Sweden and Brazil kick off World Cup
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Today sees the opening match of the women's World Cup between Sweden and Brazil at the Olympia Stadium in Helsingborg, southern Sweden.
Sweden were third in 1991, and are still fired up from their European Championship campaign, where they were defeated 3-2 in the final against Germany in March.
Germany, Norway and China are the strongest challengers of the 12-nation field, but the United States are favourites to retain the crown they won at the inaugural World Cup in China four years ago by beating Norway 2- 1 in the final.
They open their defence of the title against China in Gavle tomorrow. The top two teams in each of the three round-robin groups plus the two teams with the best third-placed records advance to the quarter-finals.
Fifa is experimenting with time-outs for the first time in a major competition. Each team will be allowed a two-minute time-out during each half. A time- out may be requested whenever the ball is out of play, but not before set pieces.
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