The England team will wear their blue away kit again for the final (Picture: Daniela Porcelli/SPP/Shutterstock)
England’s fearless Lionesses will march into the Women’s World Cup final on Sunday against Spain wearing their blue away kit.
The choice of strip will come as a surprise to some, who may be expecting England’s traditional white shirts and shorts.
That said, the blue away kit did prove a good omen in the semi-final against Australia, which saw the Lionesses roar to victory in a 3-1 win.
It’s the first time the England women’s team has made it to a World Cup final, so history has already been made.
But they face tough opponents in Spain, who were England’s most difficult opponents in last year’s Euros and it took an extra-time winner in the quarter-finals to beat them.
So, as the Lionesses prepare to do England proud, let’s take a look at why they’re wearing the blue kit, and why they’re not in all-white.
Why are the Lionesses in blue?
The Lionesses were drawn as ‘Team B’ which effectively means they lost the toss and Spain had first choice on which kit to wear.
Spain will be wearing their home kit (Picture: Jose Breton/NurPhoto/Shutterstock)
Spain elected to wear their home kit, which has dark blue shorts.
This meant that England couldn’t wear their home kit as the new version has white shirts but dark blue shorts, which are too similar to Spain’s.
So England’s Lionesses will be dressed in their mid-blue away kit – though they will be wearing white socks.
In theory, if England had kept the traditional white shorts as seen at Euro 2022 they could have worn these in the final.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
However, these were sensibly changed to dark blue due to long-standing concerns players had about wearing white shorts during their periods.
The shorts worn by the Lionesses will also involve an innovative ‘ultra thin short liner’ which has been designed by Nike to absorb any leaking blood.
The Manchester City and West Brom women’s teams have also changed their shorts from white to burgundy and navy shorts respectively, while players at Wimbledon were able to wear black undershorts.
What time is the kick-off?
The Women’s World Cup final will start at 11am BST on Sunday, August 20, 2023.
Live coverage will start at 10am on BBC1, and 9.25am on ITV1.
The third-place play-off between Australia and Sweden will be on Saturday (August 19) at 9am BST, with coverage starting from 8.30am on ITV1.
MORE : Sarina Wiegman has no plans to quit England job after Women’s World Cup final
MORE : This budding Lioness dreamed of England glory aged 10 – can you guess who?
Follow Metro across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Share your views in the comments below
Whatever they wear, they’ll do us proud.