Auckland (New Zealand), Feb 18 (IANS) The Playoffs for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup kicked off in Auckland and Hamilton and will run until February 23 to fill the last three berths of the 32-team finals, to be played from July 20 to August 20 in Australia and New Zealand.
The playoffs will witness 10 teams divided into three groups, and only the group winners will attend the global finals.
The playoffs will not be played in the round-robin format. Instead, Portugal will face off against the winner between Cameroon and Thailand to fight for the berth in Group A, reports Xinhua.
In Group B, Senegal and Haiti will vie for the right to challenge Chile, while in Group C, the winners from Chinese Taipei vs Paraguay and Papua New Guinea vs Panama will square off for the ticket.
Ten venues across nine host cities in Australia and New Zealand will hold the first-ever 32-team women’s World Cup.
China were drawn into Group D alongside tough opponents England and Denmark. The last team of Group D will be the winner of the play-offs Group B.
Earlier on Friday, Portugal earned a 5-0 win over New Zealand and Argentina crushed Chile 4-0 in warm-up matches ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup playoffs.
It is the first time in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup that a playoff tournament is held for the qualification.
A series of friendly matches will also be held in Auckland and Hamilton.
–IANS
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