Women’s World Cup 2019: Fixtures and previews for Banyana and other teams

The pressure is on France as they kick off the Women’s World Cup against South Korea on 7 June, but while the Koreans, Norwegians and Nigerians are all potentially tricky opponents for the hosts, the format of the group stage leaves them some room to manoeuvre.

The first round will eliminate just eight teams of the 24 teams, with the top two finishers in each of the six groups advancing along with four best third-place teams.

Preview: Group A

Teams: France, Norway, South Korea and Nigeria.

Hosts France start as one of the tournament favourites, as the backbone of the starting XI play for Lyon, the dominant team in European club football. Sarah Bouhaddi is described by team-mates as “the best goalkeeper in the world”, central defender Wendie Renard captains Lyon while defensive midfielder Amandine Henri captains France. Striker Eugenie Le Sommer has scored 74 goals for the national team.

Further improving their chances is the absence of their star team-mate Ada Hegerberg, who is boycotting a Norway team that should still have enough to advance from the group.

South Korea took the fifth and last Asian World Cup berth in a playoff, but they qualified without conceding a goal.

Nigeria meanwhile are the only African team to have ever made it as far as the quarter-finals, back in 1999, and coach Thomas Dennerby has set that as a target.

Preview: Group B

Germany, Spain, China and South Africa.

Germany remain number two in the world and are unbeaten since losing to France in last year’s #SheBelieves Cup.

Barcelona may have been thrashed by Lyon in the Champions League final, but they were the first Spanish club to get that far and their improvement coincides with Spain’s rise in the FIFA rankings. Moreover, they do not have a single player over the age of 29.

Despite president Xi Jinping’s declared dream that China will win the World Cup, the women’s team have slipped back from 1999 when Sun Wen led the Steel Roses to the final with 10 goals and was named the tournament’s most valuable player.

South Africa are distant outsiders.

Preview: Group C

Australia, Brazil, Italy and Jamaica.

The Aussies have strength in depth. If attacker Mary Fowler appears in the opening match she will do so at the age of 16 years and 155 days. That might make her far younger than the men’s finals record holder, Norman Whiteside, who was 17 years and 41 days when he played for Northern Ireland against Yugoslavia in 1982, but she would only be the fourth youngest women to play at the World Cup.

In the Brazilian squad, the attention is on two veterans.

Six-times world player of the year Marta is at 33 trying to improve on her collection of runners up medals from the 2007 World Cup and the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, while Formiga is back for a seventh World Cup at 41.

If the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder plays she will break the record set by Christie Rampone of the USA who was 40 years and 11 days old when she made her last appearance in the 2015 final. FIFA calculated that 150 of the players at this World Cup were not even born when Formiga made her competition debut in 1995.

Italy, with all but one of their squad playing at home, have found cohesion since coach Milena Bertolini took over in 2017, but are not fancied to win the competition.

For Jamaica, supported spiritually and financially by Bob Marley’s family, just reaching the World Cup is a victory. The strike rate of 22-year-old Khadija Shaw, who scored 29 goals in her first 21 internationals, gives the Reggae Girlz hope of landing a big punch.

2019 Women’s World Cup: Fixtures and kick-off times

Group stages, all times are SAST.

Friday, 7 June 2019

21:00 France vs Korea Republic

Saturday, 8 June 2019

15:00 Germany vs China PR
18:00 Spain vs South Africa
21:00 Norway vs Nigeria

Sunday, 9 June 2019

13:00 Australia vs Italy
15:30 Brazil vs Jamaica
18:00 England vs Scotland

Monday, 10 June 2019

18:00 Argentina vs Japan
21:00 Canada vs Cameroon

Tuesday, 11 June 2019

15:00 New Zealand vs Netherlands
18:00 Chile vs Sweden
21:00 United States vs Thailand

Wednesday, 12 June, 2019

15:00 Nigeria vs Korea Republic
18:00 Germany vs Spain
21:00 France vs Norway

Thursday, 13 June 2019

18:00 Australia vs Brazil
21:00 South Africa vs China PR

Friday, 14 June 2019

15:00 Japan vs Scotland
18:00 Jamaica vs Italy
21:00 England vs Argentina

Saturday, 15 June 2019

15:00 Netherlands vs Cameroon
21:00 Canada vs New Zealand

Sunday, 16 June 2019

15:00 Sweden vs Thailand
18:00 United States vs Chile

Monday, 17 June 2019

18:00 South Africa vs Germany
18:00 China PR vs Spain
21:00 Nigeria vs France
21:00 Korea Republic vs Norway

Tuesday, 18 June 2019

21:00 Jamaica vs Australia
21:00 Italy vs Brazil