The 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, the second edition of the

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...

, was held in Sweden and won by

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, who became the first European nation to win the Women's World Cup. The tournament featured 12 women's national teams from six continental confederations. The 12 teams were drawn into three groups of four and each group played a

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

. At the end of the group stage, the top two teams and two best third-ranked teams advanced to the knockout stage, beginning with the quarter-finals and culminating with the final at

Råsunda Stadium Råsunda Stadium (; also known as Råsunda Fotbollsstadion, Råsundastadion, Råsunda Football Stadium or just Råsunda) was the Swedish national football stadium. It was located in Solna Municipality in Stockholm and named after the district ...

on 18 June 1995. Sweden became the first country to host both men's and women's World Cup, having hosted the men's in

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

made their debuts in the competition. The tournament also hosted as

qualification Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

for the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, with the eight quarter-finalists being invited to the Olympics. In the second edition of the Women's World Cup, matches were lengthened to the standard 90 minutes, and three points were awarded for a win.

Summary

Bulgaria was originally awarded hosting rights for the tournament, but had to relinquish the rights and FIFA ended up awarding the tournament to Sweden. About 112,000 tickets were sold for the entire tournament. As a FIFA rules experiment, each team was allowed a two-minute time out each half. Norway won the 1995 title, with one in four Norwegians watching the game on television. Norway's team plane was escorted back to Oslo by two F-16s on their way to a victory celebration.

Venues

Teams

As in the previous edition of the FIFA Women's World cup, held in 1991, 12 teams participated in the final tournament. The teams were:

Squads

For a list of the squads that competed in the final tournament, see 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup squads.

Match officials

Notes

Draw

The draw for the group stage was held on 18 February 1995 in a public ceremony at the Elite Hotel Marina Plaza in

Helsingborg Helsingborg (, , ), is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania County, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, ninth ...

, Sweden. The draw was conducted by

Sepp Blatter Joseph Sepp Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former association football, football administrator who served as the list of Presidents of FIFA, eighth president of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participatin ...

, then the FIFA General Secretary, and assisted by Swedish internationals Tomas Brolin and Kristin Bengtsson, winners of the 1994

Guldbollen Guldbollen (''Golden Ball'') is a Swedish Association football, football award given by ''Aftonbladet'' and the Swedish Football Association to the best male Swedish footballer each year. History The award was created by Bengt Liljedahl and betw ...

and Diamantbollen, respectively. There was no television coverage of the draw.

Group stage

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

Group C started with back-and-forth 3–3 draw between the United States and China with the Chinese coming back from a 3–1 deficit. Denmark's opening 5–0 win over Australia, in which Sonia Gegenhuber was sent off in the 45th minute for the Aussies, ultimately led to their securing one of the best third place runner up spots as they would lose their next two matches. United States goalkeeper Brianna Scurry was sent off in the 88th minute of the second group game against

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. With all three substitutions used, U.S. manager Tony DiCicco called upon striker

Mia Hamm Mariel Margaret "Mia" Hamm (born March 17, 1972) is an American former professional Association football, soccer player, two-time Women's Football at the Summer Olympics, Olympic gold medalist and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion. Haile ...

to play goalkeeper. Hamm made two saves over eight minutes of stoppage time to secure the 2–0 win. In the other game, Angela Iannotta scored Australia's first-ever World Cup goal, but China defeated the Matildas 4–2. ---- ----

Ranking of third-placed teams

Knockout stage

Bracket

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Third place play-off

Final

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:Awards 1995
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Statistics

Goalscorers

Assists

Tournament ranking

References

External links

FIFA.com
FIFA Technical Report (Part 1)
an
(Part 2)SVT's open archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:1995 Fifa Women's World Cup

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

FIFA Women's World Cup tournaments International women's association football competitions hosted by Sweden Women's World Cup Sports competitions in Helsingborg Sports competitions in Gävle Sports competitions in Västerås Sports competitions in Karlstad June 1995 sports events in Europe Sports competitions in Solna