Italy qualifies for 1st Women’s World Cup in 20 years

italy-world-cup-qualify

Italy's Vlentina Giacinti celebrates with teammates. (Petros Karadjias/AP)

FLORENCE, Italy — Italy has qualified for the Women’s World Cup for the first time in two decades following a 3-0 win over Portugal.

The Azzurre have won all seven of their qualifiers in Group 6, securing a spot at next year’s tournament in France with one match to spare.

Cristian Girelli, Cecilia Salvai and Barbara Bonansea scored for Italy.

The achievement is magnified by the fact the men’s World Cup begins next week without Italy participating for the first time in six decades.

The women’s team previously played in the 1991 and 1999 World Cups.

Also Friday, Spain qualified for its second consecutive World Cup.

After defeating Israel 2-0 on Thursday, a 2-0 win by Austria in Finland on Friday ensured Spain can’t be caught in Group 7.

[relatedlinks]

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.