The time has come: England are in a World Cup final for the first time since 1966, as the Lionesses face Spain, with both nations aiming to win their first ever Women's World Cup.
England had never previously gone beyond the semi-finals of this competition, but Sarina Wiegman's European champions have risen to every challenge that has faced them down under, winning all six games en route to the final and beating a team from every continent – culminating in a brilliant 3-1 victory over co-hosts Australia in the last four.
That came after the Lionesses had topped their group by defeating Haiti, Denmark and China – then seen off Nigeria on penalties in the last 16, and Colombia in the quarter-finals.
Spain are also appearing in their first Women's World Cup final, in what is only their third appearance at the tournament – of which they'd never previously progressed beyond the last 16. In fact, this will be La Roja's first final of any major competition.
Jorge Vilda's side have won five of their six games at this World Cup – a 4-0 loss to Japan in their final group match the sole, slightly strange blip – knocking out Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden in the last 16, quarters and semis respectively.
After a thrilling tournament in Australia and New Zealand, it all comes down to this. Will football come home courtesy of the Lionesses? Or will Spain become only the second country, after Germany, to lift both the men's and women's World Cups?
This one is not to be missed.
Team news
Wiegman named the same starting 11 in each of the last two rounds – and, despite Lauren James being available again after her two-game ban, has named another unchanged line-up for the final.
Spain make one change, with Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas replaced by Salma Paralluelo.
Australia vs England will be played at Stadium Australia in Sydney, Australia. With a capacity of 81,500, the venue also hosted England's quarter-final and semi-final matches.
Kick-off and channel
Spain vs England is at 11am BST on Sunday 20 August in the UK. The game will be broadcast on both BBC One, BBC iPlayer, ITV1 and ITVX.
In the US, kick-off time is 6am ET / 3am PT. The match will be shown on FOX Sports and Peacock in the US. See below for international broadcast options.
Watch for free
Women's World Cup 2023 live stream: How to watch World Cup 2023 free
Both the UK and Australia will be showing the World Cup on free-to-air channels, with BBC and ITV having the rights in Britain, and SBS showing it in Australia.
UK: BBC – Half of all World Cup games
In the UK, you can get free access to BBC channels on television and on iPlayer just by confirming you have a TV license.
USA Fox are the World Cup rights holders in the States. Games are on Fox or FS1 cable channels.
If you don't have cable, you can use services such Sling and FuboTV to get the Fox channels. You can also watch the games on Peacock TV with Spanish commentary.
New Zealand Paid provider Sky Sports are the Women's World Cup 2023 rights holders in New Zealand. You can watch as part of your Sky subscription of pick up a Sky Now TV pass. There is also a 7-day free trial.
Use a VPN to watch Women's World Cup 2023 from outside your country
If you’re out of the country for some or all of the World Cup, then annoyingly your domestic on-demand services won’t work – the broadcaster knows where you are because of your IP address (boo!). You'll be blocked from watching it, which is not ideal if you’ve paid up for a subscription and still want to catch the action without resorting to illegal feeds you’ve found on Reddit.
But assistance is on hand. To get around that, all you have to do is get a Virtual Private Network (VPN), assuming it complies with your broadcaster’s T&Cs. A VPN creates a private connection between your device and t'internet, meaning the service can’t work out where you are and won't automatically block the service you've paid for. All the info going between is entirely encrypted – and that's a result.
There are plenty of good-value options out there, including:
FourFourTwo’s brainy office mates TechRadar love its super speedy connections, trustworthy security and the fact it works with Android, Apple, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, PS4 and loads more. You also get a money-back guarantee, 24/7 support and it's currently available for a knockdown price. Go get it!
Best TVs to watch the Women's World Cup on
If you're getting ready to watch the 2023 Women's World Cup and want to make the most of the experience (it only comes around once every four years, after all), we've found the best TVs for watching football.
Tom Hancock started freelancing for FourFourTwo in April 2019 and has also written for the Premier League and Opta Analyst, among others. He supports Wycombe Wanderers and has a soft spot for Wealdstone. A self-confessed statto, he has been known to watch football with a spreadsheet (or several) open...
