Malta seeks historic promotion in UEFA Women’s Nations League

The Malta women’s national team takes on Latvia in a match from Group C1 of the UEFA Women’s League at the Centenary Stadium on Tuesday, kick-off at 16:00. A match which could hand a historic promotion to the League B.

Malta is still unbeaten in the group after obtaining maximum points from the first four matches, dropping the only points in a goalless draw with Moldova at the Stadionul Zimbru in Chisinau last Friday. In five matches, Malta scored eleven and conceded none.

With one game to go, Malta leads the standings, three points ahead of Latvia. Therefore Tuesday’s clash is decisive for promotion.

Malta needs a draw to make sure of promotion. On the other hand, a win for Latvia would put them on level points with Malta with the goal-difference in the direct encounters determining which side would take promotion although the team placing second could still earn a chance for promotion in the promotion and relegation play-offs.

In fact, if two teams are equal on points, the following criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine their rankings:

1. higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
2. superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question;
3. higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question;
4. if, after having applied criteria a) to c), teams still have an equal ranking, criteria a) to c) are reapplied exclusively to the group matches between the remaining teams to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria e) to k) apply, in the order given, to the two or more teams still equal;
5. superior goal difference in all group matches;
6. higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
7. higher number of away goals scored in all group matches;
8. higher number of wins in all group matches;
9. higher number of away wins in all group matches;
10. lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received by players and team officials in all group matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
11. higher position in the UEFA women’s national team coefficient rankings