Apart from France, 46 of the remaining 54 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition,[4] with Andorra making their World Cup qualification debut and Kosovo making their competitive debut.
The qualifying competition consisted of three rounds:[5]
Preliminary round: The 16 lowest-ranked teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at the venues of one of the teams which were pre-selected as hosts. The four group winners and the best runners-up (not counting results against the fourth-placed team) advance to the qualifying group stage.
Qualifying group stage: The 35 teams (30 highest-ranked teams and five preliminary round qualifiers) were drawn into seven groups of five teams. Each group was played in home-and-away round-robin format. The seven group winners qualify directly for the final tournament, while the four best runners-up (not counting results against the fifth-placed team) advance to the play-offs.
Play-offs: The four teams play two knockout rounds of home-and-away two-legged matches to determine the last qualified team from UEFA.
In the preliminary round and qualifying group stage, teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 13.01, 13.02, and 15.01):[5]
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
(Qualifying group stage only)Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams was still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
(Qualifying group stage only) Away goals scored in all group matches;
(Preliminary round only)Penalty shoot-out if only two teams have the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and were tied after applying all criteria above (not used if more than two teams have the same number of points, or if their rankings were not relevant for qualification for the next stage);
Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
UEFA coefficient for the preliminary round or qualifying group stage draw.
To determine the best runner-up from the preliminary round and the four best runners-up from the qualifying group stage, the results against the teams in last place (fourth place in preliminary round and fifth place in qualifying group stage) were discarded. The following criteria were applied (Regulations Articles 13.03 and 15.02):[5]
Points;
Goal difference;
Goals scored;
(Qualifying group stage only) Away goals scored;
Disciplinary points;
UEFA coefficient for the preliminary round or qualifying group stage draw.
In the play-offs, the team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs qualified for the final tournament. If the aggregate score was level, the away goals rule was applied, i.e., the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advances. If away goals were also equal, extra time was played. The away goals rule was again applied after extra time, i.e., if there were goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score was still level, the visiting team advances by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals were scored during extra time, the tie was decided by penalty shoot-out (Regulations Article 17.01).[5]
The 30 highest-ranked teams entered the qualifying group stage, while the 16 lowest-ranked teams entered the preliminary round. The coefficient ranking was also used for seeding in the preliminary round and qualifying group stage draws.
The draw for the preliminary round was held on 19 January 2017, 13:30 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[11][12]
The 16 teams were allocated into four seeding positions according to their coefficient ranking. They were drawn into four groups of four containing one team from each of the four seeding positions. First, the four teams which were pre-selected as hosts were drawn from their own designated pot and allocated to their respective group as per their seeding positions. Next, the remaining 12 teams were drawn from their respective pot which were allocated according to their seeding positions.[13]
The four group winners and the best runner-up (not counting results against the fourth-placed team) advance to the qualifying group stage to join the 30 direct entrants.
To determine the best second-placed teams from the preliminary round which advance to the qualifying group stage, only the results of the second-placed teams against the first and third-placed teams in their group were taken into account, while results against the fourth-placed team were not included. As a result, two matches played by each second-placed team were counted for the purposes of determining the ranking.
The draw for the qualifying group stage was held on 25 April 2017, 13:30 CEST (UTC+2), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[14][15]
The 35 teams were allocated into five seeding pots according to their coefficient ranking, with the five preliminary round qualifiers placed in Pot E. They were drawn into seven groups of five containing one team from each of the five seeding pots. For political reasons, Russia and Ukraine would not be drawn in the same group.[16]
^ abHead-to-head results: Kazakhstan 0–2 Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina 0–2 Kazakhstan (tied on head-to-head results, ranked on total goal difference).
^The Sweden v Denmark match was scheduled for 20 October 2017, but was cancelled because of a disagreement between the Danish team and their federation.[17] On 16 November it was announced that the result was awarded 3–0 to Sweden.[18]
To determine the four best second-placed teams from the qualifying group stage which advanced to the play-offs, only the results of the second-placed teams against the first, third and fourth-placed teams in their group were taken into account, while results against the fifth-placed team were not included. As a result, six matches played by each second-placed team were counted for the purposes of determining the ranking.
The draw for the play-offs was held on 7 September 2018, 14:00 CEST (UTC+2), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[19] The four teams were drawn into two knockout rounds (semi-finals and final) of home-and-away two-legged format.
For the semi-finals, two teams were seeded and two teams were unseeded, based on their latest coefficient ranking after the completion of the qualifying group stage, calculated based on the following:[20]
For each semi-final, a seeded team was drawn against an unseeded team, with the order of legs decided by draw. A draw was also held for the final between the two winners of the semi-finals to decide the order of legs.
Janice Cayman (10 goals)
France
Bulgaria
North Macedonia
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Cyprus
Gibraltar
Liechtenstein
San Marino
Switzerland
