The German women’s soccer team was eliminated from the World Cup and from defending its Olympic title on Saturday.
Sweden’s 2-1 win in the World Cup quarterfinals ensured that these will be the European nations at the 2020 Olympics -- Great Britain, Netherlands and Sweden.
In a change from 2016, there is no separate UEFA Olympic women’s qualifying tournament; only the top three countries from the World Cup go to Tokyo, which ended up being the three teams that reached the semifinals along with the U.S.
So the world’s second- and fourth-ranked teams (Germany, France) will not be at the Olympics. The top-ranked U.S. can qualify for Tokyo at a CONCACAF tournament in 2020.
Germany beat Sweden 2-1 in the 2016 Olympic final to join the U.S. and Norway as the only nations to win Olympic women’s soccer gold.
Norway is the only other nation to fail to qualify for the Olympics after winning the women’s soccer title four years earlier, missing the Athens 2004 event.
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