Draws for the UEFA Women's U19 1st Qualifying Round

 Malta’s debut in the 13th European Women’s U-19 Championship will have our girls coming up against the Netherlands, hosts Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina in group 6, with the matches scheduled to be played between 21 and 26 September 2013. The draw for this competition was made in Nyon, Switzerland, yesterday.   There were 44 starters and Malta’s group is one of 11 in the first qualifying round in which the top-placed teams in each group will be joined by the ten best runners-up. Later the 21 teams will be joined by the seeded teams, Germany, England and Spain to form 24 teams in the second qualifying round. There will then be six groups of four teams each from which the top six of each group together with the best runner-up and hosts Norway, will proceed to the finals. The second and final rounds will be played between 5 and 10 April 2014 and 15 and 27 July 2014 respectively. With the Netherlands, Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina offering the Maltese very strong opposition, it will be a daunting task for our team to qualify for the next stage of the competition. Nevertheless, the squad, under the stewardship of coach Mark Gatt will preparing in earnest to peak up for the matches ahead. The group matches are not on until autumn next year and in the intervening time, there is a possibility to draft new faces and give them the necessary international exposure at this level.