Women's World Cup Opening Ceremony 2019: Date, TV Start Time and Live Stream
June 6, 2019
The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup will kick off on Friday, with an opening ceremony preceding the contest between hosts France and South Korea in Paris.
The match will start at 8 p.m. BST/3 p.m. ET, and BBC (for UK viewers) and Fox (for U.S. viewers) will carry full coverage of the contest.
FIFA have announced French singer Jain will be the official performer of the opening ceremony.
The 27-year-old artist spent parts of her childhood living in Dubai, Congo-Brazzaville and Abu Dhabi, and her international upbringing "embodies the global element of the Women’s World Cup," per FIFA.
The home fans will hope she can inspire the squad ahead of a tricky opening fixture. South Korea were arguably the team to avoid from Pot 3 in the draw, after their solid showing four years ago.
The Asian side made it to the round of 16 in Canada, after finishing ahead of Spain and Costa Rica in the group stage. They lost 3-0 to Les Bleues in the knockout stages.
The hosts enter the group stage with high expectations, but they will have to navigate some tricky challenges to make it out of Group A. Their contest against South Korea will be followed by a meeting with Norway, who also made it to the round of 16 four years ago.
The Norwegians will be without their biggest star, though, as Ballon d'Or winner Ada Hegerberg is skipping the World Cup, per CNN Sport:
Nigeria are also in Group A, hoping to qualify for the knockout stages for only the second time in their history. They managed the feat in 1999.
France have dropped outside of the top three in the world rankings, sitting just below an in-form England team. The United States and Germany remain the two top-ranked teams and are the likely favourites for the World Cup. Japan and the Netherlands are other strong contenders.
The USA are defending champions and enter the tournament in fine form after starting 2019 with a poor run. The Stars and Stripes won just one of their first four matches this year, but they have since reeled off six successive wins.
They will face Thailand, Chile and Sweden in the group stage and are expected to battle it out with the latter side for the top spot. The Swedes ruined the USA's bid for Olympic gold in 2016, beating them on penalties in the quarter-finals.