Italy vs. Brazil is fast approaching, as is the Women's World Cup from 20 July to 20 August in Australia and New Zealand. While in Coverciano, the National team are preparing for the friendly match against the Brazilians on Monday 10 October at 18:30 CEST at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa (click HERE to buy tickets), Thursday 6 October is an important day for the lead-up to the World Cup: it is the day tickets go on sale, that can be purchased on the FIFA website. The first phase, which will last until 12 October, is reserved for Visa card holders and will only include options of ticket packages valid for a single stadium or for the home teams' matches (Australia and New Zealand, in addition to being the first 32-team Women's World Cup, will also be the first edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup jointly organised by two federations). The same packages will then go on sale for local fans until Friday 21 October, the day before the group stage draw.

Italy, on the day of the draw for the eight groups in the group stage, will be represented in Auckland (New Zealand) by coach Milena Bertolini. After the draw, that will take place on Saturday 22nd at 19:30 local time (08:30 CEST), a second phase of ticket sales will begin, dedicated to individual matches: this too will have a pre-emption for Visa card holders that will begin on 25 October. The general sale, finally, will start on 1 November.

Twenty-seven teams have qualified for the final stage so far: in addition to the two host nations (Australia and New Zealand), there are Japan, South Korea, China, Philippines, Vietnam (Asia), Zambia, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa (Africa), Italy, Sweden, Spain, France, Denmark, Germany, Norway, England, Netherlands (Europe), USA, Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica (Central America), Colombia, Brazil, Argentina (South America). Today will also see the first round of the European play-offs, containing the runners-up from the qualifying stage (Scotland vs. Austria, Wales vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Portugal vs. Belgium), with the winners facing Iceland, Ireland and Switzerland respectively in the second round, which will put two more places up for grabs in the final. The remaining three available places will be awarded through inter-confederation play-offs scheduled for February in New Zealand.