England to face Northern Ireland as UEFA qualifiers for 2023 Women’s World Cup are drawn

England and Northern Ireland have been drawn in the same qualifying group for the 2023 Women’s World Cup, with the reigning European champions, Netherlands, to face Iceland.

Two-time world champions Germany will face Portugal in their group, while Norway, who won the tournament in 1995, will play Belgium and Poland.

Germany were the last European nation to win the World Cup, back in 2007, with the Netherlands coming closest to ending that drought in 2019, when they were defeated 2-0 in the final by the United States.

Who will qualify?

The teams picked from the first pot of nations, ranked by their UEFA coefficients, will each by the favourites to win their groups, though each have tricky opponents to navigate.

Spain are joined by Scotland, who qualified for the 2019 tournament, while Iceland, who face the Netherlands, Belgium, who have been drawn alongside Norway, and Switzerland, grouped with Italy, will all pose threats to the top-ranked nations.

Sweden, meanwhile, are drawn in Group A with a Finland side who are coached by Anna Signeul, the Swedish coach who has worked with her home nation’s youth teams in the past.

The winners of each group will qualify for the 2023 Women’s World Cup, to be held in Australia and New Zealand, while the runners-up will all progress to the play-offs. A ranking system will then decide which six nations enter the first round of the play-offs and the three best second-placed teams will go straight into the second round.

The winners of the three second round play-off victors will then be ranked, with the top two qualifying for the World Cup and the third side to enter the inter-confederation play-offs with two teams from Asia, Africa, North America and South America, as well as an Oceania nation.

When does qualifying begin?

Teams will have sufficient time to prepare for these competitive outings, with international breaks to come in June and August. Sweden, the Netherlands and many of England’s players, as part of Team GB, will be in competitive action in August too, at the Olympic Games.

The first World Cup qualifiers will take place shortly afterwards, in the September international break, which runs from September 13 to September 21. Qualifying will conclude in September 2022, with the nine group winners to have then secured their place at the tournament in 2023.

Full draw

Group A	Group B	Group C
Sweden	Spain	Netherlands
Finland	Scotland	Iceland
Republic of Ireland	Ukraine	Czech Republic
Slovakia	Hungary	Belarus
Georgia	Faroe Islands	Cyprus

Group D	Group E	Group F	Group G	Group H	Group I
England	Denmark	Norway	Italy	Germany	France
Austria	Russia	Belgium	Switzerland	Portugal	Wales
Northern Ireland	Bosnia & Herzegovina	Poland	Romania	Serbia	Slovenia
North Macedonia	Azerbaijan	Albania	Croatia	Israel	Greece
Latvia	Malta	Kosovo	Moldova	Turkey	Kazakhstan
Luxembourg	Montenegro	Armenia	Lithuania	Bulgaria	Estonia

Further reading