How many teams have won third place match at women’s World Cup?

While it doesn’t garner as much attention as the final, the third place match is still an important piece in any World Cup tournament as it comes with some clout and, of course, prize money. The FIFA women’s World Cup has had a third place match in place since the tournament’s inaugural edition back in 1991. On Saturday morning, the 2023 edition will come to a close with Sweden and Australia facing off in the third place match at 4 a.m. ET with the final taking place on Sunday morning.

Sweden is no stranger to the third place match, as they’ve made it there three times before, tied with USA for most appearances in the third place contest. The Swedish side won all three of their appearances, defeating Germany in 1991, France in 2011, and most recently England in 2019.

The Australians have never made it past the quarterfinals until this year, so they’ll be making their first appearance in a third place match as they look to be the first to defeat Sweden in such a situation.

The United States have also made it to the third place match three times, winning all three as they defeated China in 1995, Canada in 2003, and Norway in 2007. The USWNT has never finished in fourth, but their four titles and one second place finish put them at the top of the list with the most top-four finishes in WWC history.

While Sweden and USA are the teams with the most third place wins, two other teams have won third throughout the eight editions of the WWC. Brazil defeated Norway in penalties after playing to a scoreless draw in 1999 while England sneaked past Germany with a 1-0 win in 2015.

This year, the prize money is much higher than it’s ever been before, with a total of $110 million allocated to teams involved in the tournament overall. The third place match will see a total of just over $5 million being handed out, with the winner receiving $2,610,000 and the fourth place team getting $2,455,000. On top of the overall money awarded to the nations, each player on the winning team will receive $180,000 while the players on the fourth place team will be awarded $165,000 each.