Tomorrow (13:30 CEST, live stream on www.uefa.com), the Italy women’s national team will find out their opponents for the groups in qualification to the 2023 World Cup, which is to be held in Australia and New Zealand. The World Cup in France in 2019 was a brilliant tournament for Milena Bertolini’s Azzurre, who made it to the quarter-finals and delighted millions of fans; the upcoming edition of the tournament – the first with 32 teams – will surely be another great summer for the women’s game.

Italy, who booked their place at EURO 2022 back in February, will be in pot one for the draw, which involves 51 teams that will be divided into nine groups (three groups of five and six groups of six). Qualifying begins in September 2021 and will end a year later, with the playoffs set for October 2022.

The first-place teams will qualify directly for the finals, while the nine second-place teams will enter into a playoff to secure the final two spots. One other European team will be able to qualify via an intercontinental playoff, which will be held in Australia and New Zealand in 2022.

The pots for the draw

Pot 1: Netherlands, Germany, England, France, Sweden, Spain, Norway, ITALY, Denmark;
Pot 2: Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Iceland, Scotland, Russia, Finland, Portugal, Wales;
Pot 3: Czechia, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Slovenia, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Northern Ireland;
Pot 4: Slovakia, Hungary, Belarus, Croatia, Greece, Albania, North Macedonia, Israel, Azerbaijan;
Pot 5: Turkey, Malta, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Latvia;
Pot 6: Montenegro, Lithuania, Estonia, Luxembourg, Armenia, Bulgaria.