The countdown to the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 has officially started after the draw for the Finals took place today in Auckland. The tournament is to be held in Australia and New Zealand from 20 July to 20 August 2023. In the stunning Aotea Center, and with Head Coach Milena Bertolini in attendance, Italy were placed into Group G alongside Sweden, Argentina and South Africa. Their first group game will be played in the "City of Sails", at Eden Park, on 24 July against Argentina, before moving to the Regional Stadium in Wellington to face the Swedes and South Africans on 29 July and 2 August, respectively.

“It will be a very difficult group with Sweden standing out as the favourites," declared Coach Bertolini speaking to Rai Sport. "They are the Olympic runners-up and, as always, are physically strong and full of talented players. We don't much about the other teams; Argentina by tradition play technically and with a strong personality. We'll need to go away and study both sides well to be ready and prepared for the games with them. We'll have to fight until the third and final group game to reach our aim of reaching the knockout stages. We have less travelling to do than in some of the other groups, so this is certainly one positive to come out from the draw."

After the 2019 edition in France where Italy reached the quarter-finals, gluing millions of Italians to the TV screen, Milena Bertolini's side, if they were to get through, would meet the winners or runners-up in Group E in the last 16, facing one of USA, the Netherlands, Vietnam or the winners of a play-off match that is to be played in February, with Portugal, Cameroon and Thailand the favourites to qualify.

Previous meetings – Italy will kick-off their campaign against Argentina, who qualified for the second consecutive World Cup and are currently 29th in the FIFA World Rankings. The only previous meeting goes back to 1971 with Italy winning comfortably 4-0 through a Vignotto hat-trick and one from Schiavo. Out of the 24 games against Sweden - who have never failed to qualify for the tournament and have reached the semi-final three times - Italy have four wins, five draws and 15 defeats. The last meeting between the two sides was in the Algarve Cup Final in February that the Scandinavians won on penalties (1-1 in normal time). The game against South Africa (ranked 54th in the FIFA World Rankings) in Wellington on 2 August will be the first-ever meeting.

Just as the Azzurre do, the tournament starts off in Auckland on 20 July with New Zealand facing Norway, and will end a month later with the Final at the Stadium Australia in Sydney. From the "City of Sails", with the wind behind our backs, it's going to be a strongly-tinted Azzurre World Cup.

FIFA WOMEN'S WORLD CUP 2023 – THE GROUPS

GROUP A: New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Switzerland
GROUP B: Australia, Rep. of Ireland, Nigeria, Canada
GROUP C: Spain, Costa Rica, Zambia, Japan
GROUP D: England, Group B play off winner, Denmark, China
GROUP E: United States, Vietnam, the Netherlands, Group A play off winners
GROUP F: France, Jamaica, Brazil, Group C play off winners
GROUP G: Sweden, South Africa, ITALY, Argentina
GROUP H: Germany, Morocco, Colombia, South Korea

Fixture schedule

Monday 24 July, Eden Park, Auckland: ITALY vs. Argentina
Saturday 29 July, Regional Stadium, Wellington: Sweden vs. ITALY
Wednesday 2 August, Regional Stadium, Wellington: South Africa vs. ITALY