Algarve Cup


The Algarve Cup is an invitational tournament for national teams in women's association football hosted by the Portuguese Football Federation. Held annually in the Algarve region of Portugal since 1994, it is one of the most prestigious and longest-running women's international football events and has been nicknamed the "Mini FIFA Women's World Cup".
The most successful teams have been the United States, with ten titles, followed by Norway and Sweden, with four. Norway's titles all came in the early years of the tournament, while the USA has won all its titles since 2000, including nine in thirteen years since 2003. Germany has won four times, and China has won twice. The USA, Norway and Germany are the only nations to have won both the FIFA Women's World Cup and the Algarve Cup.
The Algarve Cup, as an annual event featuring most of the world's top women's football teams, has no parallel in the men's game, given that there are fewer professional women's leagues and thus fewer scheduling conflicts. It is played in late February or early March, at the same time as the Cyprus Cup, the Turkish Women's Cup and the SheBelieves Cup. Since 2016 the SheBelieves Cup has attracted some of the top ranked teams, and thus shifted attention from the Algarve Cup.

Format

From 2002 to 2014, 12 teams were invited, with the top eight competing for the championship. The teams were divided into three groups of four — A, B and C. Group C was added in 2002 to provide second-tier teams with high-level match experience every year. The teams first played round-robin within their pool. Then the placement round proceeded as follows:
In 2015, Group C teams became eligible for the final, which is now played between the two best group winners. If teams are tied on points, finishing positions will be determined by the following tie-breaking criteria in the following order:
  1. number of points obtained in the matches among the teams in question
  2. goal difference in all the group matches
  3. number of goals scored in all the group matches
  4. fair-play ranking in all the group matches
  5. FIFA ranking
The placement round is now as follows:

Rankings

Participating nations

General statistics

As of 2019.
RankTeamPartPldWDLGFGADifPts
1207956111217362+111179
22597492226175104+71169
32597501433168107+61164
426102401448139144−5134
52391351442106109−3119
62610025165898197−9994
71144292139435+5989
815592111277593−1874
983117595135+1656
10728161114536+949
1162413293435−141
121871895445165−12033
1372895143147−1632
1462293102634−830
154169162526−128
165194871828−1020
173115241815+317
183124531514+117
1952052131641−2517
2028512157+816
2127511104+616
223125162017+316
2328422911−214
24284132112+913
2528431135+813
2627403910−112
273113261220−811
281430164+29
2928215714−77
301420284+46
31141212205
321311145−14
331411259−44
3428107419−153
351402225−32
3614004119−180