England's Euro-winning Lionesses learn their fate as World Cup 2023 draw is made
England’s Lionesses have been drawn against Denmark, China and an as yet undetermined Play-Off Winner for the group stages of the Women’s World Cup next summer.
Sarina Wiegman’s European champions have made the semi-finals at the last two tournaments, losing to Japan and the Unites States, but will be confident of going one step further after their Euro 2022 success.
The draw for the tournament, which is being jointly hosted by New Zealand and Australia, was conducted in Auckland on Saturday morning.
England avoided a host of tricky teams in Pot 2 – including Olympic champions Canada – but, in the form of Denmark, were drawn against the highest-ranked team from Pot 3.
The Lionesses will kick off their tournament against what will be their lowest-ranked opponent, though will not know who it is until February when Chile take on either Senegal or Haiti in a play-off match.
Holders USA remain favourites for the tournament despite recent back-to-back friendly defeats to England and Spain and are going for an unprecedented third straight win after victories in 2015 and 2019.
They have been handed a tough group though, drawn against 2019 finalists Netherlands – the team they beat to defend their crown – while Group F is also eye-catching and will see France and Brazil go head-to-head.
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