The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds:
Qualifying round: Apart from Spain and France, which received byes to the elite round as the teams with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 48 teams were drawn into 12 groups of four teams. Each group played a single round-robin, with one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The 12 group winners, the 12 runners-up, and the two third-placed teams with the best record against the first and second-placed teams in their group advanced to the elite round.
Elite round: 28 teams were drawn into seven groups of four teams. Each group played a single round-robin, with one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The seven group winners qualified for the final tournament.
Tiebreakers
For the qualifying round and elite round, teams were ranked according to points, and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were to be applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings :
Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams had the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and were tied after applying all criteria above ;
Disciplinary points ;
UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.
To determine the two best third-placed teams from the qualifying round, the results against the teams in fourth place were discarded. The following criteria were applied :
Points;
Goal difference;
Goals scored;
Disciplinary points;
UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.
Qualifying round
Draw
The draw for the qualifying round was held on 24 November 2017, 10:00 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following :
2014 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition
2015 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition
2016 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition
2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition
Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. For political reasons, Russia and Ukraine, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Serbia and Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo would not be drawn in the same group.
;Notes
Teams marked in bold have qualified for the final tournament.
To determine the two best third-placed teams from the qualifying round which advance to the elite round, only the results of the third-placed teams against the first and second-placed teams in their group are taken into account.
Elite round
Draw
The draw for the elite round was held on 23 November 2018, 11:00 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The teams were seeded according to their results in the qualifying round. Spain and France, which received byes to the elite round, were automatically seeded into Pot A. Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. Winners and runners-up from the same qualifying round group could not be drawn in the same group, but the best third-placed teams could be drawn in the same group as winners or runners-up from the same qualifying round group.
Groups
The elite round is scheduled to be played on the following FIFA International Match Calendar dates unless all four teams agree to play on another date:
