Tony Gustavsson concedes the Matildas have landed a “very, very tough draw” for next year’s Women’s World Cup after being grouped with Canada, Ireland and Nigeria.

Co-hosts Australia could not have asked for a trickier path through the early stages of their home tournament, facing the unnerving task of reigning Olympic gold medallists Canada, a debuting Ireland side fast on the rise and the top-ranked African nation in world No 45 Nigeria.

A failure to top Group B could set up a round-of-16 meeting with Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses, who have been drawn in Group D with China, Denmark and a yet-to-be-determined playoff winner, and whose Euros 2022 win has them pegged as tournament favourites alongside defending champions the United States, Sweden and Euros runners-up Germany.

“Bring it on,” Gustavsson said. “Rankings wise it’s a very, very tough draw. And then if you look at the bracket as well and who we’re facing, just based on ranking, obviously Canada is the favourite in our group and we should end up second.

“That means we play England in the first playoff, and then after that it’s going to be France and Germany on that side of the bracket as well. So Canada, England, France, Germany. There we go. That’s why preparation was important.”

Sam Kerr’s 13th-ranked Matildas will open their campaign and the tournament against Ireland at the new Allianz Stadium in Sydney, home to a substantial Irish population, before facing Nigeria at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on 27 July and finally Canada on 31 July at AAMI Park.

The Canada match shapes as a must-win if Australia are to avoid England in their first knockout match. It also shapes as the most difficult, given they were twice beaten by the world No 7s in last month’s friendly series, even though manager Bev Priestman brought an under-strength team.

Ireland are also no easy feat, having defeated Australia 3-2 in a friendly in Dublin last year. They most recently played Nigeria at the 2015 World Cup in Canada, winning 2-0.

But the Matildas are heading into the tournament on a skeptical run of form over the course of Gustavsson’s tenure, a pattern only righted in this month’s international window when they defeated Women’s African Cup of Nations champions South Africa 4-1 in London and Denmark 3-1 in Viborg.

“Now we know exactly what we need to prepare for,” Gustavsson said. “We invested over the last two years on preparation, with the toughest schedule ever in the history of the program. A lot of different types of opponents – top-ranked opponents, European opponents that we have struggled with in the past, an African opponent. We knew that could happen in the draw, and it did happen.”

Australia’s fellow co-hosts New Zealand, who will officially open the tournament against Norway on 20 July at Eden Park, are in Group A with Switzerland and Alen Stajcic’s Philippines.

FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP 2023 DRAW
A - New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Switzerland
B - Australia, Ireland, Nigeria, Canada
C - Spain, Costa Rica, Zambia, Japan
D - England, Playoff B, Denmark, China
E - USA, Vietnam, Netherlands, Playoff A
F - France, Jamaica, Brazil, Playoff C
G - Sweden, South Africa, Italy, Argentina
H - Germany, Morocco, Colombia, South Korea.