Neutral venue in Turkey selected for Lionesses World Cup qualifier vs Ukraine | OneFootball

The Lionesses will play Ukraine in a World Cup qualifier in March, with a neutral venue in Turkey selected for the game.

Why are the Lionesses playing at a neutral ground?

England women kick off their road to Brazil 2027 at the end of February.

The European champions play Ukraine on Tuesday, March 3rd in their first World Cup qualifier.

With the ongoing war in their country, Ukraine will continue to play all of their games at neutral venues for the foreseeable future.

England learned where they will play the qualifier this week. The Lionesses will travel to Mardan Sports Complex in Turkey for their first qualifier of the year.

Sarina Wiegman’s squad then takes on Iceland at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground on March 7th in their first home game of 2026.

Lionesses road to Brazil

England’s World Cup qualifying group contains Iceland, Ukraine and current world champions, Spain.

Only the team that finishes top of each group automatically advances to the World Cup.

There will be 12 teams from Europe competing in Brazil 2027, with the remaining three teams from each of the top four groups entering a playoff bracket for the eight other places in the competition.

A total of 32 European teams will compete for the last eight spots with lower ranked nations earning a spot in the playoffs via their own respective groups.

Confidence high for qualifiers

England enjoyed an incredible year in 2025 as they retained their title as European champions.

As a result of their campaign, England rose to fourth in the world rankings.

The Lionesses are one of the favourites to win the World Cup in 2027, but they have a difficult road to Brazil.

Although they have a tricky qualifying group, there is only really two teams who are expected to challenge in England’s group.

Group A3 is sure to come down to Spain’s head to head against England as both nations are ranked well above Ukraine and Iceland.

There was nothing separating either nation last year as Spain went on to win the Nations League after England beat them in the Euro 2025 final.

The Lionesses are full of confidence for the qualifiers though and Wiegman has stated that if her team are at their best, they should top the group.