Football: Fifa Women’s World Cup 2023 Australia & New Zealand

The ninth edition of the Fifa Women’s World Cup will be held from Thursday 20 July to Sunday 20 August in Australia and New Zealand. The opening match and opening ceremony will take place at New Zealand’s Eden Park in Auckland and the final will be played at Stadium Australia in Sydney, Australia. 

A tournament of firsts, the event is Australia’s biggest sporting event since the Rugby World Cup in 2003, with 32 nations playing 64 matches across nine host cities in Australia and New Zealand. It also marks the first time in Women’s World Cup history that the matches have been held in the Asia-Pacific region.

The nine cities and ten venues hosting matches are: 

• Adelaide, Australia: Hindmarsh Stadium
• Auckland, New Zealand: Eden Park
• Brisbane, Australia: Brisbane Stadium
• Dunedin, New Zealand: Dunedin Stadium
• Hamilton, New Zealand: Waikato Stadium
• Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
• Perth, Australia: Perth Rectangular Stadium
• Sydney, Australia: Stadium Australia and Sydney Football Stadium
• Wellington, New Zealand: Wellington Stadium 

Group A’s opening match at Eden Park will see New Zealand’s Football Ferns take to the pitch, before Australia’s Matildas enter the tournament in Group B at the Sydney Football Stadium. The host countries will split the remaining group-stage fixtures, with New Zealand hosting five further matches in Auckland, seven in Wellington, six in Dunedin and five in Hamilton. Australia will host six group-stage fixtures at the Sydney Football Stadium, with Perth and Brisbane both hosting five and a further four each taking place in Melbourne and Adelaide.

The round-of-16 matches will take place from 5-8 August, with Stadium Australia hosting its first match of the tournament. A further five will take place in Australia and the remaining two matches will be played in New Zealand (Auckland and Wellington). The quarter-finals are split between the two hosts, with matches in Auckland, Brisbane, Wellington and Stadium Australia in Sydney. Both Australia and New Zealand will also host one semi-final each at Stadium Australia and Eden Park respectively, while the match for third place will take place at Brisbane Stadium, Australia.

Group draw

• Group A: New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Switzerland
• Group B: Australia, Republic of Ireland, Nigeria, Canada
• Group C: Spain, Costa Rica, Zambia, Japan
• Group D: England, Haiti, Denmark, China
• Group E: USA, Vietnam, Netherlands, Portugal
• Group F: France, Jamaica, Brazil, Panama
• Group G: Sweden, South Africa, Italy, Argentina
• Group H: Germany, Morocco, Colombia, Korea Republic

Image: Fifa.com