France learn their fate as they seek home World Cup win

The draw for the eighth Women’s World Cup took place Saturday in Paris to determine who of the 24 teams will be facing each other.

The World Cup taking place in France will see 54 matches across nine host cities, so who will your favourite team be up against in June? 

The French hosts are ranked third in the world and are hoping to follow their male counterparts by winning the Cup at home like in 1998. If they win, it will be the first time one country holds both the male (Russia 2018) and female World Cup trophies. 

They will face South Korea in the opening match on June 7th, the other members of group A are Norway and Nigeria which could be a challenge for the host nation. Norway have a strong history in the tournament, they were finalists in 1991 and won in 1995. Nigeria is one of only three African countries in the competition and will be hoping to make an impression after winning the Women’s African Cup. 

Group B includes two time champions Germany (ranked 2nd in the world) will start by facing China on June 8th and Spain, who were unbeaten in 2018, will face first time participants South Africa on the same day. 

Group C has a familiar line up with Australia (ranked 6th) and Brazil playing each other of the fourth World Cup in a row, Brazil won the first two meetings but Australia won the last one knocking Brazil out of the 2015 tournament. Australia starts against Italy on June 9th and Brazil against Jamaica, the first Caribbean team to qualify for the tournament. 

Scotland will make their World Cup debut with a bang, going against long time rivals England (ranked 4th) on June 9th. In the same group Japan, the 2011 winners will face Argentina on June 10th. 

In group D Canada, the last World Cup hosts will face Cameroon who came in third place at the Women’s African Cup and The Netherlands will face New Zealand. 

The last group includes World Cup reigning champions The United States who will defend their title against Thailand on June 11th. They will also have to face Sweden (ranked 9th) and Chile.