The road to Canada 2015 will see more European hopefuls – 46 in all – than ever before, meaning a preliminary round is upcoming.

The 46 entrants include two nations who are participating in their first senior level women’s tournaments, Albania and Montenegro. They, along with Faroe Is, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and Malta, will compete in the preliminary round, from which four advance to the group phase.

In the group phase, the teams are drawn into seven groups of six teams each. The winners of each group qualify for the Women’s World Cup. Of the second placed teams, the top four [counting results against everyone except their group’s last placed team] advance to the playoffs. The playoff winner becomes UEFA’s eighth and final qualifier.