FIFA Women's World Cup kicks off today
Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
The FIFA Women's World Cup kicks off today. Canada 2015 is the seventh FIFA Women’s World Cup, the tournament has previously been staged twice in China PR (inaugural 1991 and 2007), United States (1999 and 2003) and once in Sweden (1995) and Germany (2011).
During these editions of the tournament, four nations have won the title to date. Both Germany and United States have won it twice apiece and are on the hunt for their third star over their famous crest this summer. Whilst current FIFA Women's World Cup Champions Japan and Norway have won the title once each.
Canada 2015 is set to be the biggest tournament to date having expanded from 12 teams in the 1991 inaugural tournament to 16 teams in 1999. Due to the additional teams involved, the tournament will operate under a new format, the top two nations in each group will advance to the round of 16 along with the top four 3rd place teams.
The tournament itself will take place in five different time zones and is spread across Canada in six different cities which are: Edmonton, Moncton, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver (Hosts of the : Final) and Winnipeg.
The groups for the tournament are as follows:
Group A: Canada (Seeded), China PR, New Zealand, Netherlands
Group B: Germany (Seeded), Côte d’Ivoire, Norway, Thailand
Group C: Japan (Seeded), Switzerland, Cameroon, Ecuador
Group D: United States (Seeded), Australia, Sweden, Nigeria
Group E: Brazil (Seeded), Korea Republic, Spain, Costa Rica
Group F: France (Seeded), England, Colombia, Mexico
The opening game of the tournament is tonight at 11pm (Irish Time) between hosts Canada and China PR in Edmonton. All games will be broadcast live on the BBC, either on BBC2, BBC3, via the red button or online. Eurosport are also broadcasting some of the games and have Republic of Ireland's captain Emma Byrne lined up as part of their commentary team. You can follow all the action and build up ahead of the tournament kicking off here on ExtraTime.ie.
