four automatic qualification spots available - those taken by Spain, Denmark, France and Germany - there are some highly-ranked nations still yet to book their spot at the 2027 Women's World Cup. Among them are Netherlands, the 2017 European champions and 2019 World Cup finalists; Norway, whose squad features names like Lyon striker Ada Hegerberg and Barcelona winger Caroline Graham Hansen; and Sweden, who have reached the semi-finals of the last two World Cup tournaments.

One would expect most of these famed nations to qualify through the play-offs but there are some good teams involved who will hope to cause an upset, with the likes of Scotland, Portugal, Switzerland and Wales all out to ruffle some feathers over the course of the final two international breaks of 2026.

Along with hosts Brazil, 13 nations have already qualified for the 2027 Women's World Cup, including Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Argentina and Colombia.