Women’s World Cup playoffs: England land Greece, Scotland get Czechia in first round

England will need to overcome Greece and either Slovakia or Ukraine to qualify for 2027’s Women’s World Cup, while Scotland were handed a significantly tougher-looking draw and will probably need to beat Sweden, one of women’s football’s most successful nations, if they first beat Czechia, to qualify for next year’s finals in Brazil. Thursday’s playoff draw brought Wales a potential reunion with their former manager Gemma Grainger’s Norway side in another tricky draw. Northern Ireland’s path to a first World Cup next summer could bring them a game against the League A team Iceland. The first round of the European playoffs will be held over two legs between 7 and 13 October, before the second round – also over two legs – takes place between 26 November and 5 December. England, who reached 2023 World Cup final but have never won the world title, are heavy favourites to defeat Greece and either Ukraine – whom they beat 3-0 in June at Hill Dickinson Stadium during qualifying – or Slovakia. The Lionesses would be at home in the second leg of both rounds. The draw appeared to be relatively kind to England, who avoided many of the higher-ranked sides from the Fifa rankings such as Belgium, Switzerland or Scotland. In contrast, Scotland, who unlike England were not one of the top seeds, would need one of their greatest results to get past Sweden, semi-finalists in three of the past four World Cups. Sweden start against Lithuania. Scotland’s only World Cup appearance came in 2019. …