LAST UPDATE | 12 Oct 2022

SO, FOR THE first time in their history, Ireland have qualified for the Women’s World Cup finals. 

Amber Barrett’s brilliantly-taken goal was enough to hand Vera Pauw’s side victory in last night’s play-off with Scotland at Hampden Park.  

Now that Ireland have booked their place at next year’s tournament, which will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand from 20 July to 20 August, there is huge excitement among fans of the Girls in Green. 

Many supporters will be hoping to attend matches in person but, before fixture details are revealed, the World Cup draw must first takes place.

When is the draw? 

The draw for the 2023 Women’s World Cup will be held at the Aotea Centre in Auckland on Saturday, 22 October. It’s scheduled to start at 7.30am Irish time.

It will feature 32 nations for the very first time – up from 24 in the last two tournaments. Teams will be drawn into eight groups of four and will play each other once, with the top two qualifying for the knockout stages.

Matches will be played in ten venues across nine host cities: Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Hamilton. 

Who else has qualified? 

Ireland are one of 29 teams to have guaranteed a spot at the finals. They are as follows: 

• Australia (co-hosts) 
• New Zealand (co-hosts) 
• China (AFC)
• Japan (AFC)
• Philippines (AFC)
• South Korea (AFC)
• Vietnam (AFC)
• Morocco (CAF)
• Nigeria (CAF) 
• South Africa (CAF)
• Zambia (CAF)
• Canada (CONCACAF)
• Costa Rica (CONCACAF)
• Jamaica (CONCACAF)
• United States (CONCACAF)
• Argentina (CONMEBOL) 
• Brazil (CONMEBOL) 
• Colombia (CONMEBOL) 
• Denmark (UEFA)
• England (UEFA)
• France (UEFA)
• Germany (UEFA)
• Italy (UEFA)
• Netherlands (UEFA)
• Norway (UEFA)
• Republic of Ireland (UEFA)
• Spain (UEFA)
• Sweden (UEFA)
• Switzerland (UEFA)

Ten teams will compete for the three remaining places in the inter-confederation play-offs in February. The draw for that is this Friday and they are: 

• Chinese Taipei (AFC)
• Thailand (AFC) 
• Cameroon (CAF) 
• Senegal (CAF) 
• Haiti (CONCACAF) 
• Panama (CONCACAF) 
• Paraguay (CONMEBOL) 
• Chile (CONMEBOL) 
• Papua New Guinea (OFC) 
• Portugal (UEFA) 

Which pot will Ireland be in? 

Teams will be placed in four pots for the draw based on their Fifa World Ranking on Friday, 13 October. According to the most recent rankings (5 August), Ireland are 26th meaning they would be in Pot 3. 

While the final placements will be confirmed tomorrow, here are the provisional pots: 

Pot 1

• Australia (co-hosts)
• New Zealand (co-hosts)
• United States (1)
• Germany (2)
• Sweden (3) 
• England (4)
• France (5)
• Netherlands (6) 

Pot 2

• Canada (7)
• Spain (8)
• Brazil (9)
• Japan (11)
• Norway (13)
• Italy (15)
• China (16)
• Denmark (17)

Pot 3

• South Korea (18)
• Switzerland (21)
• Colombia (25)
• Republic of Ireland (26)
• Argentina (31)
• Vietnam (33)
• Costa Rica (37)
• Jamaica (42)

Pot 4

• Nigeria (46)
• Philippines (53)
• South Africa (54)
• Morocco (76)
• Zambia (80)

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