Womens’ 2023 World Cup qualifiers preview

England will look to continue their impressive start to their campaign with victory over North Macedonia in Skopje on Friday.

The Lionesses travel to Skopje for their return qualifying fixture having already beaten them 8-0 at St. Mary’s Stadium Southampton back in September, with the opening match of the campaign.

It was also the first match in charge for England head coach Sarina Wiegman, as she watched on and saw a brace from Beth England and Ellen White give the Lionesses the perfect start to their qualifying campaign.

England are in pole position in Group D having won all six games so far with an impressive 53 goals scored and none conceded.

The Lionesses opponents on Friday North Macedonia have only won one game so far in the group, scoring just six goals in their six games played with a defence that has let in 38 goals thus far.

As it stands at the moment, the Lionesses hold a six-point lead from Austria heading into this week’s matches.

Other games in England’s group will see Luxembourg face Latvia, who will be looking for their first point, on Friday evening and Austria locking horns with Northern Ireland also on Friday.

Northern Ireland sits third in the group with 13 points from their six games. Their game against Austria is a key game in the group as both sides are separated by just goal difference, with the winner looking to close the gap on England.

Meanwhile, in Group I Wales face France at Llanelli on Friday night. This has the makings of being one of the games of the weekend, with France sitting pretty at the top of the group having won all their six matches so far, conceding only two goals.

They hold a five-point gap over Wales, who they have already beaten back in November in Guingamp.

In other games, Sweden will be looking to maintain their one hundred per cent start to the campaign when they visit Georgia on Thursday.

Group E will see group leaders Denmark travel to face Malta looking for their seventh win of the campaign.

In Group G, Switzerland travel to face Romania, hunting down their seventh win in the group, whilst on Saturday in Group H the two heavyweights Germany and Portugal meet in Bielefeld.

The German’s hold a five point advantage over second placed Portugal going into Saturday’s intriguing encounter.

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