Women's Euro 2025 qualifying: Wales return to Wrexham for Croatia opener
- Published
Wales will begin their Women's Euro 2025 qualifying campaign with a home match against Croatia in Wrexham.
The match on Friday, 5 April will be Wales' first at the Stok Racecourse since March 2020.
Llanelli's Parc y Scarlets will host their other two home qualifiers against Ukraine on Friday, 31 May and Kosovo on Tuesday, 16 July.
Rhian Wilkinson's side will visit Kosovo on 9 April, Ukraine on Tuesday, 4 June and Croatia on Friday, 12 July.
Wales are the highest-ranked side in Group B4. They are 32nd in the world, one place above Ukraine. Croatia are ranked 58th and Kosovo are 100th in the latest Fifa rankings.
"Now that we know our fixture schedules and venues, I can't wait to get started with the team," said new Wales head coach Wilkinson.
"There's such a strong Welsh football history with playing in Wrexham and I'm excited to see the buzz and excitement in the area currently around football.
"The players have also had very positive experiences of playing in Llanelli over the last few years, and hopefully we can grow our fanbase even further in west Wales with our matches there in the summer.
"The Red Wall play a huge part in our success and we're all looking forward to seeing them again at our matches."
Wales' Euro 2025 qualifying fixtures
Wales v Croatia - Stok Racecourse, Wrexham - Friday, 5 April
Kosovo v Wales - Zahir Pajaziti Stadium, Podujevo - Tuesday, 9 April
Wales v Ukraine - Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli - Friday, 31 May
Ukraine v Wales - TBC - Tuesday, 4 June
Croatia v Wales - TBC - Friday, 12 July
Wales v Kosovo - Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli - Tuesday, 16 July
How does Euro 2025 qualifying work?
As a League B nation, Wales' route to the finals has to be via the play-offs, where 28 countries will compete for the final seven Euro 2025 spots.
The top three countries from the four groups in League B will all reach the play-offs.
All third and fourth-placed teams from League A will qualify for the play-offs and the five group winners and three best-ranked runners-up from League C will reach the play-offs.
The 28 teams making the play-offs will be whittled down to seven in two play-off rounds staged in November and December.
In the first round, the eight sides from League A will be drawn against the eight sides from League C. The six best teams from League B will face the six worst teams from League B. Both sets of matches are two-legged.
In the second play-off round, the 14 teams will be split in seedings. The top seven ranked winners will be drawn against the other seven winners, and the winners of those fixtures will take up the final seven tournament spots.
Which teams enter which league was determined by the results of the 2023-24 Nations League campaign, with Wales finishing bottom of their group, being relegated from League A to League B in the process.