2021 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualification (UEFA)

2021 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualification (UEFA)
FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Qualifier - Europe - Nazaré 2021
Tournament details
Host country	Portugal
City	Nazaré
Dates	17–27 June
Teams	21 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Spain (4th title)
Runners-up	Ukraine
Third place	Portugal
Fourth place	Belarus
Tournament statistics
Matches played	56
Goals scored	426 (7.61 per match)
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Last updated June 26, 2024

The 2021 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers for UEFA was a beach soccer tournament contested by European men's national teams who are members of UEFA that determined the four nations from Europe that qualified to the 2021 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Russia.

Russia were the defending champions but did not enter this year's competition, having already qualified for the World Cup as hosts.^[1] The tournament was won by Spain, who, along with Ukraine, Portugal and Belarus earned qualification to the World Cup by finishing in the top four positions; Ukraine subsequently withdrew from the World Cup before it began and were replaced by Switzerland.^{[lower-alpha 1]}

Format

The competition format was as follows:^[1]

The tournament started with a round-robin group stage; the lowest ranked ten teams entered at this point. Five nations, the group winners and best runners-up, advanced to the next round.

There was then a second round-robin group stage; the highest ranked 11 teams entered at this point. Plus the five qualifiers from the first group stage, a total of 16 teams competed during this round. The top two teams of each group (total of eight nations), advanced to the knockout stage.

The knockout stage began with the quarter-finals and ended with the final. The four winners of the quarter-final ties secured qualification to the World Cup;^{[lower-alpha 1]} they also progressed to the semi-finals to continue to contest the tournament title.

The nations not advancing from the second group stage played in consolation matches to decide ninth through sixteenth place; the nations not advancing from the quarter-finals played in consolation matches to decide fifth through eighth place.

Teams

21 teams entered the competition:^[2]

Entered at the first group stage

Entered at the second group stage

Notes:

1. First appearance

Draw

The draws for both the first and second group stages took place at 12:00 CEST on 4 June,^[2]^[3] at Beach Soccer Worldwide's headquarters in Barcelona, Spain.^[4] Its procedure was as follows:^[5]

First group stage

The ten teams entering the first group stage were drawn into two groups of three and one group of four. Firstly, the three highest ranked teams were seeded and one each automatically assigned to the head of one of the groups. The remaining seven teams were split into two pots of three and one pot of one, with the highest ranked teams placed in Pot 1 through to the lowest ranked placed in Pot 3.

From Pot 1, the first team drawn out was placed into Group A, second into B and third into C; they were allocated to position 2 in their respective groups. The teams from Pot 2 were drawn in the same manner; they were allocated to position 3 in their respective groups. The solo team in Pot 3 was drawn alongside a lot from an additional pot containing three lots marked with one of the names of the three groups, to determine which group it would be randomly placed in; it was allocated to position 4 in that group.

The composition of the seeds and pots is shown below:^[5]

Seeds		Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Czech Republic (36) (assigned to A1) England (43) (assigned to B1) Kazakhstan (44) (assigned to C1)		Norway (48) Romania (50) Lithuania (51)	Estonia (52) Moldova (54) Denmark (67)	Sweden (110)

Second group stage

The sixteen teams competing in the second group stage were drawn into four groups of four. Firstly, the four highest ranked teams of the 11 entering at this stage were seeded and one each automatically assigned to the head of one of the groups. The remaining seven teams entering at this stage plus the then unknown best qualifier from the first group stage were split into two pots of four, with the highest ranked teams placed in Pot 1 and the lowest ranked placed in Pot 2.

From Pot 1, the first team drawn out was placed into Group A, second into B and so on; they were allocated to position 2 in their respective groups. The teams from Pot 2 were drawn in the same manner; they were allocated to position 3 in their respective groups.

The composition of the seeds and pots is shown below:^[5]

Seeds		Pot 1	Pot 2
Portugal (1) (assigned to A1) Italy (3) (assigned to B1) Spain (5) (assigned to C1) Switzerland (8) (assigned to D1)		Belarus (15) Ukraine (18) France (22) Germany (28)	Poland (30) Azerbaijan (31) Turkey (34) Best qualifier

The numbers in parentheses show the BSWW World Ranking of the teams as of December 2020, out of 120 nations.^[6]

First group stage

Each team earns three points for a win in regulation time, two points for a win in extra time, one point for a win in a penalty shoot-out, and no points for a defeat.^[7]

All times are local, WEST (UTC+1). Kickoff times shown were those scheduled; actual times may have differed slightly.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	WP	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Norway	2	1	1	0	3	1	+2	4	Second group stage
2	Czech Republic	2	0	1	1	4	4	0	1
3	Moldova	2	0	0	2	3	5	−2	0

Source: BSWW

17 June 2021

14:00

Czech Republic	3–3 (a.e.t.)	Moldova
	Report
Penalties
	4–3

18 June 2021

14:00

Norway	2–0	Moldova
	Report

19 June 2021

14:00

Czech Republic	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Norway
	Report
Penalties
	3–5

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	W+	WP	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Romania	3	2	0	0	1	12	10	+2	6	Second group stage
2	Estonia	3	1	1	0	1	9	7	+2	5	Second group stage
3	England	3	1	0	1	1	6	6	0	4
4	Sweden	3	0	0	0	3	6	10	−4	0

Updated to match(es) played on 19 June 2021. Source: BSWW

17 June 2021