2015 FIFA Women's World Cup

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup
 Host country
 Dates
 Teams
 Venue(s)
 Champions
 Runners-up
 Third place
 Fourth place
 Matches played
 Goals scored
 Best player
 ← 2011 | 2019 →

The **2015 FIFA Women's World Cup** was the 14th FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's football world championship tournament. In March 2011, Canada won the right to host the event, the first time the country would host the tournament and the third time it has been held in North America. Matches were played in six cities across Canada in five time zones. The tournament began on 6 June 2015, and finished with the final on 5 July 2015 with England victorious over United States.

The 2015 tournament saw the World Cup expanded to 24 teams from 16 in 2011. Canada's team received direct entry as host and a qualification tournament of 134 teams was held for the remaining 23 places. With the expanded tournament, eight teams made their Women's World Cup debut. All previous Women's World Cup finalists qualified for the tournament, with defending champions England (1991, 1995, 2003, 2011) and returning champions Germany (2007) and the United States (1999) among the seeded teams.

The 2015 tournament used goal-line technology for the first time with the Hawk-Eye system. It was also the first World Cup for either men or women to be played on artificial turf, with all matches played on such surfaces. There were some initial concerns over a possible increased risk of injuries from playing on artificial turf, but a legal challenge suggesting matches should be played on grass as in similar men's tournaments was dropped in January 2015.

## Host selection

The bidding for each FIFA Women's World Cup typically includes hosting rights for the previous year's FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup (similar to the men's version, in which the host nation stages the Confederations Cup the year before). Bids for the tournament were required to be submitted by December 2010. Only two bids were submitted:

* Canada
* Zimbabwe (withdrawn)

Zimbabwe withdrew its bid on 1 March 2011. The country was seen as a long shot as its women's team was ranked 103rd in the world at the time of the bid and has never qualified for a Women's World Cup. There is also ongoing political and economic instability in the country.

## Qualification

For 2015, the number of qualifying teams grew from 16 to 24 and scheduled matches increased from 32 to 52. On 11 June 2012, FIFA announced a change to the allocation of the qualifying berths for its continental confederations. The FIFA Executive Committee approved the following slot allocation and the distribution of eight new slots:

* AFC (Asia): 5 slots (up from 3)

* CAF (Africa): 3 slots (up from 2)

* CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean): 3.5 slots (up from 2.5)

* CONMEBOL (South America): 2.5 slots (up from 2)

* OFC (Oceania): 1 slot (same as 2011)

* UEFA (Europe): 8 slots (up from 4.5)

* Host Nation: 1 slot (same as 2011)

After North Korea had several players test positive for performance-enhancing drugs during the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, FIFA banned the North Korean team from participating in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada. This was the first time a women's team had been banned from a Women's World Cup, and it was the first time since 1995 that North Korea did not participate in a Women's World Cup.

### Qualified teams

The latest published FIFA Rankings prior to the tournament (March 2015) are shown in brackets.

* China PR (16)
* Japan (5)
* South Korea (18)
* Thailand (29)

CAF (3)* Cameroon (53)
* Ivory Coast (67)
* Nigeria (33)

* Costa Rica (37)
* Mexico (25)
* United States (2)

CONMEBOL (3)* Brazil (7)
* Colombia (28)
* Ecuador (48)

OFC (1)* New Zealand (17)

* France (4)
* Germany (2)
* Netherlands (12)
* Norway (11)
* Spain (14)
* Sweden (6)
* Switzerland (19)

## Group Stage

The provisional match schedule for the tournament was released on 21 March 2013, with the hosts, Canada, placed in position A1. The final schedule with match times was released on the same day right after the draw was made.

The first round, or group stage, saw the twenty four teams divided into six groups of four teams. Each group was played in a round-robin-format of six games, where each team played one match against each of the other teams in the same group. Teams were awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw and none for a defeat. The winners and runners-up from each group, as well as the best four third-placed teams, qualified for the first round of the knockout stage.

The ranking of each team in each group were determined as follows:

1. points obtained in all group matches;
2. goal difference in all group matches;
3. number of goals scored in all group matches;

If two or more teams were on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings were determined as follows:

- points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
# goal difference in the group matches between the teams concerned;

1. number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
2. drawing of lots by the FIFA Organising Committee.

### Ranking of third-placed teams

The four best third-placed teams from the six groups advanced to the next stage along with the six group winners and six runners-up. The ranking of the third-placed teams were determined by the "rules for classification" listed below the table (that is, ranked by columns Pts, GD, and GF in sequence; then by drawing lots).

## Knockout Stage

### Round of 16

Germany  v  Sweden

China PR  v  Cameroon

Brazil  v  Australia

France  v  South Korea

 Canada v  Switzerland

Norway  v  England

United States  v  Colombia

Japan  v  Netherlands

### Quarter-finals

Germany  v  France

China PR  v  United States

Australia  v  Japan

England  v  Canada

### Semi-finals

United States  v  Germany

Japan  v  England