Katleho Hlalele
October 22, 2022
South Africa has finally found out who they will play against in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup group stages. The 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations winners were placed in pot four alongside Nigeria, the Philippines, Morocco and Zambia. Their pot had three other PTW (Play to Win) nations.
Banyana Banyana qualified automatically for the Women’s World Cup after they reached the semi-finals of the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations earlier this year. The African tournament that was hosted by Morocco was used to select four teams that will participate in next year’s World Cup.
The African Champions were drawn in group G alongside Sweden, Italy and Argentina. Ranked 54th in nations, the women’s football have already started with preparations for the World Cup by playing friendly matches with other nations. Last month, Banyana Banyana played two friendlies with eight times Women’s World Cup champions Brazil in South Africa but they lost those two matches.
Earlier this month, Desiree Ellis’ team faced one of the hostnations at Kingsmeadow stadium in Kingston, England. The match ended in 4-1 in favour of Australia even though South Africa played without some of their big stars.
Next years World Cup will be the second World Cup for Banyana Banyana since they made their first appearance in 2019. The South African team are still yet to progress to the next stage of the tournament.
Thirty-two nations will be competing in the Women’s World Cup for the first time. This tournament started with 12-teamtournaments back in 1991 and has expanded to include 16 countries at USA 1999 and 24 at Canada in 2015.
The ninth edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup will start on the 20th of July 2023 to 20th of August 2023 and will be played in nine cities between Australia and New Zealand.
Share This Post On
0 comments
Leave a comment
You need to login to leave a comment. Log-in
