2016 Cyprus Cup

2016 Cyprus Cup
Tournament details
Host country	Cyprus
Dates	2–9 March
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	3 (in 3 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Austria (1st title)
Runners-up	Poland
Third place	Italy
Fourth place	Czech Republic
Tournament statistics
Matches played	16
Goals scored	35 (2.19 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Nina Burger; Lucie Voňková; (3 goals)
	← 2015 2017 →

The 2016 Cyprus Cup was the ninth edition of the Cyprus Cup, an invitational women's football tournament held annually in Cyprus. After being initially canceled due to schedule conflicts with both UEFA and AFC qualification for the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2016 SheBelieves Cup leaving many of the prior year's participants, including reigning champions England, unable to attend,^[1] the tournament was rescheduled with the Football Association of Finland as tournament organizers and a scaled-down field of eight national teams.^[2]

Austria defeated Poland in a final between two first-time participants in the Cyprus Cup.

Format

The tournament consisted of a group stage held over three match days followed by a single day of classification matches to determine the final standings.

For the group stage, the eight teams were split into two groups of four teams. Each group played a round-robin tournament with each team playing one match against each other team in its group.

The classification day then had four matches: a first place match between the group winners, a third place match between the runners-up, a fifth place match between the third-placed teams, and a seventh place match between the bottom teams.

Tie-breaking criteria

For the group stage of this tournament, where two or more teams in a group tied on an equal number of points, the finishing positions will be determined by the following tie-breaking criteria in the following order:^[3]

number of points obtained in the matches among the teams in question
goal difference in all the group matches
number of goals scored in all the group matches
drawing of lots

Venues

Stadium	City	Capacity
GSZ Stadium	Larnaca	13,032
Paralimni Stadium	Paralimni	5,800
Anagennisi Stadium	Deryneia	4,500

Teams

Poland
Wales

For the first time in Cyprus Cup history, all participants were from UEFA. Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Wales all made their first appearance in the tournament. Also for the first time, Finland was named "host nation" as the Football Association of Finland organized the tournament.^[4] Prior co-organisers the Netherlands were instead hosting the 2016 UEFA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament, England instead competed in the 2016 SheBelieves Cup, and Scotland were controversially kept away by their performance director Brian McClair, who preferred to play a single friendly against Spain in Falkirk.^[5]