Women’s World Cup: Would 48-team tournament be good for the game?

The 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, which featured eight new teams, threw up plenty of surprises.

It was a successful tournament for African nations, with underdogs Morocco, South Africa and Nigeria – ranked 72, 54 and 40 in the world respectively – reaching the last 16.

Morocco’s progression came at the expense of two-time champions Germany, who went out at the group stages a year after reaching the Euro 2022 final.

Zambia, ranked 81st, were the lowest-ranked team to qualify.

While they suffered 5-0 losses to Japan and Spain, they finished third in their group thanks to a 3-1 win over Costa Rica, who were ranked 44 places higher.

Nigeria, 40th in the rankings, lost to eventual runners-up England in a penalty shootout in the last 16.

Of the 32 teams, only three failed to earn a single point – Costa Rica, Haiti and Vietnam – and only Vietnam failed to score.

There were some one-sided scorelines, though, including the Netherlands firing seven past Vietnam and Norway thrashing the Philippines 6-0.