It's the Saturday that the Women's First Team have been waiting for. At around 08:30 CEST, Milena Bertolini's side will finally find out who their group opponents will be in the 2023 World Cup, scheduled for next year in Australia and New Zealand. The draw will take place in Auckland and will be shown live on the FIFA website on Saturday morning. In attendance representing Italy will be the Head Coach, who has guided them to the tournament for the second time running, after the excellent run in 2019 that ended in the quarter-finals.

The latest published FIFA rankings has formed the four Pots for the draw of the group stages, that for the first time will see 32 countries included. Italy, who have moved up a position (from 15th to 14th), will be in Pot 2, while in the first there will be the two host nations, the USA, Sweden, Germany, England, France and Spain. The draw will start with a team from Pot 1 being drawn first, and will end with one being chosen from Pot 4. The general principle from FIFA is to guarantee, where possible, that no group has more than one country from the same confederation. This will not be possible for Europe as there are eleven teams involved, and potentially could become twelve if Portugal qualify. Therefore, every group will have at least one European team in it but no more than two. There are 29 teams in total, with the final three being decided in February in the Intercontinental play-offs with the following teams all competing for a place: Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Senegal, Cameroon, Haiti, Panama, Chile, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea and Portugal.

After the first round of ticket sales, reserved to local fans and stadium packages for games in Australia and New Zealand, single match tickets will go on sale from 25 October: there will be a first round of sales only for Visa card holders, before going on general sale on 1 November. The World Cup opening game and ceremony will be held at Eden Park in Auckland on 20 July, while Sydney's Stadium Australia will host the final on 20 August; it will also be the only stadium to host only knockout-phase games (a last 16 tie, a quater-final and a semi-final). There are nine host cities in total with Sydney having two stadiums (the second is the Sydney Football Stadium): the others are in Auckland, Dunedin, Hamilton and Wellington in New Zealand, and Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth in Australia. The group stages will be played from 20 July to 3 August; last 16 ties from 5 to 8 August, quarter-finals on 11 and 12, semi-finals on 15 and 16, third place match on 19, and the final on 20 August. 

FIFA WOMEN'S WORLD CUP 2023
POT 1
New Zealand
Australia
USA
Sweden
Germany
England
France
Spain

POT 2
Canada
The Netherlands
Brazil
Japan
Norway
ITALY
China
South Korea

POT 3
Denmark 
Switzerland
Rep. of Ireland
Colombia
Argentina
Vietnam
Costa Rica
Jamaica

POT 4
Nigeria
The Philippines
South Africa
Morocco
Zambia
Winner Group A playoff
Winner Group B playoff
Winner Group C playoff