Greece face England in the first leg of their 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifying First Round Play-Off tie.
Greece qualified for this play-off by topping League C4, whilst England finished second in League A3 on goal difference and missed out on automatic qualification to Spain.
Team News
Greece have a full squad available with midfielder, Veatriki Sarri familiar to England fans as she plays her club football at Birmingham City.
England will be without Lucy Bronze after she withdrew from the squad due to a minor injury suffered in Chelsea’s 3-0 Women’s Super League win at West Ham.
Midfielder, Ella Toone consequently has been called up in Bronze’s place.
When is Kick-Off?
Greece host England at Pankritio Stadium, Heraklion, at 19:30pm EEST (5:30pm BST) on Friday 9 October, live on ITV1 and ITVX in the UK.
Stat Attack
- This is Greece’s first-ever meeting against England at senior level of women’s football.
- England Women are making their first-ever visit to Greece in all competitions.
- Greece are featuring at this stage of the Women’s World Cup qualification process for the first time in their history.
- Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses are featuring in these Qualifying Play-Offs for the first time since the 2011 edition of the Women’s World Cup.
Prediction
Unbeaten in three matches at home in 2026 with six goals scored and just one goal conceded, Greece clearly shouldn’t be underestimated but this is now a much harder test than Georgia, Faroe Islands and Moldova so I expect them to just go for it with nothing really to lose even if it’s only the first leg at home.
England meanwhile will be ruing that away defeat to Spain in June because if they had won that game then they wouldn’t of been in these play-offs, yet the positive is that the Lionesses now get more competitive action whilst the world champions are left playing friendlies.
Although this is a trip into the unknown against Greece for the first time, I do think that England will be far too strong and get the job done in this leg to give themselves more freedom in the return leg at home although Greece should give them a bit of a battle initially.
Prediction: Greece 0-3 England