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How to watch the FIFA Women’s World Cup Final: USA vs Netherlands

USA play Netherlands in Sunday's Women's World Cup Final; England finish fourth after losing to Sweden

USA play Netherlands in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final on Sunday at 4pm.

Defending champions USA will start as overwhelming favourites having won three out of the seven Women’s World Cups.

Both the Netherlands and USA men’s teams failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup last year, so it’s a great testament to the quality of football in both countries.

USA have two of the tournament’s top three goal-scorers in Alex Morgan (6) and Megan Rapinoe (5).

Meanwhile, England lost their third-place match to Sweden on Saturday. Sweden scored two goals in the first 22 minutes.

England could only manage one goal from Fran Kirby to match that. Forward Ellen White could not add to her goal tally of six goals, which means she’ll end up tied on 6 goals with USA’s Alex Morgan unless Morgan scores in the Final.

Despite a strong start in the tournament, the England women’s team ended up in the same position (fourth) as the England men’s team did last year.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup Final is at 4pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.


2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup: Results and fixtures

Tuesday, 2 July

USA defeated England 2-1
Goals: Christen Press and Alex Morgan (USA); Ellen White (England)

Wednesday, 3 July

Netherlands defeated Sweden 1-0
Goal: Jackie Groenen

2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup – Match for third place

Saturday, 6 July

Sweden defeated England 2-1
Goals: Kosovare Asllani and Sofia Jakobssen (Sweden); Fran Kirby (England)

2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final

Sunday, 7 July

USA vs Netherlands at 4pm on BBC iPlayer

Women’s World Cup Fixtures 


How to watch the Women’s World Cup in the UK and US

Thankfully, you only need a valid TV license to watch the FIFA Women’s World Cup because all the Lionesses’ matches are being broadcast live on the BBC and BBC iPlayer, with live commentary on BBC Radio.

In the US, all FIFA Women’s World Cup matches will be broadcast on FOX and FS1.

READ NEXT: How to listen to BBC radio abroad

Watch the Women’s World Cup on BBC iPlayer


How to watch the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup wherever you are: use a VPN

If you’re based outside the country and can’t watch the FIFA Women’s World Cup between 7 June and 7 July, then your best option is to use a VPN service to ‘virtually’ spoof your location to the country you want.

Paid VPN services are always better because they don’t have any caveats like limited bandwidth or annoying ads and pop-ups. Simply choose one of the VPN services we recommend, set your location to the UK or US, then select the service or website that’s broadcasting the FIFA Women’s World Cup and log into it if needed.

READ NEXT: Best VPN services in the UK


Here’s how to watch the FIFA Women’s World Cup from anywhere using a VPN

1. Get a VPN (we recommend ExpressVPN because it’s the fastest and most reliable VPN we’ve tested for streaming and unblocking sports content).

2. Connect to a UK server location, like London or Manchester.

3. Stream the FIFA Women’s World Cup through BBC iPlayer (if you’re from the UK) or through FOX and FS1 (if you’re from the US).

ExpressVPN is not only the best VPN we’ve ever used but also the fastest, meaning you can enjoy lag-free streams of the FIFA Women’s World Cup regardless of which country you stream the game from. You can install the VPN on all your devices and it has 24/7 customer support if you ever need any help.

We’ve teamed up with ExpressVPN to offer our readers a brilliant deal, where you get three months free if you sign up to the one-year plan. The service has a 30-day no-questions-asked money-back guarantee, but we don’t think you’ll need to cancel at all.

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Our second-favourite VPN is NordVPN. Like ExpressVPN, it should let you get around these geoblocks with ease to stream and the entire service has been independently audited to prove that it does not record or store any logs, meaning your information is completely private. Both VPNs have a 30-day money back guarantee and can be installed and used across multiple devices.

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2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup: Players to watch

Every FIFA World Cup has a talismanic superstar. Someone whom people will tune in to watch regardless of whether their team has a great chance of winning or no. Unfortunately, this year that superstar won’t be taking the pitch in Paris. And, no, she’s not injured.

Norway’s Ada Hegerberg is only 23 and in excellent form. Just a few weeks before the FIFA World Cup, the 2018 Ballon d’Or Féminin winner scored a hat-trick in the Champions League Final to help her team Lyon beat Barcelona 4-1. 

While the matter is fairly complex, it’s fair to say that Hegerberg has had a few unresolved disputes with the Norwegian Football Federation, which is why she won’t be participating in the World Cup.

The BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year 2019’s absence could be the equivalent of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo not playing the World Cup, robbing us viewers of valuable goals and entertainment. England, however, should thank their lucky stars that they won’t be facing Hegerberg in Thursday’s quarter-final.

Meanwhile, USA forward Alex Morgan (above) and Australia’s Sam Kerr – both dynamic forwards who have scored time and again for club and country – have shone in the tournament with five goals each.

Forward Ellen White has been England’s top-scorer with four goals in the tournament so far.


Who won the last Women’s World Cup?

If you don’t follow women’s football, read on as we quickly bring you up to speed with the highlights you need to know before the tournament starts.

As of May 2019, the top five teams in the FIFA Women’s World Ranking are:
1. USA
2. Germany
3. England
4. France
5. Canada

The men’s USA team didn’t qualify for the 2018 World Cup last year, but the women’s USA soccer team are an absolute force to be reckoned with.

They are not only the current FIFA World Cup Champions after lifting the last trophy in Canada (2015), but they’ve won three of the seven FIFA Women’s World Cup trophies, come runners-up once and third place three times.

In short, they are what the men’s Brazilian football team was in the 90’s, or what the Australian cricketing team has been for the last two decades, when it comes to World Cups.

While Hope Solo – their star goalkeeper from 2015 – isn’t playing the FIFA Women’s World Cup, they have formidable strikers in the form of Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd, who – at 36 – could be participating in her last World Cup and will want to end with another trophy.

Germany meanwhile have won two World Cups, come runners-up once and placed fourth place in the last tournament. Japan are another strong team having won the tournament in 2011 and come runners up last time. England’s only top-four finish was at the last World Cup where they came third.

As was the case in Russia last year, the home team always start as outside favourites and you can expect the same fate from Les Bleues this year. Since 1991, only one women’s football team has lifted the World Cup at home (USA in 1999) but the French women’s team can take inspiration from their male counterparts who are the current world champions and also won the 1998 FIFA World Cup at home.

Read about each team


Can England win the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup?

In one word. Absolutely! Despite having never won the FIFA Women’s World Cup before, the Lionesses start the tournament with a much better chance at winning the World Cup than the men’s team had last year.

Part of that can be attributed to coach Phil Neville who has brought the team together, encouraged them to play as a system, and made them believe in a unified goal.

The Lionesses observed how the whole country got behind the men’s side last year and they’ll be hoping for the same amount of support when they take the field in France. Don’t be surprised if you hear the Three Lions’ ‘Football’s Coming Home’ rocket up the charts again this summer.

Another reason they start as one of the top three favourites in the Women’s World Cup is because of their recent form.

When Phil Neville took over as coach last year, the team played well to reach the final of the She Believes Cup and then lost 1-0 to USA. Then they defeated Wales 3-0 (see below image) to secure World Cup qualification.

This year the Lionesses won the She Believes Cup for the first time after wins against Brazil and Japan and a draw against USA. Forward Beth Mead scored two goals in the three-game tournament. Five other Lionesses scored goals in that tournament and all six players are part of the World Cup squad.

The tournament ended in March and could be just the right confidence boost that the team needs to succeed in France.

While England have 11 World Cup debutantes, the team is balanced by the likes of Karen Carney and Jill Scott who are playing in their fourth tournament.


England’s 23-member FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019

Coach: Phil Neville

Defenders: Steph Houghton (captain), Millie Bright, Lucy Bronze, Demi Stokes, Rachel Daly, Alex Greenwood, Abbie McManus, Leah Williamson

Midfielders: Jade Moore, Keira Walsh, Jill Scott, Karen Carney, Georgia Stanway, Lucy Staniforth

Forwards: Toni Duggan, Ellen White, Fran Kirby, Nikita Parris, Beth Mead, Jodie Taylor

Goalkeepers: Karen Bardsley, Carly Telford, Karen Earps