Super Falcons To Face Australia, Ireland And Canada At FIFA World Cup

Nigeria will play joint-hosts Australia, Canada and the Republic of Ireland in Group B of the 9th FIFA Women’s World Cup finals happening in the summer of 2023.

This followed the draw ceremony held in Auckland/Tâmaki Makaurau on Saturday.

Nigeria will therefore play Canada in her first match of the competition to be staged in a total of nine cities (five in Australia and four in New Zealand), and which will boast 32 teams – the biggest in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup since it began in China in 1991.

Joint-hosts New Zealand will battle Norway, Philippines and Switzerland in Group A.

Nigeria, alongside the United States of America, Brazil, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Japan are the only seven countries to have featured in all previous editions of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, between China 1991 and France 2019.

The Falcons were on tour of Canada six months ago, where they played two matches against Olympic champions Canada, losing one narrowly and drawing the other.

Nigeria, the only African team and one of the few nations to have made it to every edition of the global showpiece were drawn in Pot 4 ahead of the final draw as a result of its current FIFA ranking (45).

Randy Waldrum’s ladies finished fourth at this year’s WAFCON and will have to improve on results from the recent outings to stand a chance to make it out of the group.

In what is considered an open group, Nigeria will do well to get off to a good start against the CONCACAF team before keeping dates with Australia and Ireland.

Nigeria’s last meeting with Australia in the World Cup was in 2015 which ended in a 2-0 loss for the African side.

The tournament co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand is billed to kick-off July 20 and continue until August 20, 2023.

Nigeria’s best outing is a second round finish.

See full draw below

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

Play-off Group B winners (Chile vs Senegal or Haiti)

Denmark

China

Group E

United States

Vietnam

Netherlands

Play-off Group A winners (Portugal vs Cameroon or Thailand)

Group F

France

Jamaica

Brazil

Play-off Group C winners (Chinese Taipei vs Paraguay or Papua New Guinea vs Panama)

Group G

Sweden

South Africa

Italy

Argentina

Group H

Germany

Morocco

Colombia

South Korea

October 22, 2022