England at the FIFA Women's World Cup

Gillian Coultard scored in the 51st minute by a converted penalty the first World Cup goal for England.

A 2–0 win over Norway followed by a 3–2 victory over Nigeria put England in the quarter-finals as group winners.

The result would have been sufficient for England to have qualified for the first women's football tournament at the 1996 Olympic Games in which only the eight best teams of the World Cup could participate.

However, because England is not eligible to start at the Olympic Games, Brazil participated as the ninth-best team.

For the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, for the first time, UEFA set up separate qualifiers.

In the qualification for the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup England again faced Germany and the Netherlands, as well as Portugal.

[2] In the last match against Argentina England won 6–1 and qualified for the quarter-finals, as Japan lost to Germany in a parallel game.

By making the quarter-finals England had actually secured qualification for the women's football tournament at the 2008 Summer Olympics, in which only the three best European teams of the World Cup could participate.

For the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany qualifying, England earned seven wins and a draw playing against Spain, Austria, Turkey and Malta for the playoffs of the group winners.

[18] England lost with an own goal in injury time, but won the match for third place against Germany for their highest ever finish.

[19] In the qualification for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in Europe, England met Wales, Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and, for the first time, Kazakhstan.

Crucial for the qualification then was a 3–0 victory in front of a record 5,053 spectators against Wales on the penultimate match day.

England had started their qualifications under Mark Sampson, who led them to third place in 2015 and the semi-finals at the European Championship in 2017.

The tournament is jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand, and is taking place from 20 July 2023 to 20 August 2023.