Lionesses' chances of winning the WWC down under - with England among favourites

England's chances of lifting the Women's World Cup trophy on August 20 have been revealed by new data.

Boffins at Nielsen's Gracenote have calculated every team at the tournament's likelihood of triumphing Down Under in Australia and New Zealand.

They used data from FIFA Women's World Rankings to calculate the most likely winner, with around one million simulations carried out.

Sarina Wiegman's Lionesses - the reigning European champions - are among the competition favourites, the numbers show, in a wide open competition.

But reigning champions United States - who have won the last two tournaments and four of the eight Women's World Cups in history - are the one side most likely to win it, with Olympic silver medallists Sweden in second.

Alongside those two, England, France and Germany are the other main contenders - with a roughly 58 per cent the winner will come from one of those five.

Vlatko Andonovski's USA are given a 18 per cent chance of winning, which would make them the first team ever to win three successive World Cups.

FIFA's third-ranked side Sweden, boasting the likes of Bayern Munich's Magdalena Eriksson and Arsenal's Stina Blackstenius and Lina Hurtig, are given an 11 per cent chance. However, only one of them can reach the final, given USA and Sweden are on the same side of the draw.

England have an eight per cent chance of winning, with Germany (11 per cent), France (nine per cent), Spain and hosts Australia (eight per cent), Brazil (seven per cent) and current Olympic champions Canada (six per cent) challenging too.

Despite a tough ask in Group D also containing Denmark and China - the only group with three sides ranked in the world's top 15 - England are given an 88 per cent chance of reaching the knockout stages.

France (96 per cent), Brazil, Sweden, Spain and Germany (95 per cent), USA (92 per cent), Japan (90 per cent), Australia (89 per cent), Canada (85 per cent), Norway (83 per cent) and Holland (81 per cent) are the most likely to reach the last 16.

While according to Gracenote calculations, Italy (75 per cent), Korea Republic (73 per cent) New Zealand (60 per cent) and Denmark (57 per cent) are most likely to join them in the last 16.

Spain, USA, France, Germany, Sweden, England, Japan and Australia - in that order - are seen as the most likely to make the quarter-finals.

But Gracenote predict England will then fall to Germany, who have a 54 per cent chance of beating them to make the semi-finals and in doing so avenging the European Championship final defeat in July 2022.

Wiegman and Co have a 53 per cent chance of making the quarters, 29 per cent chance of the semis and a 16 per cent chance of getting to the final.

USA vs Germany is the most likely final to take place at 5.9 per cent, with USA vs England, in a replay of the 2019 semi-final, the third-most likely final at 4.8 per cent.

Gracenote head of analysis Simon Gleave said: 'Our simulations confirm that World Cup 2023 is likely to be a very open and competitive tournament.

'There is a strong challenge to champions and favorites USA from Europe and Australia's home advantage has boosted them to the seventh most likely team to win the competition.'