Women's World Cup 2027 Power Rankings: Holders Spain make statement in USWNT double-header while England edge towards sealing qualification

One of two confirmed debutantes thus far, Algeria will grace the Women's World Cup stage for the first time in 2027 after an historic run to the semi-finals of the Women's Africa Cup of Nations.

Defence is a real strength of this team, one which laid the foundations for that run to a third-placed finish in Morocco. Even if the Fennecs do concede, they keep games tight, meaning a result is always within reach.

What Algeria desperately need to address before landing in Brazil, though, is a lack of international exposure. This team plays so often against opposition from within Africa that it is hard to find the last instance of them doing otherwise, with it potentially not since a clash with Lebanon in the 2006 Arab Women's Championship that they played a team from outside their own continent. That's got to change before they debut at a World Cup.

Boosted by the recruitment of a lot of dual-nationals, the Philippines qualified for their first Women's World Cup in 2023 and marked it with a win on debut by beating co-hosts New Zealand 1-0. To get back to the tournament again is already a huge achievement for a nation so new to this stage.

Could they go one further than 2023 and reach the knockout stages in 2027? More experience against top nations would help, as a 7-0 thrashing at the hands of Japan in the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup showed. The Philippines will hope to get some useful friendlies in the diary before flying to Brazil.

New Zealand enjoyed an historic Women's World Cup in 2023 - and not just because they were co-hosts. At their sixth tournament, on their 16th attempt, the Football Ferns finally got their first World Cup win, beating Norway in Auckland to kick things off. It will have been disappointing, then, that they didn't go on to find a way out of a closely-contested group, missing out on second-place on goal difference.

What will their chances be like in 2027? Well, they have been diminished because New Zealand's status as co-hosts granted them a kinder group-stage draw in 2023. The Football Ferns are going to be pooled with some much tougher opponents this time around, and recent hammerings at the hands of Australia and the United States don't bode well in that regard.

Indeed, New Zealand have only managed to win three of their 23 games against teams outside of their confederation since the 2023 Women's World Cup: beating Venezuela (42nd in the FIFA rankings), Costa Rica (43rd) and Thailand (49th). They need to hold their own against better teams than that to have a strong World Cup.

One of the most fascinating nations at the 2027 Women's World Cup, for a myriad of reasons, North Korea were in one of the toughest groups at the 2026 Asian Cup. A defeat to China, and a second-placed finish, meant a quarter-final clash with Australia that spelled the end of their tournament.

Still, those losses were close, and there is a lot to be excited about with regards to the young talent coming through in North Korea. That's because the nation won both the Under-17 and Under-20 Women's World Cup titles in 2024, as well as the U17 Asian Cup, and have since defended both of those U17 titles. Some of the stars of those triumphs are breaking into the senior ranks now.

That said, North Korea has had success at youth level before, winning the U17 and U20 World Cups in 2016, and yet this is their first senior qualification since 2011, so how impactful that will be this time around remains to be seen.

It's hard to know what to expect from China, who suffered a first-ever group stage exit at the last Women's World Cup.

In November 2025, the Steel Roses were battered 8-0 by England, but then they topped their group at the Asian Cup a few months later thanks to a win over a good North Korea side. In the first knockout round, extra-time was needed to beat Chinese Taipei, but then they gave Australia a tough game in an eventual 2-1 loss in the semi-finals.

How Ante Milicic's side fare between now and the start of the 2027 Women's World Cup will be interesting to track. It's hard to take much from some of the wins they've racked up recently, however, given the level of opposition.

A lot of investment has gone into women's football in Morocco in recent years, leading to back-to-back AFCON finals in 2022 and 2024, a first Women's World Cup qualification in 2023 and a run to the knockout stages of that very tournament. The Atlas Lionesses are now one of the best teams in Africa and a team many would've been surprised not to see qualify for the 2027 Women's World Cup.

Now, this team will want to make that next step and challenge even better sides more regularly. Some of their more recent friendlies against non-African opposition raise doubts in that regard. After a 1-1 draw with Haiti at the start of 2025, a 0-0 draw with New Zealand just before WAFCON was underwhelming, as was the recent goalless stalemate with Uzbekistan.

More progress is needed to go up a level and really trouble the top-ranked sides, even if the strides made so far remain applaudable. Can new head coach Eric Blahic help Morocco take that next step? He replaced former Spain boss Jorge Vilda at the helm ahead of the October international break, though without much explanation as to why from the federation.

After successive group-stage exits with no wins, South Korea will be hoping for a more successful Women's World Cup campaign in 2027.

Performances in 2026 have shown promise in attack, with the team able to comfortably beat lower-ranked teams at the Asian Cup while playing out a thrilling 3-3 draw with Australia. But improvements need to be made defensively, as evidenced by not only that result but also their 4-1 semi-final defeat to Japan and the heavy friendly losses to Brazil and Canada since.

More exposure to international opposition between now and the World Cup will also help as, like a lot of Asian nations, the calendar has had South Korea pitted against familiar, continental foes on a regular basis as of late.

To casual fans, Malawi might seem like a rather rogue participant in the Women's World Cup. But for ardent followers of the game, the Scorchers are the team that they cannot wait to watch in Brazil in 2027.

That's because this team is led by a genuinely world-class centre forward in Temwa Chawinga, the Kansas City Current star who has won the last two Golden Boots and the last two MVP awards in the NWSL, the top-flight in the United States. On the wing is her older sister, Tabitha, another free-scoring forward who represents Lyon, the eight-time European champions.

But Malawi are not just a nation with two stand-out names; they are a genuine team, as evidenced by their run to the Africa Cup of Nations final on their tournament debut in 2026. Can they take the Women's World Cup by similar storm? It'll be trickier, but they have the quality to trouble any opponent.

At the last Women's World Cup, Argentina's group was blown wide open, but it was South Africa who took advantage to progress to the knockout rounds for the first time while La Albiceleste finished bottom with a singular point. And while the South Americans were licking their wounds, a 8-0 thrashing at the hands of Japan in a friendly just a few weeks after the tournament ended won't have helped the mood.

Since then, though, Argentina have made really encouraging strides, leading to them finishing second in qualifying for this tournament, just two points behind 2023 Women's World Cup quarter-finalists Colombia, without losing a game. Friendlies against top-level opposition such as the United States, Canada and Australia have undoubtedly helped, with their progress at the 2025 Copa America only stopped by a penalty shootout defeat to Colombia in the semi-finals.

There is still progress to be made, as their three defeats in three outings at the SheBelieves Cup in March showed, but Argentina are closing the gap.

After making the knockout stages of their first two Women's World Cups in 2015 and 2019, Cameroon missed out on the party in 2023. The Indomitable Lionesses will be back with a bang in 2027, though, landing in Brazil as African champions.

Few would've predicted that outcome, though. Valentine Nguele had only been in charge for six weeks when WAFCON came around and things were unconvincing at times in the group stage. But how Cameroon managed the knockout stages was perfect for tournament football, with no goals conceded as they eliminated champions Nigeria, hosts Morocco and a Malawi side spearheaded by a world-class attack to triumph.

What might Nguele be able to do with this team with more time to prepare for a tournament then? One would expect it can only get better.

Sweden tend to be one of the most consistent nations in women's football when it comes to getting the results they are expected to, but it has been tough since Tony Gustavsson took over after Euro 2025.

Defeat to Spain in his first game was no great shame, except for the notable fact that it came by a heavy 4-0 scoreline. The former Australia boss had to wait until March for his first win in charge, in Italy in World Cup qualifying, which was a really encouraging result. But it was followed by just one victory in the remaining five games, condemning Sweden to a third-placed finish in an admittedly tricky group that also featured Denmark and Serbia.

It would still be a real shock if Sweden did not come through the play-off route to book a ticket to Brazil, a point emphasised by their 15-0 aggregate win over Lithuania this week. Still, there have to be improvements under Gustavsson if this team is to keep up its excellent World Cup record; the Swedes have reached the semi-finals in three of the last four tournaments.

In the time since Australia reached the semi-finals of the 2023 Women's World Cup, a lot has changed. A year later, a disappointing group-stage exit at the Olympics proved to be the final chapter of Tony Gustavsson's time as head coach, and then came a nine-month spell under the interim charge of Tom Sermanni, before Joe Montemurro was appointed in June 2025.

That delay in finding a new full-time head coach meant that Australia went to the Asian Cup in March having had less time to work with Montemurro than they would have liked, so that they still reached the final, and only lost narrowly to Japan once there, was positive.

That said, there is clearly still more to be unlocked in a squad featuring stars like Sam Kerr, Ellie Carpenter and Steph Catley. The hope will be that Montemurro has the time to do that before the tournament in Brazil comes around.

Canada will have the opportunity to qualify for the World Cup in November, with victory over Panama at the CONCACAF W Championship to confirm their place in Brazil. The Canucks will be heavy favourites in that game.

What threat will they pose at the World Cup, if indeed they are victorious? It's hard to gauge given Canada have only played friendlies since the damaging Olympic campaign in 2024, which was overshadowed by a spying scandal and the suspension of then-head coach Bev Priestman.

Casey Stoney, formerly of Manchester United and the San Diego Wave, has had some encouraging results and performances since taking the reins in January 2025, but that only two of the nine wins in her tenure to date have come against top 20-ranked nations is a concern. Canada have also lost six of their seven clashes with top 10-ranked nations, the only outlier being a draw this week with Denmark, who duly beat them a few days later.

Some of that came amid understandable experimentation as Stoney gets to grips with what she is working with in her first job in senior international football. There are clear issues in this team that have to be addressed though, particularly the lack of balance in midfield which then seems to impact the defensive solidity. How the next few months of preparation unfold will be particularly interesting.

Could Denmark actually be a force at the 2027 Women's World Cup? It's been almost 10 years since the Scandinavian nation made noise at a major tournament, by reaching the final of Euro 2017, and group-stage exits at the continental championships in both 2022 and particularly 2025 were concerning. This squad, led by the world-class Pernille Harder, is capable of so much more than that.

But under new head coach Jakob Michelsen, Denmark have responded well to that disappointment, storming to top spot in World Cup qualifying to take the only automatic berth in their group ahead of Sweden, Italy and Serbia. To do that without losing a game was particularly impressive.

Now, Denmark have the freedom to organise friendlies that will best prepare them for the World Cup. A win and a draw against Canada this week was impressive, and a clash with Zambia in December will tell us even more about this team. The early signs are very promising.

Colombia feel like a dark horse for the 2027 Women's World Cup and a nation that some will expect to be in the last eight, despite them only getting there for the first time in 2023.

That's because, on top of their performances at the last World Cup, Las Chicas Superpoderosas have contested two incredibly close Copa America finals with Brazil in recent years, losing 1-0 in 2022 and only on penalties in 2025. They had their moments at the Olympics in 2024 too, playing out a 3-2 thriller with France before taking Spain to penalties in the quarter-finals.

Mayra Ramirez's availability will be key. The Chelsea star missed the entirety of the 2025-26 season with injury and is still yet to play for the Blues this term. But Colombia have a lot of quality in the squad regardless, with Real Madrid's Linda Caicedo the talismanic figure.

When new France head coach Laurent Bonadei made some big and surprising selection calls ahead of Euro 2025, most notably omitting the iconic Wendie Renard, he quoted Albert Einstein to explain his thinking. "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result," he remarked. "I want different results for this team so I have gone with a different selection."

It didn't work. France again looked good but ultimately did what they always do in the women's game: fell short when it really mattered. A penalty shootout defeat to 10-woman Germany spelled the end of Les Bleues campaign at the quarter-final stage, meaning it is still just three semi-final appearances in 16 major tournaments for this team.

Will anything be different in 2027? France came up short against Germany again in the Nations League semi-finals after the Euros, but then topped their World Cup qualifying group ahead of the Netherlands. They can be brilliant on their day, but it's hard to bank on that happening in the latter stages of a major tournament until it actually does.

Could it finally be Brazil's year? After a dismal group-stage exit at the last World Cup, the Selecao are certainly coming into tournament much revived, with a run to the Olympic final and the clinching of yet another Copa America title evidence of as much.

Arthur Elias, appointed after the failures of 2023, has played a key role in that, guiding this team to wins over the United States, Canada, England, Japan, France and Spain in the last three years. A dynamic group with strengths all over the park, Brazil can trouble any team and are a particular threat in transition, which is useful given the desire many of their rivals have to keep the ball.

With no qualification to contend with, given their status as hosts, Brazil and Elias have had plenty of time to prepare for what is going to be a huge summer, one that - with some fine tuning - could genuinely end in glory. They are a contender.

It's not often that Germany are something of a 'dark horse' going into a World Cup, but after the disappointment of their group-stage exit in 2023, perhaps they will be in 2027.

That said, the work done under Christian Wuck in the last two years, coupled with the run to Olympic bronze under interim Horst Hrubesch before him, has put Germany right back up there as a major force, albeit without them clinching any silverware.

Germany reached the semi-finals of Euro 2025 last year, beaten only in extra-time by Spain, and the final of the Nations League a few months later, where La Roja again prevailed after a goalless draw in the first leg. A commanding push to the top of their World Cup qualifying group followed.

How this team fairs in the build-up to the 2027 tournament will be extremely interesting, with Germany possessing real potential as a title contender if they can continue on this promising path. Victory over Japan this week only supported that belief.

In the build-up to the 2026 men's World Cup, a lot was made of Japan as dark horses. In the build-up to the 2027 Women's World Cup, Japan should be spoken about as genuine contenders for the title.

Nadeshiko have had an admittedly weird year. After winning the Asian Cup back in March, the federation decided to part ways with head coach Nils Nielsen, eventually replacing him with Michihisa Kano, who worked in Nielsen's staff and took interim charge after his departure. It means some continuity for the team at least, even if the process has been a little eyebrow-raising at times.

What remains the same, though, is the quality throughout this squad. Featuring a genuinely world-class midfielder in Yui Hasegawa, a five-time Champions League winner in Saki Kumagai and bright young talents like Manaka Matsukubo, Aoba Fujino and Maika Hamano, Japan are more experienced than they were at the 2023 Women's World Cup, where they beat eventual champions Spain 4-0 in the groups, and that can help them take another step forward in 2027.

The United States are another who have not yet qualified for the 2027 Women's World Cup, but few would bank against them doing so, with victory over El Salvador in November required to secure their spot in Brazil.

Emma Hayes' side will head to South America as one of the big favourites, too, after making an excellent start to the former Chelsea manager's tenure by winning Olympic gold in 2024, just 12 months after the worst Women's World Cup in team history.

That was the last competitive action the U.S. enjoyed, with the upcoming CONCACAF W Championship, which decides World Cup qualification, to potentially offer a more pressurised challenge compared to the swathes of friendlies that have been played in the last two years. In those non-competitive arenas, the U.S. have largely impressed, beating the Netherlands, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Colombia and Japan to show why they should be considered among the front-runners to win the 2027 Women's World Cup.

However, the two games against Spain this past week - one defeat, one draw - highlighted some of the weaknesses and areas that Hayes has to focus on if the USWNT want to win this tournament. The positive is that she now has plenty of time to address those issues.

England are another team in these rankings that have not yet qualified for the World Cup, but are included because of their top-10 status in the FIFA World Rankings, with it to be a real shock if the Lionesses do not punch their ticket to Brazil. They are one step closer after a convincing 8-1 aggregate win over Greece this week.

That Sarina Wiegman's side are having to navigate the play-off route is part of the reason why they are not the front-runner for the World Cup, despite being runners-up in 2023 and beating Spain, who beat them in that final, to win Euro 2025 last year.

England could've secured top spot in their qualifying group with a draw against La Roja back in June but instead succumbed to a disappointing 4-0 defeat that highlighted some serious issues that need addressing if the Lionesses are to become world champions in 2027.

Still, this is one of the best national teams in the world, one stacked with talent and one with a history of getting over the line in the most-pressurised moments. Indeed, Spain have only lost three games since the Olympics in 2024 and all have been against England. The Lionesses are a serious contender and their record against La Roja is another big reason why they deserve to be among the favourites to win the World Cup, even if they are yet to get there.

As the 2027 Women's World Cup nears, it is the reigning champions who remain the team to beat.

There are reasons to believe Spain can be defeated. At the last World Cup, Japan hammered them 4-0 in the group stage, while a disappointing and medal-less Olympic campaign in 2024 was followed by a penalty shootout loss to England in the Euro 2025 final.

Sonia Bermudez was appointed as Spain's new head coach after that heartbreak and questions also remain over how good a coach she is. The former Barcelona forward has hit back at some of those doubts, though, by guiding her team to Nations League glory and to the top of a World Cup qualifying group that featured England.

A 4-0 hammering of the Lionesses back in June was the perfect example of why La Roja remain heavy favourites heading into the 2027 Women's World Cup, while victory over the United States this week, achieved despite the absences of key players like Aitana Bonmati, Mapi Leon and Claudia Pina, only added to the belief that they are the front-runner. This is a packed squad that will take some stopping.