Women's youth teams: U17s to host Elite round while U19s travel to Poland

After a perfect first qualifying-round mini-tournament in which clean sheets were kept against Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Poland and Emőke Pápai top-scored with seven goals, our U17 women's team will host their four-team Elite round group in March. This will be the seventh time in a row that the team has reached the Elite-round stage.

The 28 qualifiers were divided into seven four-team groups in the draw which pits Hungary against Russia, Iceland and Romania but also awards them the right to host the mini-tournament. Only the winner of the group which starts on 18th March will qualify for the tournament finals in Sweden.

"We've been drawn in a difficult group with the Russians, for example, who beat Denmark to top their first-round group. Iceland is ahead of us in women's football too so they will come with a very strong team, whilst we played a warm-up match with the Romanians in this age group, which we won. We have developed a good base to our team in these qualifiers and even the most talented players born in 2005 can be considered. We are trying to be as well prepared as possible for the Elite round and our goal is to be in contention for progression to the finals”, head coach Dorottya Schumi said after the draw.

Meanwhile, our women's U19 national team will appear at the Elite-round stage for the fifth time this coming spring. The team had to contend with hosts Turkey as well as Kosovo and Denmark but won their first two fixtures and played out a draw against the group-winning Danish on the closing matchday, eventually finishing second in the group with goals for/against record of 8-1.

In the draw for the Elite round, coach Sándor Turtóczki's team was drawn from the second pot of seeds. As with the younger age group, there are seven four-team groups, from which only the first-place finishers can qualify for the WU19 European Championship in Georgia. Our team will compete for a place at the tournament finals with Belgium, hosts Poland and Slovakia, the elite round being held between April 6th and 14th.

The draws in Nyon also decided against whom our teams will be competing in next autumn's first qualifying rounds of the 2020/21 season. Here, both of our teams were pulled out of the pot of second seeds. The U17 squad will face Finland, Israel and hosts Turkey, while the U19 will try to secure their elite-round presence in Scotland against the hosts as well as Montenegro and Estonia.