Women’s World Cup LIVE: New Zealand host Norway to open tournament

New Zealand have never won a match in five prior appearances at the Women’s World Cup and while they are long odds to beat Norway in Thursday’s opener at Eden Park co-captain Ria Percival said the Football Ferns are relishing the role of the underdog.

Playing in the same Auckland stadium where the ‘Black Ferns’ secured their sixth women’s Rugby World Cup title last year, New Zealand are determined to give home fans more reasons to celebrate by beating the 1995 champions.

“We’re always seen as the underdogs,” Percival said on Wednesday. “And for us, we’ve always taken it in stride and we’ll do exactly the same with the first game tomorrow but for us we’re just excited to be here, we’re ready to go.”

Norway, who have 2018 Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg back in the mix after an extended absence prompted by a dispute with her federation, are a dangerous attacking side and New Zealand must find a way to neutralise their threat, said Percival.

“They can bring an attack,” she added. “So for us, it’s just focus on our job that we want to do to obviously stop them from … being dangerous.”

On the eve of the tournament, Fifa president Gianni Infantino said women’s football has experienced incredible growth over the last 10 years and is confident that the World Cup will win over anyone who remains sceptical about the merits of the women’s game.

The sport’s governing body expects 2 billion people to tune in for the 64-game tournament being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, with the event set to kick off in Auckland on Thursday.

“Many people who believe that women’s football is still not a great game, or it’s not so entertaining or it’s kind of a bad copy of men’s football or some stuff like that, well when they watch a game for the first time they will actually see that it’s a fantastic game,” said Infantino.

“The level has grown incredibly in the last 10 years and the best are coming here.”

Infantino said if there was one sport where the women’s game could compete with the men’s it would be football.

“I mean, it’s 50% of the population, women around the world, more or less, right?” he said.

“It’s really inconceivable, intellectually, that there is not one sport that can compete with some of the men’s sports.”

All eyes will be on New Zealand when the co-hosts get the Women’s World Cup underway against Norway; expectations will be high but the Football Ferns will have their sights on achieving a more humble goal. World Cup history hangs over New Zealand: in five previous tournaments and across 15 matches, they have yet to record a victory or progress to the knockout stages.

The opportunity to play on home soil is a major boost but New Zealand have precious few positive signs elsewhere. Under coach Jitka Klimkova, New Zealand had a 11-match winless run before beating Vietnam a week before the tournament, their first win since last September. New Zealand’s squad is solid but unspectacular and the absence of a standout star could be keenly felt against the European nations in Group A, where Norway and Switzerland will both look to bounce back from disappointment at the European Championships last summer.

The Women’s World Cup will ‘proceed as planned’ following a shooting in Auckland, just hours before the city stages the first game of the tournament.

Ahead of the opening match between hosts New Zealand and opponents Norway in Auckland, a gunman was reportedly found dead after killing two people and injuring multiple others in the city on Thursday (20 July). The shooting took place at a building site in Auckland city centre.

New Zealand’s prime minister Chris Hipkins said: “Clearly with the Fifa World Cup kicking off this evening, there are a lot of eyes on Auckland. The government has spoken to Fifa organisers this morning, and the tournament will proceed as planned.

“Aucklanders and those watching around the world can be assured that the police have neutralised the threat and they are not seeking anybody else in relation to the incident. New Zealanders’ safety and the safety of our visitors is our first priority.

“There will be an increased police presence obviously around Auckland to provide public reassurance, but the police have indicated that they don’t think there is an ongoing security or safety risk.”

As the squads have been adjusting to Australia and New Zealand over the last few weeks, many coaches and staff members have been doing what the rest of the public does, bouncing around news stories about the different teams to see how they are doing. It is the point at which an international tournament takes on that enticingly self-contained quality. All eyes still go to the USA, especially with this being Megan Rapinoe’s last World Cup, and the squad looking to see her off with a historic third successive victory.

As the defending champions themselves look around the field, though, they aren’t seeing what they used to. There is the usual confidence, of course, but also some caution. The gap between them and the rest of the teams isn’t as big. Rapinoe’s retirement may well close out a wider era, since the dominant factor in women’s football over the last decade has been how the USA have enjoyed much longer-term development than the rest of the game. That has been seen as especially influential as regards physical conditioning, but the general feeling is that the European game and Australia have caught up.

For UK viewers, every game will be available to watch on the BBC and ITV.

For the BBC, there will be live coverage on television as well as the BBC Sport website with live audio commentary available on BBC Radio 5 Live, 5 Sports Extra and the BBC Sounds app.

For ITV, live coverage will be available on television as well as online via ITVX.

At present, the BBC and ITV have only announced the schedule for the group stages, although the BBC have said they will broadcast both semi-finals with the final available on both channels.

Here is everything you need to know

The biggest ever Women’s World Cup kicks off this morning with both co-hosts in action on the opening day, as New Zealand face Norway in Auckland and Australia meet the Republic of Ireland in Sydney.

The first Women’s World Cup to feature 32 teams will get underway with New Zealand attempting to claim a historic win at the tournament – the Football Ferns have failed to win a match at the World Cup finals in 15 previous attempts but will be roared on by the home crowd at Eden Park as they face star-studded Norway.

Australia will then hope to get their campaign off to the perfect start as the Matildas take on Ireland in front of what is expected to be a record-breaking crowd at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium. Australia have emerged as one of the tournament favourites, with star Sam Kerr leading the line, and a winning start is vital with Canada and Nigeria making up the ‘group of death’.

Follow all the updates and build-up ahead of the opening match of the tournament in today’s live blog.