2018 Women's Euro Winners Cup|  | 
|
| Host country | Portugal | 
|---|
| Dates | 28 May – 3 June 2018 | 
|---|
| Teams | 20 (from 1 confederation) | 
|---|
| Venue(s) | 3 (in 1 host city) | 
|---|
|
| Champions |  WFC Zvezda (1st title) | 
|---|
| Runners-up |  Portsmouth Ladies | 
|---|
| Third place |  AIS Playas de San Javier | 
|---|
| Fourth place |  Amnéville | 
|---|
|
| Matches played | 62 | 
|---|
| Goals scored | 417 (6.73 per match) | 
|---|
|  | 
 The 2018 Women's Euro Winners Cup was the third edition of the Women's Euro Winners Cup (WEWC), an annual continental beach soccer tournament for women's top-division European clubs. The championship is the sport's version of the UEFA Women's Champions League in association football.[1] 
Organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW), the tournament was held in Nazaré, Portugal from 28 May till 3 June 2018, in tandem with the larger men's edition.[2] 
The event began with a round robin group stage. At its conclusion, the best teams progressed to the knockout stage, a series of single elimination games to determine the winners, starting with the Round of 16 and ending with the final. Consolation matches were also played to determine other final rankings. 
Havana Shots Aargau of Switzerland were the defending champions,[3] but were knocked out in the quarter-finals by WFC Zvezda of Russia, ultimately finishing in 8th place. WFC Zvezda went on to win their first title, beating Portsmouth Ladies of the England in the final,[4] Pompey's second runners-up finish in a row. 
  Teams
 Location of teams in the 
2018 Euro Winners Cup main round.
Groups key: 

 A; 

 B; 

 C; 

 D; 

 E.
20 teams entered the tournament – all of whom entered straight into the group stage.[2][5] 
12 different nations were represented. 
 Qualification
 As per BSWW regulations, qualification for the 2018 WEWC is achieved as follows:[6] 
 - The reigning champions qualify automatically (Havana Shots Aargau of Switzerland).
- The winners of all European national women's beach soccer leagues/championships are entitled to automatic qualification. (Note that no league champion from Switzerland qualified as this was Havana Shots Aargau who had already qualified as current WEWC champions)
- In countries where women's clubs exist but a national women's league or championship does not yet exist, one club can be nominated to represent that country.
- If a national association wishes to enter more than one club, they can request for permission to do so from the organisers BSWW who will grant or reject the clubs a berth at the tournament depending on the total number of teams already registered.
Entrants
 Key: H: Hosts \ TH: Title holders  
    | Group stage | 
  | .svg.png) Sporting CP (H) |  AIS Playas de San Javier |  DTS Ede |  WFC Zvezda | 
  | .svg.png) Havana Shots Aargau (TH) |  Femenino Cáceres |  Amnéville |  Beachkick Ladies Berlin | 
  |  Higicontrol Melilla |  Lady Grembach EE Łódź |  Grande Motte Pyramide |  Nõmme Kalju | 
  |  Roses Platja |  KU AZS UAM Poznan |  Lokrians |  Portsmouth Ladies | 
  |  Madrid |  HTC Zwolle |  Terracina Ladies |  Vetlanda United | 
 Venues
    | .jpg) Praia de Nazaré (Nazaré Beach) is the host location of the competition for the second year running.
 |  Location of Nazaré in Portugal. | 
 Three venues were used in one host city: Nazaré, Leiria District, Portugal.[7] 
 - Matches took place at Praia de Nazaré (Nazaré Beach) on one of three pitches:
- The Main pitch, otherwise known as the Estádio do Viveiro (Viveiro Stadium), with a capacity of 1,600.[8]
- Host of 12 matches; all main bracket ties from the quarter-finals onwards and all host club (Sporting CP) matches.
 
 
- Pitch 2, a purpose made pitch, located adjacent to the main stadium.
- Host of 24 matches; all Round of 16 ties and all losers brackets ties from the quarter-finals onwards.
 
 
- Pitch 3, a purpose made pitch, located adjacent to pitch 2.
- Host of 26 matches; only used during the group stage.
 
 
Squads
 Each club must submit a squad of a maximum of 12 players that includes a minimum of two goalkeepers. Players are to be assigned shirt numbers between 1 and 22 (the number 1 must be reserved for a goalkeeper). Three delegates must accompany the players, including at least one medical personnel. A maximum of three foreign players are allowed to be part of the squad.[6] This was later increased to four, however a maximum of three of these players are permitted to play in a match.[9] 
 Draw
 The draw for the group stage took place on May 9 at 12:00 local time in Nazaré, Portugal at the Biblioteca Municipal de Nazaré (Nazaré Public Library),[10] conducted by the Mayor of Nazaré, Walter Chicharro, PFP Director Pedro Dias, BSWW Deputy Vice-President, Gabino Renales and BSWW Head of Competitions, Josep Ponset.[11] 
The BSWW organising committee decided to split the 20 teams into five groups of four, conducting the draw as follows:[12] 
    | Draw procedure | 
  | The clubs were seeded. From every country represented, each club that finished highest in its country's national league were grouped together and ordered based upon the final ranking of the club that represented their national association in the previous edition of the championship. The exception to this was Sporting CP who, as the host club, were automatically given the number 1 seed and assigned to position A1.The top four clubs in this order received the next top seeds and were automatically assigned to the groups, with the 2nd seed placed in position B1 through to the 5th seed allocated to E1.Out of the remaining 15 clubs, again, from each country still represented, each club that finished highest in its country's national league were grouped together and ordered based upon the 2017 final ranking once more. These clubs in this order received the next top seeds available.For the countries still represented by one or more clubs, this process repeated until every club was seeded.The 15 teams were split into three pots, with the highest seeds placed into Pot 1 down to the lowest seeds placed in Pot 3 (along with one unseeded club, Nõmme Kalju, as there was no representative club of their association in the last edition to calculate a seed from).Each pot consisted of five teams.One team from each pot was drawn into each of the groups, A through E, chronologically. The teams from Pot 1 were assigned to position 2, those from Pot 2, assigned to position 3 and those from Pot 3, position 4.Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.
 | 
  Group stage
 The group stage fixtures were announced on 16 May.[13] 
All times are local, WEST (UTC+1). 
 Group A
    |  | Team |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | Qualification | 
  | 1 |  Higicontrol Melilla | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 8 | +9 | 9 | Knockout stage | 
  | 2 |  Lady Grembach EE Łódź | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 10 | +3 | 6 | 
  | 3 | .svg.png) Sporting CP | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 12 | –3 | 3 | 
  | 4 |  Vetlanda United | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 13 | –9 | 0 |  | 
   | Lady Grembach EE Łódź  v  Vetlanda United Higicontrol Melilla  v .svg.png) Sporting CP 
 Lady Grembach EE Łódź  v  Higicontrol Melilla Sporting CP .svg.png) v  Vetlanda United 
 Vetlanda United  v  Higicontrol Melilla Sporting CP .svg.png) v  Lady Grembach EE Łódź | 
 Group B
    |  | Team |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | Qualification | 
  | 1 |  Beachkick Ladies Berlin | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 6 | Knockout stage | 
  | 2 |  Lokrians | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 13 | 0 | 6 | 
  | 3 | .svg.png) Havana Shots Aargau | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 11 | –3 | 3 | 
  | 4 |  Madrid | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 8 | +1 | 3 | 
   | Beachkick Ladies Berlin  v  Lokrians Madrid  v .svg.png) Havana Shots Aargau 
 Beachkick Ladies Berlin  v  Madrid Havana Shots Aargau .svg.png) v  Lokrians 
 Lokrians  v  Madrid Havana Shots Aargau .svg.png) v  Beachkick Ladies Berlin | 
 Group C
    |  | Team |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | Qualification | 
  | 1 |  Portsmouth Ladies | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 5 | +29 | 9 | Knockout stage | 
  | 2 |  HTC Zwolle | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 6 | 
  | 3 |  Femenino Cáceres | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 15 | –9 | 3 | 
  | 4 |  Nõmme Kalju | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 24 | –20 | 0 |  | 
   | HTC Zwolle  v  Femenino Cáceres Nõmme Kalju  v  Portsmouth Ladies 
 HTC Zwolle  v  Nõmme Kalju Portsmouth Ladies  v  Femenino Cáceres 
 Femenino Cáceres  v  Nõmme Kalju Portsmouth Ladies  v  HTC Zwolle | 
 Group D
    |  | Team |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | Qualification | 
  | 1 |  AIS Playas de San Javier | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 7 | +4 | 6 | Knockout stage | 
  | 2 |  Amnéville | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 8 | +1 | 6 | 
  | 3 |  Terracina Ladies | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 9 | +2 | 6 | 
  | 4 |  DTS Ede | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 13 | –7 | 0 |  | 
   | Terracina Ladies  v  Amnéville DTS Ede  v  AIS Playas de San Javier 
 Terracina Ladies  v  DTS Ede AIS Playas de San Javier  v  Amnéville 
 Amnéville  v  DTS Ede AIS Playas de San Javier  v  Terracina Ladies | 
 Group E
    |  | Team |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | Qualification | 
  | 1 |  WFC Zvezda | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 9 | +6 | 6 | Knockout stage | 
  | 2 |  Roses Platja | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 7 | +5 | 6 | 
  | 3 |  KU AZS UAM Poznan | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 11 | –5 | 3 | 
  | 4 |  Grande Motte Pyramide | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 13 | –6 | 0 |  | 
   | Grande Motte Pyramide  v  WFC Zvezda Roses Platja  v  KU AZS UAM Poznan 
 WFC Zvezda  v  KU AZS UAM Poznan Roses Platja  v  Grande Motte Pyramide 
 KU AZS UAM Poznan  v  Grande Motte Pyramide WFC Zvezda  v  Roses Platja | 
 Knockout stage
 The top three clubs from each group, plus the best fourth placed team advance to the Round of 16. 
In the knockout stage, the clubs compete in single-elimination matches. Consolation matches are also played to determine the final rankings involving the clubs knocked out of each round of the knockout stage. 
  - The Round of 16 draw was conducted on 30 May following the conclusion of the day's matches. The 16 clubs were placed into two pots of eight. The five group winners and the three best runners-up (Lady Grembach EE Łódź, Amnéville & Roses Platja) were placed in Pot 1. The remaining two runners-up, the five third-placed teams and the best fourth-placed club were assigned to Pot 2.[14]
- For each Round of 16 tie, a club from Pot 1 was drawn to play against a club from Pot 2. However, clubs who finished 1st and 2nd in the same group could not be drawn against each other. As each tie was drawn, they were allocated chronologically from top to bottom in the bracket below. The draw was conducted by the Mayor of Nazaré, Walter Chicharro and Dario Ramacciotti of Viareggio.[14]
   | Main bracket | 
  | |   | Round of 16 |  | Quarter-finals |  | Semi-finals |  | Final |  |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |   |  |   |  Amnéville | 7 |  |   |  |  |   |  KU AZS UAM Poznan | 5 |  |  |   |  Amnéville | 3 |  |   |  |  |   |  |  Femenino Cáceres | 1 |  |  |   |  Higicontrol Melilla | 3 (1) |  |   |  |  |  |   |  Femenino Cáceres (p) | 3 (3) |  |  |   |  Amnéville | 4 |  |   |  |  |   |  |  Portsmouth Ladies | 5 |  |  |   |  Lady Grembach EE Łódź (a.e.t.) | 4 |  |   |  |  |  |   |  Madrid | 3 |  |  |   |  Lady Grembach EE Łódź | 4 (4) |  |   |  |  |   |  |  Portsmouth Ladies (p) | 4 (5) |  |  |   |  Portsmouth Ladies | 4 |  |   |  |  |  |   |  Terracina Ladies | 2 |  |  |   |  Portsmouth Ladies | 0 |  |   |  |  |   |  |  WFC Zvezda | 2 |  |   |  WFC Zvezda | 6 |  |   |  |  |  |   |  HTC Zwolle | 2 |  |  |   |  WFC Zvezda | 5 |  |   |  |  |   |  | .svg.png) Havana Shots Aargau | 2 |  |  |   |  Beachkick Ladies Berlin | 0 |  |   |  |  |  |   | .svg.png) Havana Shots Aargau | 2 |  |  |   |  WFC Zvezda | 4 |  |   |  |  |   |  |  AIS Playas de San Javier | 2 |  | Third place |  |   |  Roses Platja | 5 |  |   |  |  |  |  |   | .svg.png) Sporting CP | 2 |  |  |   |  Roses Platja | 1 |  Amnéville | 1 |  |   |  |  |   |  |  AIS Playas de San Javier | 3 |  |  AIS Playas de San Javier | 3 |  |   |  AIS Playas de San Javier | 10 |  |   |  |  |  |   |  Lokrians | 1 |  |  |   | 
 | 
  Round of 16
  Quarter-finals
 9th–16th place
  1st–8th place
  Semi-finals
 13th–16th place
  9th–12th place
  5th–8th place
  1st–4th place
  Finals
 15th place match
  13th place match
  11th place match
  9th place match
  7th place match
  5th place match
  3rd place match
  Championship final
  Awards
 The following individual awards were presented after the final.[15] 
    | Top scorer | 
  |  Melissa Gomes (  Amnéville) | 
  | 14 goals | 
  | Best player | 
  |  Molly Clark (  Portsmouth Ladies) | 
  | Best goalkeeper | 
  |  Viktoriia Silina (  WFC Zvezda) | 
 Top goalscorers
 Players who scored at least 5 goals 
 - 14 goals
 .svg.png) Melissa Gomes ( Melissa Gomes ( Amnéville) Amnéville)
  - 12 goals
  Molly Clark ( Molly Clark ( Portsmouth Ladies) Portsmouth Ladies)
 Natalia de Francisco Gomez ( Natalia de Francisco Gomez ( Higicontrol Melilla) Higicontrol Melilla)
  - 11 goals
  Gemma Hillier ( Gemma Hillier ( Portsmouth Ladies) Portsmouth Ladies)
  - 10 goals
  Federica Marino ( Federica Marino ( Lokrians) Lokrians)
  - 9 goals
  Adri ( Adri ( Lady Grembach EE Łódź) Lady Grembach EE Łódź)
  - 8 goals
  Katie James ( Katie James ( Portsmouth Ladies) Portsmouth Ladies)
 Alba Mellado ( Alba Mellado ( Madrid) Madrid)
 Carla Morera ( Carla Morera ( Roses Platja) Roses Platja)
  - 7 goals
  Saki Kushiyama ( Saki Kushiyama ( Lady Grembach EE Łódź) Lady Grembach EE Łódź)
 Jade Widdowson ( Jade Widdowson ( Portsmouth Ladies) Portsmouth Ladies)
 Carolina González ( Carolina González ( AIS Playas de San Javier) AIS Playas de San Javier)
  - 6 goals
 .svg.png) Mariana Rosa ( Mariana Rosa (.svg.png) Sporting CP) Sporting CP)
 Noele Bastos ( Noele Bastos ( Terracina Ladies) Terracina Ladies)
 Laura Del Río ( Laura Del Río ( Madrid) Madrid)
 Anastasiia Gorshkova ( Anastasiia Gorshkova ( WFC Zvezda) WFC Zvezda)
 Andrea Miron ( Andrea Miron ( AIS Playas de San Javier) AIS Playas de San Javier)
 Anna Cherniakova ( Anna Cherniakova ( WFC Zvezda) WFC Zvezda)
  - 5 goals
 .svg.png) Sandra Genovesi ( Sandra Genovesi (.svg.png) Havana Shots Aargau) Havana Shots Aargau)
 Sarah Kempson ( Sarah Kempson ( Portsmouth Ladies) Portsmouth Ladies)
 Louisa Meza ( Louisa Meza (.svg.png) Sporting CP) Sporting CP)
 Lorena Asensio ( Lorena Asensio ( Higicontrol Melilla) Higicontrol Melilla)
 Maria Soto ( Maria Soto ( Higicontrol Melilla) Higicontrol Melilla)
 Marta Stodulska ( Marta Stodulska ( Lady Grembach EE Łódź) Lady Grembach EE Łódź)
 Silvia Ferrer ( Silvia Ferrer ( Roses Platja) Roses Platja)
 Selene Alegre ( Selene Alegre ( Femenino Cáceres) Femenino Cáceres)
 Celine van Velsen ( Celine van Velsen ( HTC Zwolle) HTC Zwolle)
  Source 
 Final standings
   | Rank | Team | Result | 
  | 1 |  WFC Zvezda | Champions (1st title) | 
  | 2 |  Portsmouth Ladies | Runners-up | 
  | 3 |  AIS Playas de San Javier | Third place | 
  | 4 |  Amnéville |  | 
  | 5 |  Lady Grembach EE Łódź | 
  | 6 |  Roses Platja | 
  | 7 |  Femenino Cáceres | 
  | 8 | .svg.png) Havana Shots Aargau | 
  | 9 | .svg.png) Sporting CP | 
  | 10 |  Higicontrol Melilla | 
  | 11 |  HTC Zwolle | 
  | 12 |  Terracina Ladies | 
  | 13 |  Beachkick Ladies Berlin | 
  | 14 |  Madrid | 
  | 15 |  Lokrians | 
  | 16 |  KU AZS UAM Poznan | 
 See also
  References
  External links