The U20 Women's World Cup France 2018 draw has been released. The competition takes place from 5th to 24th August and the Germany Women’s U20 team have been draw in Group D, where they will play against Nigeria, who came second in the 2014 World Cup, China and World Cup debutants Haiti. The draw took place on Thursday morning in the Opera Theatre in Rennes. DFB coach Maren Meiner and manager Renate Lingor were present at the draw.
The U20s, who have won the competition three times, will kick off their campaign in Saint-Malo against Nigeria on 6th August at 13:30 CET. The next game for the women will be on 9th August at 13:30 CET against China again in the Stade de Marville, before their final group stage match on 13th August at 16:30 CET against Haiti in Vannes. Along with Saint-Melo and Vannes, which will be the venue for the final, the competition also has venues in Concarneau and Dinan/Léhon.
Meinert: “Our group is full of quality”
“We know that there will be 16 good teams competing in the World Cup, which we will be expecting,” said Meinert after the draw had been released. She also gave her initial analysis of the teams they had been drawn against, “Our group, with the sides from Nigeria, China and Haiti is full of quality. Nigeria are a robust and direct team, we have seen that from the finals in 2010 and 2014. So we know that it will be a tough game against them. China have also had a good year, so we’re expecting a tough game against them, with them playing with a good structure, as they’ve managed to cause problems for a lot of sides like that in the past. This is the first time that Haiti have been at an U20 Women's World Cup. They’ve previously won against Canada, so that shows us that we will need to work hard and be completely ready for our game against them.”
The draw was completed in the Rennes Opera Theatre by Sarai Bareman, FIFA’s Chief Women’s Football Officer and Rhiannon Martin, FIFA’s Senior Competitions Manager. Assisting them were former France international Camolle Abily, ex-national player Mikaël Silvestre, Damien Seguin, a sailing gold medallist at the Paralympic Games in Athens 2004 and Rio 2016 and 15 year-old Aéla Mocaer, who plays for local club CPB Bréquigny Rennes. Germany were part one of the top seeds alongside hosts France, defending champions North Korea and Japan.
As preparation for the tournament in France, the U20s have a varied program to complete. At the end of April the junior national side will meet for fitness tests and an international match before the team plays a preparatory tournament in France from 3rd to 11th June. This will be followed by two more training camps before Meinert and her team begin the tournament, being record holders having won the tournament three times.
The U20 Women's World Cup France 2018 groups
Group A: France, Ghana, New Zealand, the Netherlands
Group B: North Korea, England, Mexico, Brazil
Group C: USA, Japan, Paraguay, Spain
Group D: Haiti, China, Nigeria, Germany
