Canada became the first reigning Olympic champions to be eliminated in the subsequent Women's World Cup group stage. A win against Canada ensured Australia avoided a first group stage elimination since 2003, and following the elimination of fellow hosts New Zealand, assured every Women's World Cup up to 2023 had a host country participating in the knockouts. Nigeria progressed to the knockout stage for only the third time in their ninth Women's World Cup.
The match was originally scheduled to take place at Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney. However, FIFA confirmed in late January 2023 that the match would be moved to Stadium Australia, Sydney, due to significant interest in tickets.[3]
Fair play points would have been used as tiebreakers in the group should the overall and head-to-head records of teams were tied. These were calculated based on yellow and red cards received in all group matches as follows:[2]
first yellow card: minus 1 point;
indirect red card (second yellow card): minus 3 points;
direct red card: minus 4 points;
yellow card and direct red card: minus 5 points;
Only one of the above deductions was applied to a player in a single match.
