For the last two Women's World Cups, there has been just one team on top: the United State's women's nation team.
While the Americans are still the heavy favorites heading into this summer's tournament, many challengers have spent the last four years (and then some) figuring out how to dethrone the reigning queens.
Can England continue its recent success as the Euro 2022 champs and make its way to the final? Will France avenge its disappointing showing as the 2019 host and make a surprise run? Or will chaos ensue and treat us to an unpredictable tournament?
No one knows exactly how this will all go down, but we at Sports Illustrated are going to take at stab at it anyways. Our finals matchups may differ, but there seems to be a consensus as to who will finish victorious in Australia come Aug. 20.
Without further ado, here are our expert picks and predictions for the knockout stages —and which nation will go on to win the 2023 World Cup. As a refresher, here are the groups, and how we as a staff picked the countries to finish at the end of group play from our magazine preview issue (though some opted to change things slightly in their individual brackets).
FULL GROUP PREVIEWS: Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D | Group E | Group F | Group G | Group H
Andrew Gastelum
Group Winners: A - Norway | B - Australia | C - Spain | D - England | E - U.S. | F - France | G - Sweden | H - Germany
Group Runners-Up: A - Switzerland | B - Canada | C - Japan | D - Denmark | E - Netherlands | F - Brazil | G - Italy | H - South Korea
Clare Brennan
Group Winners: A - Norway | B - Australia | C - Spain | D - England | E - U.S. | F - France | G - Sweden | H - Germany
Group Runners-Up: A - Switzerland | B - Canada | C - Japan | D - Denmark | E - Netherlands | F - Brazil | G - Italy | H - South Korea
Kristen Nelson
Group Winners: A - Norway | B - Canada | C - Spain | D - England | E - U.S. | F - France | G - Sweden | H - Germany
Group Runners-Up: A - Switzerland | B - Australia | C - Japan | D - Denmark | E - Netherlands | F - Brazil | G - Italy | H - South Korea
