Portugal climbed four places this Thursday, to 23rd place, the highest in its history in the ranking of FIFA women’s soccer teams, and is presented as the main seed of the intercontinental playoff to qualify for the 2023 World Cup.
Since the last update of the table, on August 5, the “quinas” team has won four games in four matches, in Serbia (2-1) and in receptions against Turkey (4-0), Belgium (2-1 ) and Iceland (4-1 after extra time).
The first two victories earned them the second place in Group H of the qualifying phase and the consequent qualification for the European ‘play-off’, in which the Portuguese team beat the Belgians (ranked 20th) and the Icelanders (ranked 16th). ).
Portugal, which surpassed Ireland (24th), Scotland (25th), Russia (26th) and Colombia (27th), was the country that scored the most points in this period (54.19), for a total of 1,742.25, very close to New Zealand (22nd, with 1,743.72), one of the hosts of the 2023 World Cup, along with Australia.
To reach the competition that will take place next year in Oceania, between July 20 and August 20, Portugal will have to overcome the Intercontinental ‘play-off’, which gives access to the last three places in the competition.
The team led by Francisco Neto is the team with the best ranking among the 10 that will be in New Zealand, between February 17 and 23, thus becoming the top seed in Group A, which means that they will compete for access to the World Cup . Cup 2023 on February 22 at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton.
In that match, Portugal -who, five days earlier, will play a friendly against New Zealand in the same place- will not be able to face the other top seeds in Friday’s draw, Chile (38th in the ‘ranking’), which will be in the Group B, and Taiwan (40th) and Papua New Guinea (50th), leaders of Group C.
Thus, the possible Portuguese rivals in the final of Group A, for which the Portuguese team is already qualified, are Thailand (41st), -they did not enter the draw because they are from the same confederation as Taiwan-, Paraguay (51st). ), Haiti (56), Panama (57), Cameroon (58) and Senegal (84).
The winners of each of the Intercontinental ‘play-off’ groups advance to the final phase, and, in groups of three teams, the top seed of the series immediately qualifies for the final, in which the winner of the semifinal of your group.
For the final, 29 of the 32 teams are already defined, 11 from Europe, namely Sweden, Spain, England, Denmark, Norway, Germany, France, Holland, Italy, Switzerland and Ireland.
The other formations already qualified are the hosts Australia and New Zealand, as well as China, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Vietnam (Asia), Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia (Africa), Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica and the United States. (CONCACAF) and Argentina, Brazil and Colombia (South America).
In the 2023 World Cup there will be the top nine in the FIFA ranking, which is still led by the United States, now seconded by Sweden, which surpassed Germany (third), with North Korea (tenth) being the best placed that will not be in the final , after having abandoned the classification.
The 2023 Women’s World Cup Finals will take place in Australia and New Zealand from July 20 to August 20.
Source: TSF
